Reincarnated Into A Dead Woman's Body In Another World-Chapter 134: Arc 3, - 44: My Sanity in Check
Asobi left the room, leaving Jotou to sit down with her own thoughts. "That’s everything... Now what? Do I just stay put? I can’t do that."
Jotou looked around the room. The luggage she knew carried a plush puppy of all things—carrying it around like a child.
"A child... Twenty-one and I still act like one..." Jotou sighed, "Maybe that’s the truth of being an adult. You can either be swept away by the current and become mundane—watch your life go by.
Day by day, week by week, year by year... Miserable. Or, you can choose to explore your creativity; do what you like, what you think is best for you.
And like that, everyone can’t help but feel childish. Because, it seems like a child’s dream to be happy; or even just be okay and not have to worry about everything in life coming to get you.
Or maybe it’s just a special some—like me. Who never really got to be a normal kid; I took my parents’ dreams and aspirations and made them my own.
Well, I can’t be blaming them anymore; I’m me. The choices I made, in all that stress between life and death, and losing my own sanity.
All from a lack of patience, judgement and coming from complete stress and shock. I never dealt with it, I kept pushing it away.
I have to deal with it now. I need to know what outcome I want; what goal I have in mind. I want to protect them, but I also need to trust in them. I’ll figure it out, one thought at a time."
Jotou glanced as the door handle shifted, "Are you finished with your little one-on-ones?" Hotaru peeked in.
A small smirk grew on the blonde, "Yup. Come on in. It’s time to plan out what we do from here." ’Slight amendment. We’ll figure it out.’
_
"Thank you for listening to me. I know, you may be upset or sad or frustrated with what I did; or possibly what I said about the past, I mean, future, that is the past...?
Anyway, I’ve been egotistical, unmethodical and frankly a dickhead. I completely let the situation take control of me and I cracked under pressure.
The truth is, I never gave myself a chance to breakdown. I never gave myself time to process everything that’s going on; it was this day, then the next.
I kept pushing myself and with it, pushed the reason away. I turned into a zombie, just doing things for the sake of doing things without thinking," Jotou pouted.
"You turned into a zombie!? I knew it! See! Jotou just took some time to realize it!" Asobi giddied.
"Sobi... she means that she had no control over her life, not that she’s actually undead," Hotaru sighed.
"And," Fumeko faced Jotou, "I’ve already forgiven you. So, put this behind already," she crossed her arms.
"Yeah! You’ve done so well so far Jotou!" the elf cheered.
Jotou stared—the detective snarky without underlying and unspoken issues, the magician cheery as ever. "I’m so glad to have friends like you."
"Hm," Hotaru hummed as her tail wagged, "Just remember, keep the past in your heart and keep your mind in the future as always; just make sure to keep your body in the present, okay?"
And the caring redhead, stringing words together. Jotou nodded, "I’ll try. My sanity shall be kept in check." ’And I hope I can see where this relationship will lead me as well.’
"So, made a plan while we were all gone?" Fumeko wiped the sweat off her forehead.
"I was more so hoping I can tell all of you and we can rack our brains about it together."
"Go on," Hotaru sat down next to Asobi on Fumeko’s bed and brought her tail onto her lap.
"First of all, we need to figure out everything that happened and is happening. We still have little to no clue how all these time shenanigans started. Magic like that is apparently impossible."
"Even if it wasn’t, the consequences of using magic like that and the sheer mana or power required would be incredibly high," Hotaru budded in.
"That’s the reason for the headaches. And the magic, whatever it is, clearly has its limits. It didn’t rain the first three times, but it did the last time, albeit only a little; but for a desert that’s plenty.
And Frye clearly was able to remember last time since there were double the amount of troops. Where did so many soldiers suddenly come from for a rogue battalion?" Jotou pondered.
"’His plans were apparently denied by the invasion force and that’s how this rogue party formed from our sources. So, no backup will arrive for them.’ That’s what Major Rashaad Schroeder of the defence force told.
And he said that if it does, then it confirms suspicion that Trailon did approve of this and thus would warrant further and more drastic action from Cravolta’s end.
We already exposed a major war crime committed by Trailon so a surprise like this wouldn’t really be out of the question; they will use any means to secure victory," Jotou relayed.
"Dirty bastards, of course they would. Could we use that to our advantage somehow? Maybe report it to Cravolta as a whole?" Fumeko suggested.
"No, the lockdown has our legs tied to here pretty much. And it seems the only chance of gaining any favour is meeting this so-called princess."
"That should be easy! We can go to her castle, pretend to be a travelling circus, we put on a performance she’ll never forget and she would grant us a boon!"
"Yeah, that sounds easy Sobi," Fumeko’s eyes glazed over.
"One kink in that plan; we’re stuck here, no information in or out. Even if we tell the major it doesn’t solve anything because they have procedures to go through and also the battle’s tomorrow night.
As much as I would love to shout the truth of what’s going on here to everyone, that might be a bit difficult even with my title. Not to mention, what seems to be Trailon soldiers near the borders."
"You mean the ones that ambushed you, us, in the third time we tried to escape?" Hotaru’s ears flickered.
"I don’t know how much they’ve covered, but a very mistrustful major in the last loop decided not to tell me a lot; which is fair... Though, he said any messenger going out would require military aid.
And that they couldn’t afford it in the coming battle. In other words, the Trailon soldiers must be along more than one path out of Hartamat. Not at the border itself, but much further.
Trailon picked a hectic moment to replay over and over—no information can travel very easily during this time. Meaning no outside resources to meddle with their, ’experiment’... Which, leads me..."
"The grass, right? Something about a ring of tall grass I found out?" Fumeko queried.
"Yeah... it looked like a border; like the time magic didn’t affect anything outside of it. If we step out there, we’d be dealing with magic we don’t understand.
Might get us killed or, if quantum physics is anything to go by, might cause huge ripples in the spacetime continuum or mess with the spatial electromagnetic field around us because we don’t exist in the right point of time," Jotou squinted.
Hotaru’s ears fell whilst Fumeko glared to Jotou. Asobi’s eyes sparkled, "So smart, so many words!"
"That doesn’t make any sense, how would you know those things could even be messed with?" Fumeko uttered.
"You’re right, I’m making bullshit up to make it make sense..." Jotou’s gaze went to the side as she tried to whistle.
"Seriously?" Fumeko’s eyes nearly closed.
Hotaru rolled her eyes in a smile, "Alright smart-ass, serious now?"
"Sorry," Jotou smiled back, "Still, we don’t know what happens when we, the ones affected by the time resets, step outside where I assume time to be fine.
So, that can’t be an option for us. Though, there’s something else that can give us more insight into all of this."
"The letters I didn’t read?" Fumeko raised her brows in recalling. "So, I should try and steal whatever documents I stole the last time, again?"
"That’s a good an option as any. The briefcase and the letters of communication between him and Frye."
"Great! Where do I find it in his office?"
"I, don’t know that... We kinda ran distraction while you found it, then flaunted it, then blinked who knows how many times to Hartamat Defence Force’s headquarters."
"Ugh... You couldn’t get more from me?"
"It was your doing," Hotaru looked to the standing brunette.
"I know that! I- fine, I’ll look for it again."
"That’s my detective."
Fumeko closed her eyes, blushing to Jotou’s compliment in a fit a fury.
"Then what!?" Asobi popped up.
"Then, we read everything on the paper and plan from there. Honestly, if it yields nothing, I had a backup plan of leaving notes outside of the grass barrier," Jotou stared to the floor.
"Leaving notes?"
"Yeah, like a failsafe. We can test whether or not the entire universe collapses because of time shenanigans by throwing something out there; and in case everything doesn’t go well this time either.
Not that I’m betting on it or hoping for it. But I’d rather be prepared for the worst case scenario than just hoping this time will be it," Jotou stated.
"That sounds like a good plan Jotou," Hotaru agreed.
"Thanks... Also, we should probably get these two some proper clothes and Fumeko a haircut before they melt into a puddle," Jotou pointed.
The brunette sweated from head to toe as the afternoon went later into the day. "Oh, you could tell?" Asobi’s illusion faded to reveal herself in the same state.
"I call it intuition..."
"Okay fine, we go on a little trip in Hartamat. I get the documents as soon as possible and we can plan again from there. This, sounds like a good plan that Jotou would make up," Fumeko shrugged.
"Half my plans include spontaneity. I think my mistake was trying to account for every tiny detail. But can we all agree on it this time? I know you once said I’m the leader, but we’re more democratic." 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶
"All fine by me," Hotaru sided.
"Yeah, yeah. It’s not like we have anything else to go on."
"This plan is just to collect as much information as possible. Then, at the end of tomorrow, hopefully we’ll find ourselves winning and if not, I can tell you all again next loop with more information in hand."
"Should we be worried about spies!?" Asobi’s eyes popped at the idea before she started checking the windows.
"There, hasn’t been any spies so far. I’m about ninety-nine percent sure we’re fine and no one remembers the last four times. Except, maybe someone on Trailon’s side to call reinforcements."
"Alrighty then! Time to execute this operation!"
"Fine, operation Time Shenanigans is a go," Jotou sighed, "I can relax... a... littlllllllle......"
"Jotou!" Fumeko caught her as Hotaru ran up from the bed. Jotou leaned and swayed till she fell. Jotou slowly groaned—her eyes shut and breathing softly.
"What happened!? The spies had knockout gas!?"
"No Sobi, she just, fell asleep?" Fumeko stared at the blonde.
Hotaru picked Jotou up from Fumeko’s grasp and gently pushed her onto the bed. She laid Jotou’s head on the pillow, "She needs a mental rest at this point. Let her have it," the redhead smiled.
Jotou slept away, her eyes heavy and mind shutting down.
