Micchi Versus the New World - Chapter 86

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Chapter 86

I got turned into a fucking elementary school kid? You had got to be kidding me. The last thing I remembered was being in a tent full of weird smoke. This was a dream— should be a dream. But when I brushed my hands over the futon, touched my own face, and clenched my fists, it was all so vivid.

The janky front door swung open, and a scrawny man staggered in with both eyes barely open. His unzipped green jacket hid most of the beer stains on the shirt with jeans so ripped his knees were showing.

I'd recognize the stench of alcohol and tobacco anywhere— my shitty old man.

"What? You're still here, Michiru? Hurry and get to school already. If I get a call from your school again, then it's back to sleeping in the closet," he snapped.

It used to be that I'd nod quietly and leave without so much as even washing my face. There would be a bathroom park on the way to school to splash freezing cold water on my face. That woke me up real good if the frigid season didn't already.

Not this time. I glared at the piece of shit who made my life a living hell.

"Huh? Did ya hear me or not? Get the fuck to school!" My dad lost his temper, grabbed a handful of my yet to be bleached hair, and dragged me out into the cold.

The woman who was supposed to be my mom finally woke up. She rubbed her eyes and yawned, showing not even an inkling of care that I was tossed out.

"Geez… be a little quieter, would ya? Don't forget her shoes," my mom said.

As if to afford me some semblance of kindness, they chucked both my shoes and a light hoodie that wasn't fit for a snowing winter at me, then slammed the door shut. Someone in the neighboring unit slinked out, and not wanting to be involved, stepped past me with their head down.

Yeah. Just as I remembered. Better hightail it before either of them decide to look out the door. The plain and simple fact was I couldn't find my own parents, not in this body.

Putting on the shoes that I had to curl my toes to wear and hoodie full of holes, I set off into the streets. Beyond the notable skyline, the Tokyo Tower, and suited salarymen, I lived in the dredges pushed to the garbage corners and behind shadows of high rises.

Around here, rats and other vermin scurried from feast to feast on discarded waste. Park playgrounds were in disrepair, filled with homeless folks scrounging to survive. Every apartment was on the verge of falling apart, mine was no exception. We had nowhere else to live. The phrase 'low-income housing' were buzzwords for my parents to use the money saved to poison themselves with cigarettes and beer. Money that could be spent buying me something nice instead.

Well, not that it mattered to me. The cold naturally bred the strong, because like the frozen body of a puppy lying on the road, the weak were always first to die.

"If I'm exploring my memories, might as well check some stuff out like Kaoru suggested. Do things a little differently this time around, like…" I pulled out a small stack of 10,000 yen bills stolen from my old man's gambling stash.

It didn't take long to find out the date. Mid-January. Chika hadn't disappeared yet, but around this time, she continued to grow colder and harsher. I stopped by a convenience store to warm up and buy two cups of hot red bean soup.

"What's a kid like you doing with money like this?" the clerk asked, turning the bill to check its authenticity and slipping it into his pocket.

"Who cares. Just give me the change," I said.

"Sorry, kid. That is a fake. Show me the others, one of them is bound to be real." He extended a hand.

What? I knew for sure these were real. They even had the seal when turned to an angle. This guy was trying to trick me into giving him the rest.

While pretending to hand him another bill, I knocked down the gift card stand and nearby stuff on the counter.

"Hey, you fucking brat!" The guy was having trouble getting through the counter.

I took the opportunity to grab the red bean soup, a whole bunch of snacks from the shelf, and bolted as fast as I could.

"Eat shit, fucker!" I shouted.

Instead of heading to school, I met up with Yui at a small park that only had a swing set. She was sitting on one of them, blowing into her cold hands.

"Micchi!" Yui hollered when she saw me.

It had been a long time since I saw Yui wearing her hair down naturally. The pigtails didn't come until later. Anya was right, hard to believe she used to be adorable. But she wasn't like me. All this fighting, acting out, causing trouble… I only dragged her in because we were friends.

"I got something ya. Warm up on it." I handed her one of the red bean soups, but she hesitated to eat it and cupped both hands around the container to soak in its heat.

"Ahhh~ It's so nice and toasty," Yui said, but I could tell she was still shivering.

This girl had it worse off than me and only wore her school winter uniform.

"Here put this on, too." I took off my hoodie to wrap around her shoulder.

"Aren't you going to be cold now?" Yui asked.

"Nah. Don't worry about me. I worked up a sweat earlier."

If today was the day I think it was, then we were waiting here for Chika like she asked. But Anego wouldn't show up today, and we'd spend hours waiting until Anya eventually came by to check on us. Was there a reason she lied? Something might have held her up.

"What say we go find Chika?" I suggested.

Yui hesitated. "What if she comes back while we're gone?"

Although I knew that wouldn't be true, I couldn't exactly tell her that.

"We'll take a look around the places she usually goes and come back. Come on," I said.

However, as Yui hopped off the swing, her knees buckled. She collapsed and dropped the red bean soup all over the snow-painted ground. I went to check on her and was harshly reminded again of what had happened. In the fall, her uniform's plaid skirt went up enough to reveal a bruising on her lower legs, just around the shins.

That piece of shit brother again. Yui had an older brother two years older than her that was violent for the sake of being violent. Whatever kind of upbringing their parents gave him obviously didn't work out, because he was on his way to prison by eighteen.

"I-I'm sorry… You brought me the soup to drink and… and…" Yui began to choke up.

"If you cry now, what's Anego going to think when we find her?" I put the other cup in her hands, then knelt down with my back to her. "Get on and drink up this time."

Yui wiped her eyes, then climbed onto my back so that I could give her a piggyback ride. We spent the better part of an hour searching all the places Chika could be. The usual spots she liked to hang out at were a bust, the delinquents that were part of her gang had no idea… it was beginning to seem like she turned into a ghost.

What bothered me the most was how not like a memory this was. How was I able to explore more of my past beyond the memories of what I knew and did? Was this only a memory or something more?

We were going along the bank of a river when Yui perked up.

"I hear Anego! Down there!" Yui pointed below the bridge.

Putting my trust in her hearing, we went down and sure enough, discovered someone speaking under the bridge. We peeked over the corner and saw that someone was Chika.

"It's An—"

"Sh." I put a hand over Yui's mouth.

What was Chika doing? It looked like she was alone, but another person's voice was speaking.

"Have you given any thought to my offer?" the low, rumbling voice spoke with a drawl. "I can make you stronger. Grant you the strength you need to protect those you care about. Like those two kids you often play with. What is their happiness compared to a world full of people you know nothing about?"

"I'll do anything for them, so I accept on one condition: Seven years. Give me seven years here, then I can be okay with leaving them behind," Chika bargained.

"Good. The deal has been made." A swirling black and purple portal opened up in front of Chika. "Now put your hand in and take your power. Become a demon yourself—"

This was the start. This was how it all began. I wanted to stop her, but my legs were frozen solid.

Chika did all of this in a misguided attempt to protect us. The whole idea of queens… She and Anya formed a protective bubble around Tokyo to keep us away from the worst fights. People always spoke about how like a demon Chika was when she fought. Now I knew why. Whatever power she was about to take turned her into one. Whoever's voice that was took her away from us.

Before I realized what happened, Yui had gotten off my back.

"Micchi, we have to stop her! Whatever that thing is wants to take Anego away from us! Micchi, snap out of it!" Yui exclaimed.

When I wouldn't budge, Yui jumped out of the hiding place to confront Chika.

"Yui, wait!" I tried to stop her too late.

"Anego! Don't do it!" Yui cried, startling Chika from sticking her hand into the swirling portal.

"Yui? Micchi?" Chika turned in our direction, but a black ooze latched onto her arm and started taking over the rest of her body.

A sudden vacuum of air pulled me away from the scene. Everything quickly grew further away. I stuck my hand out in an attempt to hold onto Yui, but I'd gone too far to do anything.

My eyes snapped open back in the tent. Kaoru was by my side, sipping on a cup of tea.

"It seems you have discovered something you didn't quite like," the shotacon empress remarked.