Work Text:
Squiddo isn't sure how they got here.
No really, where is she?
The place was piss yellow, smelt musty and the carpet looked mildly wet.
It kinda looked familiar, like they've been here before. The more they explored, the more intense that feeling got.
She swore that scribble on the wall over there had her handwriting. That arrow on her right felt like a warning. That sign was not there before.
All signs that they're not where they're supposed to be.
But where is she?
They would call out for someone, anyone, but something in them told them that it was not a good idea to do so. So they kept walking, room after room of that yellow wallpaper, that buzzing light, that same stain. Occasionally, they'll take a turn, just to spice things up. But it just led to longer hallways of yellow and more strange holes in the ground.
After a while, she stood in front of 3 slides, each of different colour. It reminded her of those slides in her childhood, ones that led her to their own individual endings. She just needed to choose one.
They heard footsteps behind them.
She turned around.
No one.
They frowned, turning back to stare at the slides.
A single sakura petal rested on the floor in front of the middle slide.
She crouched down, picking it up to stare at it. It felt familiar, more than the rest of these rooms.
It felt like it was inviting her to chase its trail.
She slipped it into her pocket, climbed into the middle slide, wished herself good luck, and slid down. And fell into more carpet.
At least this wasn't wet. Small victories.
They picked themselves up, scanning the room around them. It wasn't the same place that they had come from, thankfully. It actually looked like a library. An abandoned, pretty huge library. It had shelves all around the place, a big center area with tables, a counter to the far wall that looked vaguely like the one librarians sit behind. It kinda looked like the one from their childhood town, weirdly enough. Though it didn't have that huge globe in the middle.
She walked closer, climbing a table to able to reach up and touch the globe. The thing was covered in rust, most landmarks completely hidden by time. Though there was a section that looked much cleaner that the rest, though still rusty all the same.
It was…her old house.
…creepy.
They climbed down, scanning around for any other clue in this place. There was a few book scattered about the shelves, so they started flipping through them, reading whatever interesting information they could find.
It was all scribbles. All of them. Not a single book was legible enough to be any help.
Discouraged, she tried tugging at the twin doors at the end of the room, and then the side door, and then the other side door. All of them didn't open. She checked under the tables, behind the counter, in between the shelves. Nothing!
Discouraged, they sank down onto a table close to the globe. Looking down, they could see some cravings in the wood. Someone had craved "Get me out" over and over again, spanning the entire surface and even a little down the sides.
Mood.
A loud, high pitched whine blasted through the previously dead silent room. She covered her ears as it sounded, letting go once it had long ended.
Getting up, she looked around the room to find the source, only to see a single computer sitting on a table in the middle of the room that she swore wasn't there before. It was a really old computer too, something that would've been made in the 80s.
Cautious, she slowly made her way over to it, rounding the table to look at the monitor.
On it, the Wikipedia article for "Cherry Blossom" was displayed. There was a section that was highlighted already.
""Hanami" is the many centuries-old practice of holding feasts or parties under blooming sakura trees." They read out loud, watching in real time as a pixelated petal floated down the monitor. As it touched the bottom, a ms-paint tab appeared, with drawn purple text reading, "Watch the flowers bloom with me?" with a purple arrow pointing down at the petal.
After a moment, another paint tab appeared with more text, "Click on the petal if you agree btw."
That sounded familiar. Like a promise made long ago.
She clicked on the petal.
They blinked again, and they're at a new location. Completely new.
They were in some sort of pool hell.
The walls were pool tiles, the floors were pool tiles, the ceiling was pool tiles. Everything smelt like chlorine, and there were floaties of all types and slides of all sizes littered about.
Oh, did she mentioned the water? Cause it was everywhere. Like, it was flooded. Her shoes were wet.
They sighed, resigning themselves to wet shoes for a while.
They started walking, exploring the new rooms. To be fair, the pool rooms weren't that bad. It was pretty relaxing. The water wasn't too cold nor too warm, just the perfect temperature to chill in. The slides were fun, and the floaties were cute too.
She's just sick of always getting lost.
Just then, they heard the sounds of swishing water in the next room. They hurried, turning the corner only to spot a figure disappearing into the following room, leaving behind only a few petals floating on the surface.
"Hey! Come back!" She called out, rushing as best as she could through the water. She followed the trail of petals, chasing the figure through countless room. But it was always just a room ahead of her, impossible to catch up even with the best of her abilities.
…why did that sound familiar. Why did it feel like she's done this before?
What is she forgetting?
The chase ended with the figure disappearing behind one last wall, and Squiddo running over only to find another monitor in a shallow pool, completely surrounded with petals that were slowly floating apart.
It was showing the same article as before, with a new highlighted section this time.
""Salt-pickled blossoms in hot water are called sakurayu and drunk at festive events like weddings in place of green tea."" They mumbled out, watching yet another petal fall and a tab opened.
"You always liked your tea. Have you ever drank this one in your adventures?"
She clicked on the petal.
A new place.
A town.
Her town.
…Well, it didn't really look like how her town looked like now. It looked like how it was back then, when she was younger. Still creepy.
This one was straight forward. Literally. All they could do was walk straight. The sides were blocked off by ridiculously tall fences, preventing them from climbing over and going anywhere else.
So, she walked. And walked. And walked.
They walked till the night came, and they kept walking till the sun rose again.
She walked for 8 sunrises before she finally saw another monitor sitting beneath a lamp post next to a 2 way intersection. In the far distance, she could see a grove of trees sitting on the top of a hill. She couldn't get to it, the fences were in the way, but in her heart she knew that's where she had to go.
Looking back down at the monitor, they read out the next section.
"Cherry leaves and blossoms contain coumarin, which is potentially hepatotoxic and is banned in high doses. However, coumarin has a desirable vanilla-like scent, and the salt curing process used prior to most culinary applications, which involves washing, drying, and salting the blossoms or leaves for a full day, reduces the concentration of coumarin to acceptable levels while preserving its scent."
It was a long one this time. No petal, no paint tab popping up.
She just blinked, and she was somewhere else.
She was in a forest.
The forest. The one right on the outskirts of town. She knows this place better than anyone else.
She had too, she's spent so long looking for him here.
They started moving, feet tracing a well worn path through the trees. But instead of leading to any significant marker, all it did was lead them to another patch of trees.
This time, she welcomed the sight of the figure, especially now that it looked so familiar.
"█████!" They called out to the figure, running at full speed towards it. It didn't speed up, but somehow, it was always faster than them. They could never catch up, only watch helplessly as the figure took one last turn before falling through the floor.
Dashing over to the spot, she crouched down, sweeping her fingers across the ground, desperate to find a sign, any sign, that he's still there, that he's fine, that her mistake didn't just cost her best friend's life.
But no matter how much she searched, there wasn't anything she could find.
They looked up.
In front of them was another monitor, shaded underneath a tree.
"Cherry blossoms are a frequent topic in waka composition, where they commonly symbolize impermanence. Due to their characteristic of blooming en masse, cherry blossoms are considered an enduring metaphor for the ephemeral nature of life."
A familiar voice rang out, reading it for her. A hand reached down towards her.
"Ready to watch the spring arrive?"
– – –
She opened her eyes, temporarily blinded by the bright sun. Shielding her eyes, she looked around the location she was in.
They were on the hill, looking over a small town. At the far end, they could see a dark green mass that merged with the town, making the whole place look like one giant fairytale forest. The sky above was blue, without a single cloud in sight. Turning around, they could see a large, glittery ocean. It was so blue, reflecting the sky above it.
Distracted by her surroundings, she didn't notice the presence beside her until she felt a warm hand wrap around hers.
"Come on! The sakuras are about to bloom any moment now. It took us so long to get here, I better get to see the things open."
Turning their head back around, they grinned at the sight of their lover and best friend, tightening their grip in his as he began to lead them up the hill. They giggled like kids all the way up, cracking jokes and racing each other up.
Near the top, she stopped for a moment, gazing at the sight in front of her. This is what she wanted for her whole life. A view that isn't the small village town, and getting to see it with him.
Somehow, this had combined both of their wishes, making the perfect compromise that looked both new and like home.
He tugged at their hand again, bringing their attention back to him.
"Come on, the trees are this way."
They climbed a little higher before reaching the top, where the cherry grove was at. He maneuvered the two of them into the middle of the grove, setting them down at a blanket that was already there.
They waited for a moment in a comfortable silence, before she pointed up.
"Look!"
And the world turned pink.
All the flowers had blossomed all at once, casting the grove into a very bright pink look. At the same time, a wind blew through the grove, shaking loose a bunch of petals and letting them drift into the air.
Squiddo cheered, reaching a hand out to grab onto a falling petal before turning to her right.
Ash was looking back at her, smiling sadly.
He gently grabbed her by her arms and brought her up, leading her to somewhere.
"Ash?"
He shook his head, still wearing that smile. "You're not supposed to be here, Squiddo. This isn't where you belong. You need to wake up."
But they've been here for so long, how do they wake up?
He pressed a gentle kiss on her forehead, before walking away from her.
"Like this."
And he vanished.
Helpful. But they got the gist of it, thankfully.
Before she left, though, she turned back to gaze out at the cherry grove. Already, the blossoms were closing up already, whatever that didn't close falling to the ground, littering the grass with pink flowers.
They smiled.
Next time, she'll bring them to a real sakura flower viewing.
– – –
She woke up slowly, tiny teardrops rolling down her face as she got up.
"Ash?" She called out to the empty room.
A pause, before a loud whirring noise sounded, and the monitor of an old PC sitting in the corner of her room lit up the room.
"Good morning Squiddo. How was your sleep?"
She grinned at small shimeji sitting at the bottom of the monitor screen.
"Like cherry blossoms blooming in spring."