[Video | Action to the Orchard]

[gentlecuteside]

[Amamiya appears in front of the mirror, sitting on her knees. She waits a moment before taking a deep breath and beginning to speak:]

I'm sorry to bore all of you with this, but I had to be sure it's gone. If it isn't, this could be the last you hear from me, and if that happens I'm sorry for dying in such a stupid way.

My name is Amamiya Sakurako, and I've been to the future.

[She cringes as though waiting for something bad to happen. When it doesn't, she straightens up, breathing a sigh of relief, and continues.]

I answered the wrong phone call, and got trapped in a game called Psyren. I was sent back and forth from the present to the future, a future where Japan is a desert wasteland inhabited only by monsters.

[Her voice starts to waver, but she presses on:]

I fought. I survived, sometimes by skill, sometimes by chance. Sometimes I was the only one who survived. I got stronger because I had to, not because I wanted to.

And I couldn't talk about it. If I so much as mentioned Psyren, or Nemesis Q, or the W.I.S.E. to anyone who wasn't part of the 'game', I would be killed instantly. Even here in the Gardens, it was the same thing.

[Okay yeah she's crying a little now.]

Until now. I can talk about it now, thanks to the Healer.

[She wipes her eyes and nose quickly on the back of her sleeve, covering it up.]

Thank you for your time. I just...had to tell my story, now that I could.

[She makes a gesture with her hand, and the video feed cuts off. Unseen to any watching over the Vine, she covers her mouth with her hand and cries real, powerful tears of joy and relief.]

Comments

[headedforhope]

Ah, I can understand that. [...] And now you're here, instead, but it's better now....mm. What sort of person is your teacher, Sakurako-san?

[gentlecuteside]

[Amamiya almost seems to sparkle when the subject of her teacher is brought up.]

Oh, she's amazing! She'd been in Psyren for a long time before I had, so she showed me the ropes, and protected me and trained me to use my psi! She cool and pretty and so, so strong!

[Even before she got a little lesbian'ed by the Gardens, she may have had a little crush on Matsuri-sensei.]

[headedforhope]

[She smiles, glad to have touched upon a topic of some happiness for Amamiya.]

Really? It sounds like you were pretty fortunate to fall under that kind of mentor. I'd guess they'd be rather rare in a world like yours, huh?

[gentlecuteside]

Yes...but I entered the game at almost the same time she completed it. I only got to do a few runs with her before I had to leave her behind...she did what she could in between to prepare me, but then I was on my own.

[headedforhope]

[Mami nods, and says again, a little wistfully:] You were fortunate to know her. [a pause, and then with a tinge of regret, Mami asks a new question.] What sort of monsters did you have to fight against? As you know, my experience is only with the Witches I've mentioned.

[gentlecuteside]

They were twisted creatures called Taboo. Some of them used to be human, I'm not sure about the others. They could only be killed by destroying their cores, which were these white spheres embedded into their bodies.

And then there were the WISE. They were people with those same cores. The people who bad destroyed the world, so they could remake it in their twisted image. They're naturally very powerful psychics, and those cores only make them stronger.

[headedforhope]

Hm, I see. What happens after they're destroyed- they just fade to nothing?

[gentlecuteside]

More or less. With their core destroyed, they dissolve into ash.

[headedforhope]

And you get nothing usable out of their remains.

[gentlecuteside]

Yes, exactly. It was the same for us, too. If we died in Psyren, our bodies turned to ash and blew away.

[headedforhope]

Mm....you know, one thing I never mentioned before was that defeated Witches left behind these things called Grief Seeds. They're pretty....ha, invaluable to magical girls in my world. I guess I'm a little surprised there isn't something like that in your situation.

[gentlecuteside]

[Amamiya shakes her head.] No, the Taboo were just creatures created for the purposes of the WISE. Purely obstacles for us.