11. Wonderland (34)
11. Wonderland (34)
Ella rushed out of the theater.
The glow had just died down, revealing two figures standing there.
Translucent Spirit Bodies, clad in distinctive Persona costumes.
They looked exactly like typical residents of this place.
Ella noticed the light emanating from their skin matched her own. Beneath the flickering illusion, she could clearly see the faces of people she knew.
Just as she was about to call their names, one of them strode toward her, face contorted as if fighting back tears. She stopped right in front of her, then suddenly pulled her into a tight embrace.
"Hey... you fucker... you're actually alive. Thank god."
Karen buried her face in Ella's shoulder, her voice choked.
Ella, momentarily startled by the sudden hug, let out a soft laugh and patted her back.
Still cute, Karen.
"You've had a tough time, haven't you?"
Of the six participants in <The Five Acrobats>, Karen had struggled the most with the group training camp. Despite her easygoing exterior, she was the type who constantly watched how people perceived her.
Maybe it was because she'd grown up surrounded by boys, but she always found it hard to match the particular rhythm that formed when girls gathered together. She'd blurt out something odd and then shrink back on her own, or flounder over how to respond to a joke before awkwardly killing the conversation.
And the more it happened, the more she withdrew into her shell.
The reason she was comfortable around Maya was probably because Maya was utterly oblivious to such things.
Ella had seen through Karen's condition more clearly than anyone.
There had been a girl like that at her old school. Someone who was the life of the party around her female friends, but turned shy the moment she had to hang out with boys.
A friend with little experience around the opposite sex.
Ella knew exactly how to pull a friend like that into the group.
-Anyone want to pillow fight?
The common thread among people who struggled to mingle with friends of a different gender—or, in Karen's case, a gender she was uncomfortable with—was the pressure they felt to act like someone they weren't. So every night, Ella deliberately chose physical activities Karen loved as their playtime.
And during those times, Ella went at Karen aggressively. It was a way to get her, someone terrified of physical contact with women, so absorbed in the game that she'd grow naturally accustomed to touching and being touched.
Thanks to that, Karen's phobia of women had eased considerably.
Maybe it was all the sweat they'd shed together, tumbling around.
Karen and Ella had grown closer than anyone else.
Maya watched the two of them with a flat expression. Watching them embrace and talk so intimately soured her mood for some reason.
-Look, look! Our little princess! Wally likes Papa better!
Why, of all things, was she thinking about her childhood now?
But letting an unpleasant feeling show on her face wasn't like her.
Instead, she turned her head to look at the two people who had followed Ella out.
One of them, a Persona wearing a worn straw hat, greeted her.
"Hello! You're the illusion mage... Miss Maya, right? You're as cold as ice, just like I heard. A pleasure. I'm Oz!"
Maya felt a strange familiarity in the aura radiating from his body.
If they were on the surface, she might have seen right through his identity. But here in Wonderland, she couldn't wield magic power as skillfully as she could aboveground. That meant not only was using magic difficult, but her ability to sense it was diminished too.
And so, she didn't recognize him—nor Rumi, who stood beside him.
"Maya, aren't you glad to see me?"
Maya stared at Ella with an emotionless expression as she spoke.
"It's only been a few days... Who are these people?"
Ella scratched the back of her head sheepishly at her cold response.
"They've been helping me out. Come on, everyone, let's head inside. We're the only ones here right now."
The five of them sat in the highest seats of the Falcon's Nest, looking out over the view of Cadsun as they recounted what had happened so far.
The strategy Maya and Karen had adopted differed from the others. Competing and scoring well was nearly impossible for them.
Maya couldn't use her power properly here, and Karen had trouble with the costume. In place of the tights she'd worn for over a decade, her Persona manifested as a voluminous, flashy skirt she'd barely ever worn.
It was the outfit she'd worn when she worked as an emcee at the Rose Windmill Cabaret.
"Pfft-haha, Kirkeus must've been impressed by that. 'Papael's Beauty' Karen!"
"The worst part is, it even padded my chest. Look at this."
As Karen moved to undo her top, Rumi yelped and jumped in front of her.
"Uh... guys, this old man here is a guy, you know?"
"Who cares. It's not like there's anything to see."
Karen shrugged as if it were nothing and went on with her story.
Pulling off a proper acrobatic routine in such a cumbersome dress was impossible. Ground acrobatics might have been manageable, but a cancellation tag wasn't exactly a commodity that showed up often enough to be picky about.
"So we found jobs at a theater. Illusion mages are crazy rare here, apparently."
The number of illusion mage souls that randomly wandered into Wonderland was only a handful each year. Fairies had excellent illusion skills, but their communication skills were weak, making it hard for them to realize what was being requested, and they were prone to quitting on a whim.
So when Maya offered to help with a production, the theater welcomed her with open arms. In exchange for lending her power, she negotiated some leverage over the writer's rights.
"Aha, so that's how you slipped those tags in?"
"Yeah. We were resting at the theater when Ticketer showed up earlier and said a new performance had been added to the tag I set an alarm on. So we used our admission tickets immediately to come here. Ahaha, I explained it all like I was the genius, but Maya actually came up with all of it."
Ella nodded.
Clara and Maya—both of them were sharp. More importantly, the fact that they hadn't panicked in a new environment and had adapted so quickly was impressive.
Pairing up in twos must have helped.
Thinking that, one person came to mind who worried her.
Reina.
She was probably wandering somewhere in Wonderland all alone right now. Ella knew that feeling well from her own experience. The anxiety, confusion, fear, and worry made it hard to keep calm.
Was she doing okay?
Reina was a far cry from how she looked on the outside. At first glance, Ella had thought she'd be endlessly cold and frigid, like Maya. But after a few days together, she'd realized Reina had a deeply thoughtful and attentive side. And sometimes, her earnestness was so pure it almost became a target for teasing.
Could she make it here on her own?
Right then, another flash of light burst from the theater entrance.
Ella sprang to her feet before she even realized it. She was the first one out the door, and when she saw who was standing in front of the theater, a bright smile spread across her face.
"Reina."
"Ella? It was you?"
At last, Reina had arrived.
With this, the Stage 1 plan had come to a successful close.
The next day, Ella summoned Clara and Ruelo from their lodging to the Falcon's Nest. The moment Clara saw the Scarecrow, she ran over and clung to him, fawning.
"Master, it was so boring being cooped up in that room!"
"What's gotten into Clara?"
Reina frowned as she watched Clara bury her face in the Scarecrow's chest and nuzzle her cheek against him.
Out of the six of them, she and Clara had the worst relationship.
It was because of that incident.
-I heard that whole mess during the auditing student tour was cooked up by that woman, Clara. Hmph. Top of the class, and this is how she keeps you in check. If you ever have to face her again, crush her completely.
Clara.
Someone who acted sweet on the outside, but you never knew what she was scheming behind your back.
That was her father's advice, and it matched what she'd seen with her own eyes.
So when she heard Clara had become Wonderstein's secretary, she'd been more shocked and worried than anyone. Even during the training camp, she'd been more wary of her than anyone else.
"Clara made a bet with some fairies, lost, and got hypnotized..."
Ruelo spoke cautiously, watching Reina's reaction.
Reina caught the girl's concern and gently stroked her hair.
"Sorry. Guess I'm a little on edge."
Just then, the waiting room door opened and Rumi walked in.
"So, now that everyone's here, shall I explain the Stage 2 plan?"
After Reina joined them yesterday, they'd had to wait another day before moving to the next phase.
It was because of the performance Maya had agreed to provide illusions for. In this place, the principle that 'the show must go on' carried more weight than any law. Once tickets were sold, the performance had to be completed, no matter what.
Breaking that rule meant the Guard Corps would inevitably come to drag you away.
Oz used an illusion Rumi had prepared to lay out the structure of their objective.
Currently, three troupe leaders were imprisoned beneath the Judicial Theater.
There were two ways in: descending directly from the Judicial Theater itself, or using a passage in the northern lower district.
The northern lower district was on the exact opposite side of Cadsun from its entrance. It was where the city's oldest theaters had congregated and fallen into ruin, and civilian entry was strictly forbidden.
A passage connected that area to the Judicial Theater's basement.
In the original story, the players defeated the monsters occupying the Judicial Theater and rescued a single Apostle held hostage. Through him, they learned that Wonderstein had entered the theater's basement—but by then, the passage had already been sealed off behind him. So they traveled north and infiltrated the theater's underground through a secret route.
That was exactly the route the Scarecrow intended to use.
He taught them the way to get there, pointing out every hidden room, passage, and point of caution.
"Don't worry about forgetting any of it. I'll be leading the way myself."
The group was impressed by his effortless explanation.
"Impressive. Where'd she even find people like this?"
When even Maya, who rarely showed any surprise, said something like that, Ella's shoulders lifted a little with pride.
"I didn't find them. They came and found me first..."
She said that, then snapped her mouth shut.
Come to think of it, a question had been nagging at her from the start. How had these people found her?
Right then, someone knocked on the waiting room door.
The group turned their tense eyes toward the sound.
No one else was supposed to come here.
Oz motioned for them to fix their outfits, then cautiously opened the door to see who it was.
"Oh, Mr. Hawk?"
The man standing outside was the theater's owner, Chen Hawk.
"Weren't you supposed to be sleeping until tomorrow?"
At his question, Hawk gave an awkward smile.
"Ah, sorry about that, but I woke up a bit early. Some friends came by. They wanted to know why my theater, which had announced it was closing, suddenly had a performance tag on it."
"Ah."
Oz let out a sigh.
He hadn't thought of that.
"And since you also blocked ticket sales, my friends had to walk all the way up to this top floor. They came to my quarters and woke me up."
Hawk peered through the crack in the door, scanning the inside of the waiting room.
The group, reassured that he wasn't suspicious, greeted him.
"Good to meet you. Are these the actors taking on the show?"
"Yes, they are."
Hawk seemed to think for a moment, then spoke carefully.
"If it's not too much trouble, could you show us a short performance? It doesn't have to be something you've prepared. I'd feel bad just sending my friends away after they came all the way out here worrying about me."
"...Understood. Please give us a moment."
They were borrowing his theater; it was hard to refuse his request.
So they decided to demonstrate a few segments from <The Five Acrobats>.
The Falcon's Nest used a lift system for its stage.
You stepped out of the waiting room on the lowest floor and onto the stage, and then a pulley would be operated from the upper floor, hoisting it up to where the audience seating was.
Rumi worked the grips, switching out the log on the lift for a round, wide platform floor.
"Whoa, one slip here and that'd be a real end."
Karen shivered as she heard the wind whistling up from below, then stepped onto the stage.
Thankfully, the floor was solid and well-fixed.
"Mister, pull us up now!"
At Ella's shout, the stage ascended with the sound of chains coiling.
"Everyone remembers this part, right?"
"Obviously. How much did we practice it?"
"Wait, what do we do about Clara?"
"Looks like she's got no problem to me?"
Ella tilted her chin toward Clara. Just moments ago she'd been clinging to Oz's side fawning like a puppy, but now she stood in her assigned position, expression dead serious, readying for the acrobatic.
"Oh, is that like muscle memory from all our practice?"
"Alright, everyone, take your places."
"Was I supposed to stand here?"
Everyone bustled around, but Maya alone stood still.
"Hey, Maya? Why are you still there?"
"I... can't do it."
"What?"
Karen looked baffled, but Ella smacked her own forehead.
"Ah, right. Maya can't act."
Reina nodded, as if she'd just remembered that too.
"That's right. My father did her physical acting, and Troupe Leader Arno handled her vocal performance."
"Whoa, so what do we do?"
While they were fussing, the stage had already risen to the front of the audience.
Ella was about to shout for Oz, who was working the pulley, to stop for a moment.
But the instant the view of the upper floor came into sight.
She froze in shock.
Maya quickly assessed the situation and spun around.
But there was no other way out. Just a dizzying cliff face, hundreds of meters straight down.
Ella checked where the stage mechanism was being operated.
The Scarecrow was there, bound tightly in rope and kneeling on the floor.
From below, she could hear Rumi's shouts and screams.
The hundreds of seats surrounding the stage.
They were packed with Hawk's 'friends.'
Their faces, watching the stage, were filled with alert wariness.
Hundreds of the Guard Corps had weapons trained directly on them.