Shadow of Memory

[Schwi Dola]

Everything was peaceful and confusing at the same time. Shadows seemed to move at the edge of her awareness, and that was what it was awareness. Desco wasn't seeing so much as being aware of things. Images shifted from one thing to another, chaotic. There was Guu, waving back and forth hypnotically, when did she learn to belly dance? This led to that wizard kid that had hurt Desco, and immediately followed was the nice wizard guy that helped Desco.

The swirls went on and on, and it seemed natural, like this was all supposed to be happening. However, suddenly the world came into focus on something Desco had great interest in. Big Sis! She saw Big Sis in various poses, like slides in a reel moving from one to another. Soon she came into focus on things she seemed to not know and yet knew she knew them. How did that make sense? Desco saw Big Sis, then a dozen Big Sises! And Desco, Valzy, Fenfen, Artina, Emizel, and Big Sis were all attacking the extra Big Sis-es. It was hard but Desco overcame that challenge.

Then she came into focus on Big Sis and.. Desco? No, it was Torn Desco, she didn't know Torn Desco but she knew her. She just trotted out a bunch of hunks! She was trying tempt Big Sis with these dragons! But Big Sis didn't take the bait. Things moved so fast, as Desco explored the memories she had forgotten, here in her dreams.

[Ururu Kyuuei]

A spiral of light and imagination fell around the Bridge of the Network which in itself wasn't unusual. It was the place Ururu had dreamed herself for the past five years since the day she had marked herself with Network Interface seal upon her collarbone.

Granted the bridge had grown many a times since then, with each new permanent personality that came to reside there, it folded twisted and transformed. Each of them added to the backdrop that was the horizon; it shifted with their gestalt subconsciousness, drifting over the day's or sometimes week's events depending on how long of a bender Ururu and her clones had been on.

When Ururu woke, or rather became mostly aware that she had begun a deep Dive she felt a weight on her thigh and glanced down and smiled at Hikaru who had followed her in.

Something itched blue.

Both drew up in the bed from the inn that had found themselves sleeping in and glanced around. Their alcove of the bridge was lit as was the far left alcove that belonged to Saru.

Oddly the boy who was modeled most closely to Ururu's younger self was absent. But even more odd was the fact that the other alcoves for each of the other permanent residents were in contrast, darkened. Only enough light played there to hint at the sleeping forms.

Something itched ice cream.

Ururu shrugged, she had a creeping understanding why but for her part it was as if her consciousness was hiding the reason for her even though just minutes ago she knew that answer.

The world wasn't right, but... not in a way that was concerning. When in all cases it should have been frightening. Nothing messed with her mindscape and her friends. It was hers and hers alone.

Not that the verse agreed.

Water rushed past them as the sea of thought parted around the Bridge. The light that filtered down from the surface changed the marble floors from white to black stone with shifting patterns that resembled many times she had Dived in her last lifetime. Before the Mad God had abducted her.

Something itched north?

That got Ururu's attention as her eyes drifted beyond the statue of the Sage of the Six-Paths. Something there did not belong, just beyond the water where her imagination lay and Saru's usual stomping grounds that was her mind's defenses.

No this was something firmly between her Network and her defenses but just outside the subconscious. Which didn't make sense. Last time something like that happened...

Areshi-sensei.

North itched stronger and prompted Ururu to walk to the water wall on the south end and pressed her hand into it much like she would have upon the fountain in the waking word if she was going to Dive into a clone or a Doll. Hikaru however was regarding her oddly and summoned clothes, silk pink pajama bottoms and tops, upon both their forms. As usual her lover was more conscious of what was happening in the Network...

For Ururu it was just instinct and desire at least when her mind was sleeping. And that north'ing friggin itch wasn't going to go away on its own. Unless it decided to sprout wings... in which case it would. But Ururu didn't count on such blessings to come without her wanting it to do so.

And this was too interesting to pass up. Visitors were so seldom and even fewer were welcome.

Water parted again and shining hallway formed and coral lamps ignited in a fury of green flame that produced curtains of silver mist.

Ururu pressed harder into the gap with her hand and the walls pushed further apart into a grander hallway with shifting figures etched into the surface.

Personas that didn't survive the humanity. Echos of thought. The froth of her subconscious now. Some even committed neural suicide when they realized they were never human to start with. All of them, save for a few sociopaths that had popped up over the years, she mourned.

Now with a proper area to walk, Ururu spotted something that didn't belong, existing in its own realm space. Something else that wasn't her. Oh this was just delicious. Was it an orange walker? Or had the Mad God come to prostrate himself in forgiveness of denying Ururu her Sage given awesomeness...?

Who knew, but Ururu wanted to find out.

[Schwi Dola]

The blur continued on, focused on Big Sis. Big Sis was the purpose of Desco's existence. Things started to move together now. A figure approached from the distance. Desco was confronted by DesX in the lab so long ago, but what was Big Sis doing here with Mr. Valzy? But suddenly DesX was giant and had a softer voice, and Desco, Big Sis, and Artina, and Archangel Flonne were fighting her. Desco put her arms out and Flonne summoned a giant robot that pushed the moon and crushed DesX.

The figure got closer. Desco was in the lab with daddy and Mr. Valzy, and Desco complained that Big Sis stopped wanting to take over the world. Daddy just stood there in a pensive look, but Mr. Valzy gave Desco a new goal, to go along with him and help overthrow the Corrupterment! Even though memories mixed they didn't feel wrong.

But then the figure was there, something was unusual so Desco turned to look, everything else around her becoming a blur as she took interest in the approach. It was a strange girl, human? Desco did not recognize her, and that felt wrong this time. Who was this person? For some reason, Desco changed and gathered a dark aura with blue energy bolts popping in and out showing how powerful she was. "Hello, I'm Desco."

[Ururu Kyuuei]

Ururu blinked as her sight of what was beyond the hall became clear. Or rather the hallway squashed, squished, twisted and slithered until the water became liquid wood shelves with books upon them that streamed out trickles of calligraphy. Oh and the distance was much much smaller between the two and straighter.

Book fish swam from cover to cover, but before long the lost interest in whatever subjects this portion of the Bridge was and moved on to the darkened alcoves.

Stupid fish, they should know better not to judge a scroll by its backing.

“Uh hello,” Ururu replied tentatively as she processed what was going on. Some how the girl before her did not seem likely to be an alien invader of her most personal fantasies. Though some of the appendages did match. Unless she was a voyeur... that could be fun-

Hikaru's hand moved like lightning (complete with sparks of light) and gave a light whack to the back of Ururu's head; obviously to break that line of thought. Clearly some things stayed the same regardless of it being the dreaming world or the waking world. Hikaru being Ururu's mental and verbal filter was one of them.

Speaking of which Ururu noted for the first time that Hikaru didn't look like her young preteen self but rather how she was supposed to. Vaguely an older teen, strong golden hair and more curves. The familiar appearance was also a lot less weak.

At least something about this was right.

Ururu glanced to her right and caught her reflection in a particularly opaque book and found that unfortunately the same could not be said for her. Then again the differences between herself before being trapped in this body were minor. She was doomed to be short (by choice) and many womanly features often got in the way of being a ninja and attracted too much attention from the more annoying sex who saw anything with breasts as fair game.

But at the moment it was a bit extreme for her.

Sure those aspects of age could have its uses for getting into research facilities and higher end private libraries but that was about it.

Another, slightly harder, slap to the back of her head brought her out of an hour long's musing, or was it nanoseconds? Ururu always confused those.

Right a reply, proper girls... no, teenagers introduced themselves. Properly that is. It was only proper to be proper... was that right?

Ururu gave a light bow and only just noticing the bolts of energy. They were pretty.

“Right, I'm Ururu and this is my partner Hikaru.” Ururu finally said or possibly continued. Her eyes watched the bolts of color though she thought they'd be much prettier with some yellows or golds.

But that was neither here nor there, wherever there was. Probably under blue itch.

“What brings Desco-chan to my bridge, or is it-” She looked around at the other end of the hall way before walking forward a little, “your lab?”

“I don't remember installing a lab in my Bridge.” Ururu mused.

She glanced to Hikaru who merely shrugged, a look of knowing was playing on her companion's face but she wasn't sharing any of what it meant.

“Yep, not my lab.”

[Schwi Dola]

Desco looked at the lab they were in, clearly it was daddy's lab, the high tech equipment and more rustic red colors and visible steel work meant they were in the larger area of experimentation that needed the room and reinforcements on the wall and floor. "This is daddy's lab!" As Desco spoke, another Desco and a girl with a blue hat, white shirt, and blue miniskirt stepped into view. Other more faded blurry forms also came forward, but what looked like yet another Desco came from the opposite direction but had different coloration, dimmer and darker. "Desco remembers this."

They spoke though issued no sounds and started to fight. Desco and the Desco lookalike both merged with the tentacled monstrosities at their backs and turned into giant 50 foot versions of them with huge mouths and the tentacles had eyes at the end. The two gathered an immense amount of purple star energy in their mouths, then everything changed again.

They were back in Hades but mysteriously absent of anyone. Lava flowed all around them and under the floor, but it didn't feel hot at all. "Desco won that fight."

[Ururu Kyuuei]

Ururu still felt half drunk in not knowing exactly what was going on but really she decided to go with it. Visitors were guest after all, respect was a given and given was a lot of food. But at the moment food didn’t seem appropriate.

“It’s a very nice lab, looks like all sorts of great research can be done in it.” Ururu said with all earnestness. After all she hadn’t had access to a lab in a long time. Most of what she had done was through number crunching. It worked but not nearly as fun or as inventive.

Around her the portions of the world that weren’t her bridge seemed to transform and in doing so a large number of something happened. What that was well it looked like a the fights that were supposed to have happened with the bijuu on a number of occasions.

As the fight unfolded Ururu sat down at the mouth of the Hallway with a large table of food stock with a number of her favorites. Was it dinner already? Grabbing a large pair of syringes then began rifling through the various sushis and other food stuffs unique to her culture. Well respect as host to a guest was a given. Though Hikaru had really outdone herself in preparing all this.

“Well Desco in honor of your victory would you care for some food?” Ururu waved magnanimously across the table, even as the dour red cast of hades made the entire thing look as if it were about to catch on fire. Which was odd; if that were the case wouldn’t they all feel the heat? At least it would keep the soups nice and warm for them and who ever heard of cold sushi, though some of it wasn’t hot either.

Though for many that was tradition rather than preference.

Hikaru watched the exchange with far more discerning eyes. All together this seemed rather concerning… if this child who her dreams said she was. They were looking essentially at a home grown bijuu. How such a thing was possible… in any world such a thing would need a good deal of resources. And possibly, a lacking of morality.

Something that her creator once shared.

That made her feel uneasy. It had taken a lot to get Ururu back on solid moral ground when Hikaru had realized that they could very well going down a path that had no light to walk it by. The last thing she wanted to do was expose her lover to something that would…

Well it was too late, she just had to trust in whatever God, be it the Sage or something else to give her directions.

Catching her friend’s words, “Yes I made all in honor of your victory Desco-chan.”

Something told her that this dream was going to require a lot to keep up if Ururu kept being so random and whimsical.

[Schwi Dola]

Desco smiled and nodded, but as they were about to dig in suddenly a pink haired little girl with a unsurpassingly bored look wearing a pink skirt and a yellow scarf for a shirt walked up. Her mouth opened wide, and wider and wider and covered the entire table, dishes and the table itself included. She hung there for a moment, her now giant head stretched out over everything, then it snapped back and she swallowed it all at once, back to her apparent normal form and still bored. Desco pointed to her."Guu got to it first!"

The dream changed focus to a blur of scenes involving Guu. They were on the beach, and Guu was teaching Desco how to swim. Desco kicked in the water as Guu lead her through the water. Desco looked over at the nice girl that had offered her food, smiling. "Guu is Desco's friend!" Things changed to Guu and Desco hugging in a crowd of people in a white hallway at Dante's Abyss, and to a couple other similar scenes. Then it was back off to chatting out in the forest and hanging with Gildarts and Luffy in the Abyss.

Still, Desco had no idea that she was still lost in this dream abyss. Or that soon she would leave.

[Ururu Kyuuei]

Hikaru moved to pinch herself in the face but realized the stupidity of such a thing given that she knew this was a dream. Ururu on the other hand she could feel from her that she was still totally enchanted by everything in a laze-faire attitude.

After all the peripheral of the dream warped and Konohagakure's Academy came into focus as children who looked roughly the current groups age were flowing various martial arts stances. One of them was a mirror image of Ururu wearing only a gym shirt, bike shorts and a train engineer's goggles around her forehead. For that matter, her braid was significantly shorter.

And then for reasons that only Ururu knew in the back of her head, namely all this, a kirin fell from the sky. Landing upon the water it took a leap above the figures from Desco's own and landed in the middle of the academy grounds.

Well Hikaru thought, at least this hadn't descended into an orgy like she had been expecting to fight off. The last thing she wanted to do was subject this child to something of that caliber. No this at least seemed to be playing off of Ururu's mental state lately. That of an actual child.

All they needed now- yep. That.

A rainbow descended down as imagination continued to mix with memory and by now the children were making a break for the beach, chasing after the mythical creature.

Hikaru raised a hand and tried to keep things on course, her hope had been to raise Ururu's awareness of her growing immaturity without having to actually need a conversation about her actions as of lately.

Chuunin-sensei Oraku came down the beach in a whirlwind of sand and oak leaves and stared down the two groups. A balding man who had held this position for years was known for strict non-nonsense whenever class was in session.

“Oy! All of you, keep practicing your Taijutsu,” He paused and looked directly at Desco's end of the world, “that means you two transfer students! I don't know how Kirigakure does things now a days but there's a reason it was called the Bloody Mist back in the day!”

[Ururu Kyuuei]

Oops didn't copy the whole page

Ururu opened her mouth to protest, but found herself yanked into the shorter braid self. This fact didn't seem to stop her, “But sensei today is beautiful day. And we have a beach for once! Guu-chan and Desco-chan have the right idea for once!”

The other children voiced similar concerns a few even waving the sharp kunai and a few other ninja weapons as well.

[Schwi Dola]

Desco's mouth formed into a soft o as the scene changed to an unfamiliar slide in the reel. Odd but at the same time it didn't feel wrong. Desco didn't know that she knew martials arts, and she didn't. Desco's moves didn't measure up at all to the moves the other children were using but it didn't seem to matter. Her lack of ninja skills was unnoticed, and she still had that o on her face.

Then something with a rainbow fell down and the others chased it. It felt right to go with the flow so Desco joined in the chase. What it was wasn't exactly clear. Was it a poptart or a cat? Or a pony? She couldn't tell, and she oddly couldn't focus on it..

Then things came back to the class at hand and Desco was even addressed directly. "Tai...jutsu? Bloody Mist?" But Ururu was right, not that Desco knew her name, it was time to have some fun. Then things changed, though the class was oddly still there, and the scene mixed with her most recent setting, in the lab. Daddy's Coruscant lab with the gray complex walls and a glass window that her father with the white lab coat sat behind, and the pillars that started to come up with collars. Collars that had various effects on the children that put them on. Changing into candy, electrocuted, turning into monsters, suddenly having super strength, things started to devolve into chaos. Then Desco suddenly vanished and the scene froze and became static-y.

[Ururu Kyuuei]

Ururu just fell in the mob that brutally tied up their chuunin-sensei. Large comical bumps were all over his nearly bald head as they clambered off. Chains, ropes and some sort of foamy string was wrapped tightly around the man and nailed to the ground by an even more outrageous assortment of weapons which Hikaru was sure that class hadn't had at all. Nor had they in reality successfully taken out their chuunin-sensei when had attempted to usurp the class, this dream? Anything was possible.

Then again it wasn't really her dream to criticize she was just here to make sure her creator got the proper rest she needed for the day at hand and maybe gained some enlightenment of her own actions since He had taken them to this world.

Cheers played out across the field as all them began a mad dash towards the ocean and Desco. But as it was then that things seemed to warp, each shift in reality seemed to burn holes in what Ururu had brought along with her. Students were assimilated and then disappeared with the worlds as they shifted away.

Finally as the chaos of a shattered reality came to stew only Ururu, Hikaru and Desco were left. Little Ururu was looking around in in confusion but also seemed to catch the gist of something that Hikaru had missed.

Frantically the little kid began waving to Desco between giggles and tears, “See you soon!”

And then the little monster girl disappeared leaving the two alone, and perhaps let Hikaru actually do her job in shepherding dreams of the one she loved the most.

“Come lets go get some ice cream.” She said with soft smile though internally she was concerned that this person was who Ururu was turning back into. It was something that had to be adjusted lest everything would come to an end.

And with that she led them both back to the bridge to find the fields of imagination.