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Mitsune groaned in agony as the sunlight hit her eyes. It was too bright, how could anyone live like this? She threw an arm over her face, trying to string bleary thoughts together. What time even was it? No, before that, where even was she? This wasn’t her bed, it was…
“Hallo! Rise and shine, sleeping beauty!”
She startled at the sudden loud voice, and then startled again as she recognized the speaker. That messy pink hair, that enthusiastic voice at an unreasonable hour, that infectious smile… It was Jun. Mitsune’s heart skipped a beat, her breath caught, her eyes burned. Jun was here. Jun was okay.
“Jun!” Mitsune had her arms around her before her mind had time to think, relief flooding through her.
Jun laughed and embraced her right back. “Yeah, that’s me, all thanks to you. Looks like you’re still waking up. Come on, we can’t sleep the whole day away.”
Memory and awareness slowly trickled back to Mitsune as she looked around. Right, right, this was the living room… They’d made a blanket fort last night and slept out here. It had been Jun’s idea, of course, and it had seemed silly, Mitsune hadn’t even done something like that when she was a kid, but…well, they were kids, so it wasn’t that weird, right? She felt her cheeks blush as she realized what an overreaction she’d had to seeing Jun. Of course Jun was here. Why wouldn’t she be?
“Sorry…” She reluctantly pulled out of the hug, deathly embarrassed.
“Nah, it’s fine. I’m used to it by now.” Jun grinned and chuckled that familiar charming laugh of hers. “Anyway, isn’t there something else you should be saying?”
Mitsune scrunched up her forehead in thought, trying to remember what Jun was talking about. What should she…? …Oh, right. “Hallo,” she said, completing their shared ritual.
“That’s more like it. Now come on, let’s get you up and at ‘em. We gotta figure out what we’re gonna do today.”
It was alongside a breakfast of cold cereal that Jun got out their Adventure Map, a map of the city and surrounding area with ‘Adventure’ scrawled out in crayon across the top, marked up with all kinds of circles and crosses and arrows showing all of the adventures they’d gone on. Chasing rainbows in the mountains, exploring under the bridge, catching movies at the theater, checking out abandoned buildings, playing around at the mall, camping in abandoned rail cars, climbing trees in the woods… And, of course, they’d always hit up the Tomorrow Shop on the way home, which was circled three times and had four bold arrows pointing to it.
“So, what’re we doing today?” Mitsune asked between bites, her brain starting to finally work properly.
“I want you to decide,” Jun told her with a beaming grin.
Mitsune blinked. “I don’t really know that many places… Why me?”
“We’ve been doing all the things that I want to do, but I want to learn more about you. Where’s somewhere that you used to go when you were a kid?”
“I didn’t get out much…”
“There has to be somewhere you remember going to. Come on, let’s get back one of your yesterdays.”
Mitsune stopped and frowned, actually thinking about it. A place she used to go to… There was one spot that came to mind, actually. “There’s a park that wasn’t too far from my house. I went to play there sometimes, back before…” Before she’d become a reclusive shut-in, when she was younger. “There was a playscape and stuff, and I’d pretend I was a princess… Oh, but, they tore the whole place down to make room for housing. There’s just apartments there now…”
“A little thing like that won’t stop the two of us,” Jun said with a mischievous smile. “Come on, let’s go pay a visit. I wanna see this place where you used to play.”
The park looked exactly the way that Mitsune had remembered it. There was a big open field of grass with trees ringing the edges, and nestled in a corner of the park was a playscape, fully equipped with all the usuals: a slide, a couple of swings, a see-saw, all sorts of stuff to climb on, and so on. She hadn’t even gone here that many times, and not in years, and even back then she’d mostly played on her own, but… Still, it felt pretty cool to be back here, like she was returning to a piece of her childhood.
“It’s a nice place,” Jun mused in approval. “So, this is where little Mitsune would play…”
“Yeah…”
“Race you to the slide!”
“Wha–!” Mitsune sputtered as Jun raced ahead, snickering back at her. Mitsune didn’t catch up until they reached the slide, but she was laughing when she got there, pulled completely into Jun’s pace. Win or lose, everything was always more fun when she was with Jun.
They played the day away there, pushing each other down the slide, seeing who could swing the highest on the swings, playing make-believe all over the playscape… Doing all the things that kids do, without a care in the world. Jun had more energy than Mitsune did, but she didn’t object when Mitsune had to sit down and catch a break. She sat down right beside Mitsune, holding her hand out.
“Here, this’ll give you some more energy. I found a snack while we were playing.”
Mitsune raised an eyebrow, but if Jun thought it was fine, it probably was. She took the offered candy, and popped one into her mouth. It didn’t taste like much, but…oh! When she bit down she got a surprise. They were juice-filled! It was warm and sweet, but she couldn’t really place the taste. It seemed familiar, though…
Jun, who was chewing on her own sweets, flashed a grin, her teeth coated in red, juices dribbling down her chin. Red…must’ve been strawberry or cherry or something, then. Whatever it was, it was good, and Mitsune popped another one into her mouth. Mm, juicy…
The sweets did re-energize her a bit, and after a little break they went back to playing. Going back and forth on the see-saw, counting clouds, hide-and-go-seek…
It was when Mitsune was looking for a place to hide that a familiar voice called out to her. “Hey hey, Miwarin, looking good! How’ve you been, girl?”
Mitsune stopped, then frowned. There was…a curtain at the edge of the park, hanging between the trees, and it seemed like a really strange place to put a curtain. She hadn’t noticed it until now, but there was someone calling to her from the other side of the thin yellow curtain, and she could make out a familiar silhouette. “Himena…? What are you doing here?”
“Can’t a cutie just come by to check on her friends?” Himena asked with cutesy feigned hurt in her tone. She sounded…a little older than Mitsune had expected. Had Himena always been older than her? “Things have been totally cray lately, but I still found some time to come see you. Realtalk though, you been doing alright?”
“Yeah, I… I’ve been doing great, really. Me and Jun…” Mitsune’s chest clenched painfully when she tried to talk about Jun. “We’re having a really good time. Every day is fun. I’m…happy.”
Himena did that annoying high-pitched laugh of hers that only a popular girl would think was cute. “That’s great, Miwarin! You’ve really come a long ways, this cutie might just shed a tear.”
“Don’t make fun of me,” Mitsune said, but there wasn’t any heat to it. Rather, she felt…cold. Ever since Himena had shown up, she couldn’t help feeling anxious, like she was made out of a bubble that could pop at the slightest touch of a needle. And yet, gravity drew her inexorably forward toward the sharpest object in the area, and she couldn’t stop the words from spilling out. “Himena… Why did you need to check on us? Is something…wrong?”
“Does something feel wrong?” Himena asked right back.
Mitsune’s fingers clenched tight enough to hurt. Nothing was wrong, everything was great. So great it almost seemed like a dream. “Jun is real,” she blurted out, and immediately wanted to take the words back, to not reveal her deepest fear.
But Himena just laughed again. “Of course she’s real! You’ve got nothing to worry about there. Kazarin is just as real as you are.”
She said it so matter-of-factly, without a hint of hesitation, and it was so much more of a relief than Mitsune had expected, like someone had removed a weight from her chest and she could breathe again. “Of course,” she echoed.
“It’s a real wild place you’ve put together here,” Himena went on. “Nostalgia and delusion… Who would’ve thought you could get something like this when you put those magics together? Not that everyone is okay with it, but they can go choke on it.” Her light gossipy tone suddenly had a sharp edge to it, taking Mitsune by surprise. “No matter how things turned out, you did a lot for me, and I take care of my own. I won’t let anyone condemn the relationship the two of you have, no matter what you are. This godly cutie can promise you that much.”
Himena sounded so fierce all of a sudden…but that’s right, she had her own circumstances, didn’t she? Accepting people as they were was one of those things that she got really fiery about.
“I found you! That wasn’t hard at all.” Jun snickered as she walked up, but she paused and cocked her head when she saw the curtains. “Whoa, is that who I think it is?”
“And there’s Kazarin! It’s like a cutie reunion around here,” Himena called out. “How’ve you been, Kazarin?
“Never better! Mitsune and I’ve been having a great time, every day we’ve been getting back the yesterdays we lost. Won’t you come play with us?”
Himena laughed her grating laugh. “I’m sure you don’t mean anything by it, Kazarin, but this cutie will have to pass. My bae says it’d be bad news if I looked past the curtain. Besides, this cutie should probably get back to it. Who’d have thought that being a god would be so much work?” She sighed, and her silhouette shifted, waving goodbye. “Still, I’m really glad I got to hear your voices. Toodles!”
“She’s always doing things at her own pace,” Mitsune confided to Jun when they were alone again, though she said it fondly.
“Yep, same old Himena,” Jun mused. She hummed to herself, then tilted her head upward. “Yikes, is it this late already? Guess we got a bit carried away. That’s what happens when you’re having fun! Are you ready to take off, Mitsune?”
Mitsune nodded her head. “Yeah. This was fun, but I can go now. Besides…I’m happy anywhere when I’m with you, Jun.”
Jun’s smile was blinding in its radiance. “Yeah. I feel the same way.”
New markings were added to the Adventure Map for their latest big adventure. “I’m glad I got to see a place of yours,” Jun said with pride as she rolled the map back up. “I want to know even more about your childhood.”
“If you insist,” Mitsune told her with a smile, though she didn’t really think her childhood was all that important. “We’re gonna keep going on lots of adventures together, right?”
“Of course! We’re gonna take back all of our yesterdays.”
They ended up cozying up to sleep in the blanket fort again, lying side by side. Driven by impulse, Mitsune held out a pinkie. “You won’t go somewhere and leave me behind, right?”
Jun hooked their fingers together. “Never. I won’t leave you again, Mitsune. I’ll be right here when you wake up.” Her smile was confident, and Mitsune let herself relax and close her eyes. “Good night. I’ll see you…yesterday.”