Chapter 478: Omega Hope Power~ – I |
Soft light, filtered through tinted windows. The feeling of a comfortable mattress, not something lumpy, old, and ragged. A room kept at a pleasant temperature, not too hot or too cold because the AC was too expensive...
Hope slowly opened her eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling. After a few moments and seeing it didn't change, she realized it wasn't a dream.
This was her new home. She was in Japan.
And yesterday was real.
Hope sat up and rubbed her eyes. But even as she did that, nothing changed.
The beautiful Tokyo cityscape shining behind a tinted window. Her Project MirAIs merch on display. A sleek PC already set up for her along with a computer desk...
Hope let out a giddy laugh and said, "I'm so lucky."
Lucky. For the first time in her life, it was a word that she could call herself. Not other people, but her. Hope.
For once in her life... 'hope' wasn't all she had.
===
Meggie grumbled as she walked out of the elevator leading to the apartments in Myth Inc. HQ. "Why do *I* have to be the one hanging out with Hope?"
That was something she didn't get. It wasn't like Meggie was involved in Project MirAIs at all or anything. Not only that, but there were plenty of other people who could be the one showing Hope around.
Meggie sighed and stuffed her hands in her hoodie pocket. "...I guess I'll just have to put up with it."
Because of the incident on Saturday, all the people involved were suspended from classes for a week. That included her, Tsuki, Emma, and those wannabes who had bullied Emma.
Mom said it was to show that she was fair.
Meggie thought it was dumb since they had enough money to bury the country and buy it outright if they wanted...
But they WERE playing by the rules.
'And I guess it'd be a hassle if we were royals...'
Meggie remembered how irritated she was at seeing her mother be careful to save face around people.
At least in this place, they could say screw it and be done with it.
Mostly.
Something, something, laws and regulations.
Meggie still didn't understand why she couldn't just download every game in the world onto a custom handheld device. Like, what even WAS copyright anyway?
"Tch... Now I'm annoyed." Meggie grumbled and then pulled out her phone to text Hope and introduce herself.
But before she had a chance, Hope's door opened.
Meggie looked up and said, "About time- Huh?"
A beautiful young woman with sky blue hair and matching eyes. Despite that, she was wearing a cozy hoodie, just like Meggie, and comfortable clothes.
"O-Oh! Hello- Is that natural?" Hope's eyes widened as she marveled at Meggie's hair.
Meggie blinked and said, "Is yours?"
Sky blue hair... Even in the Three Realms, hair like that was rare. And usually it belonged to people who had already crossed a certain threshold.
But this was definitely just a normal person... right?
Hope blushed and twirled her hair. "A-Ah, it's not. My real hair's white, but I dye it blue so it doesn't stand out as much..."
"...I think blue stands out more than white..."
White hair, Meggie thought was natural. Quite a few people had white hair in the Three Realms. Either because of a unique constitution or-
'Wait a minute. Why am I even bothering?'
Was it because she had nothing better to do? Or was she feeling the urge to run wild?
For some reason, Meggie kept thinking about the Three Realms...
'Ugh, whatever.'
Meggie glanced up at Hope and said, "I'm Meggie. John's kid. Since everyone else is apparently busy, I'm your tourguide or whatever."
"Oh!" Hope's eyes lit up. "Nice to meet you!" Hope held out her hand and said, "Are you Alphy and Betty's younger sister?"
Meggie shook Hope's hand and nodded. "Yeah. I WAS the baby sister until Rory was born. Why? You gonna look down on me just because I'm a kid?"
"H-Huh? Of course not!" Hope's ears turned red and she fidgeted. "It's just... Alphy and Betty are so put together. It's nice to have someone normal to spend time with. And my senpais are nice too, but... well, they're busy." She giggled. "They were all so excited about meeting me that they forgot it was a weekday and that they didn't rearrange their stream schedules."
Meggie laughed. "Sounds like them. Rin nee-chan and the others are super chaotic."
"Right! I didn't want to say anything, but it's... well, a bit overwhelming around all of them..."
Meggie nodded. "Yeah. Well, it's just us today..." She paused, realizing how ridiculous it was that a kid was guiding an adult around Tokyo.
Hope smiled. "I'll be happy to spend time with you, Meggie! But, um..." She paused, as if realizing the situation herself. "...Is it fine? I don't want to be a bother. You probably have things to do, right?"
"Well, I DID. But Tsuki is grounded and Emma is spending time with her Mom, so... Not really."
"Oh. Um... Is there... anything you wanted to do...?" Hope shifted and said, "I got my sign on bonus, so if you want to do anything, I can pay."
Meggie paused.
It wasn't like she didn't have money... but like her Dad said, free was always better than not.
"Alright. Wanna go to the arcade?"
Hope gasped. "They really have arcades here?"
"...What the heck? Have you been living under a rock?"
"...K-Kind of? I mean, I was always working, and I lived kind of in the middle of nowhere..."
"...Alright. To Akiba we go."
...Hm. Maybe Meggie should see if she could secretly get an apartment there or something. She was spending a lot of time there anyway...
===
Hope glanced at Meggie as the teenager... preteen? It was hard to tell, and Hope was honestly a bit too scared to ask.
But Hope watched how easily Meggie navigated through Tokyo and the train stations (subway stations?) and marveled at how calm she was. "Do you... do this all the time, Meggie? Aren't you scared?"
"Hm?" Meggie glanced back at Hope and said, "Why would I be scared? If anyone bothers me, I can fold them like an omelet."
Hope laughed. And then when she saw Meggie was serious, she stopped laughing. "...Seriously?"
Meggie nodded. "Of course. Everyone in our family can fight. Well, 'fight' is actually underselling what we can do, but... eh. We're all retired now."
"I-I see..."
Hope still remembered how Mister John had rushed out of nowhere and sent that home invader flying. And now that she took a closer look at Meggie...
'She's thin, but that's definitely muscle...'
Although Meggie's baggy hoodie and clothes hid it, Hope could tell by the way Meggie walked that she definitely knew her stuff.
...Although Hope didn't know what that 'stuff' was, she could tell that Meggie was serious about being able to, um, fold people like an omelet.
Meggie glanced back at Hope and said, "Don't worry about stalkers or train grabbers. If anyone bothers us, I'll crush their balls."
"Wh-What?!" Hope blushed. "M-Meggie! You can't just say that!"
"What? We're talking in English. Like, 90% of the people here don't understand it. Especially not with that accent of yours."
"A-Accent?" Hope covered her lips, suddenly self conscious of her words.
"Don't worry about it." Meggie pulled out her card as they reached the turnstile and paid for both of them. "Since it's in the middle of the day on a Tuesday, there's probably not anyone around anyway."
Hope held her bag close to her and followed behind Meggie. As she did, she noticed people staring at them. More than people usually would...
And then Hope realized it was because of their hair.
Hope's was a clear sky blue, and Meggie's was a beautiful emerald hue with blonde highlights. Then there were their features too...
Hope was definitely... Well, she actually didn't know what her real ethnicity was. But she definitely did NOT look Japanese.
And Meggie... Well, she just looked too beautiful to be real? If anything, she looked a lot like an anime character stepped into life.
...And Hope never DID get a proper answer about if Meggie's hair color was real...