Love Nikki: Chapter One

~6~

"Someone get this beast away from me!" howls Vivi. She shakes on the ground, cowering before the large poncho cat. Momo snatches one of the papers she's clutching in her hands and runs up to me. He looks up with expectant eyes, nudging my foot lightly with a paw. Take it!
"Momo! You silly cat!" cries Bobo. She rushes over to Vivi to help her, Lunar close behind. Bobo hasn't recognized the office lady yet, but from the confrontational strut Lunar takes, I can tell she has.
I gently pry the paper from Momo's mouth and examine it. It's a resume. Or, it was. Momo's haste has put holes and rips in the paper, not to mention the viscous saliva dripping off one end. I shoot him a glare. "You ruined her resume!" His eyes drop their prideful look and adopt a baffled one. "Bad cat."
I hurry over to the other girls. "Are you alright?" Bobo is asking Vivi. She crawls on the ground to help collect the scattered papers.
"Hardly! That devil ruined my clothes." Vivi glares at Momo, who watches from afar with confusion riddled on his face. "My interview will be ruined."
"I'm so sor-" Bobo finally gets a good look at her. "You!" she cries.
Vivi pauses in her frazzled shirt wiping. "What?"
"Were you at Jorro's Strings earlier?" Lunar cuts in. I study Vivi's face, looking for panic or recognition. I see none. "We've been looking for you, Vivi." Lunar's purple eyes narrow.
"What? How do you know m-"
"Answer the question," Bobo hisses.
Vivi scoffs. "Very rude of you! Yes, I was." She shoots each of us a nasty glare. "I was browsing. They didn't carry what I was looking for. Why?"
Bobo looks ready to snatch her bag and check for the design herself, so I jump in quickly. "We lost something and were wondering if you had seen it."
Vivi stares at me. Her face turns red. "That disgusting animal ruined my clothes because you wanted to interrogate me about some stupid thing you probably left at your dresser?" she shouts in disbelief.
"I- uh-"
"Please. We can pay for your clothes, but we need a scroll. Do you know where it is?" Lunar's eyes shine with hope.
Vivi turns her nose up. "No."
Lunar deflates next to me. "Well," I say. There were two people in that shop. Maybe Vivi knows the other person. "What can you tell us about the hooded figure that was in there with you?"
Vivi freezes. "I-I don't know them." Her voice wavers. The little ember of anger that burned in her eyes just moments earlier is gone now, replaced with shaking fear. Lunar and I exchange a confused glance. "But you should stop your search now," she whispers, glancing around.
"Why?" Bobo demands, not the least put off by Vivi's sudden shift.
Vivi nibbles on a nail for a moment. "They wore an emblem." She looks around again. "They're part of the Iron Rose." She squeaks and smacks herself. "I didn't tell you! You didn't hear it from me! Please." She gives each of us a desperate look.
The Iron Rose? Vivi's wariness has rubbed off onto me, and I glance around. I suddenly feel a strange target on my back. Like we're being watched. We're getting a few confused stares. After all, we're surrounding a trembling office lady with papers strewn on the ground. Not to mention the cat wearing a poncho. Anyone would stare at just the latter. My neck pricks with discomfort. I don't know what this Iron Rose is, but by the way Vivi reacts to just saying the words strikes fear into my heart. I drop to my knees and gather the remaining papers, listening as Lunar lowers her voice to a hushed whisper.
"We can't talk here," she says. One glance shows Bobo peeking around nervously with Vivi. Unlike the other two, Lunar's eyes remain calmly trained on Vivi. To an outsider, she looks inconspicuous. Bobo and Vivi, on the other hand, look like chickens with their heads cut off. I do my best to mimic Lunar, though I can't watch the other girls without wanting to look around anxiously with them. Despite my carefully averted eyes, I can still hear Bobo's braids quietly thwack as she whips her head every few seconds. "Quit doing that, the both of you. You'll only draw more attention," she quips. The two stop their area checking, though Bobo does continue to throw a peek over her shoulder every now and again. "Come."
Bobo and I put the papers into Vivi's bag. Lunar leads us down the streets, Vivi close behind. Bobo comes beside me. "I looked in her bag. It was empty. She doesn't have it." Her face is pale, eyes stricken. "They do."
Chills stroke my spine. "What is the Iron Rose?" I whisper back.
She doesn't hesitate. "A nightmare." Though she hasn't exactly answered my question, a knot winds its way around my throat as we march on in silence.
After a few minutes, Lunar has taken us behind a secluded bar. "Did you see what they looked like?" Her voice is calm and calculating. Her cold, hard stare has been replaced with a warm one as she talks to Vivi. I can only assume she's trying to calm her down after the Iron Rose episode earlier.
Vivi nods. "Well, kind of. Blue eyes. Short blonde hair." She bites a nail again. "I-I didn't see anything else." She almost begins shaking again when Lunar smiles at her. Vivi takes a deep breath, and her trembling stops.
Lunar's eyes grow distant as she ponders. The rest of us watch her. Does Lunar know this person? I peek at Bobo. She seems distracted, staring intently at a rock on the ground. Her mouth moves slightly as she silently discusses something with it. I slowly realize this isn't the first time she's conversed soundlessly with an inanimate object. She had talked to the salt and pepper shakers at dinner yesterday, and this morning, she had a conversation with the mirror. I don't know why it suddenly strikes me now. Perhaps it's my heightened attention fed by Vivi's fear.
Lunar finally speaks. "I think I know who it is." She looks at Vivi and digs in her pocket. When she resurfaces, her hand is filled with gold. "For your clothes. Thank you so much for your assistance."
A wave of recognition crosses Vivi's face as she takes it. "My interview! I'll be late!" All her worries melt away instantly as she frantically scrambles, shoving the gold into her bag. Hurrying out to the street, she doesn't pause to shout over her shoulder, "Goodbye!"
Once Vivi's frenzied figure disappears into the crowd, Bobo bounces back to Lunar. "Who is it? We should go get them now!" Her eyes have a trace of fear in them, but the rest of her face is twisted into an angry sneer. "I won't let them get away with this! That slimy thief." she crosses her arms and waits for Lunar's answer. I turn to her as well.
"I'm afraid I'll have to leave you here. Thank you both for your help."
"What?" It slips through my lips before I realize what I'm saying. We can't stop now. We're so close. This is supposed to be my first right thing, my first fix in Miraland. "We are going to help you catch that thief, Lunar. We're coming with you."
"Not when the Iron Rose is involved. It's safest if you stay out of it." Lunar's gaze is commanding and concerned, as is her voice. Anger tickles at me. Is she really doing this? Throwing us to the side after promising to let us help her?
Bobo grabs Lunar's shoulders. "You can't bail on us now! We are coming with you whether you like it or not. The Iron Rose doesn't scare me!" One look at her hands tell a different story, but I don't mention it.
Lunar gently takes Bobo's hands into her own. "No. It's too dangerous."
"What if this is exactly what the thief wants? What if they want you to be alone?" I'm sputtering whatever comes to mind now, not caring if it sounds like nonsense. I'm desperate to help her. Without this, I'm not helping Miraland. If I don't help Miraland, how can I convince Nanari to give me my memory? Or tell me how to get it back? My memory is at stake, and I'm not about to let Lunar's independence keep me from doing that. "I need to help you. I have to come."
Lunar shoots me a baffled expression. "What could you possibly get out of this wild goose chase?"
"Aha!" Bobo cries. "A wild goose chase! Everyone knows the old saying; never go running alone after a wild goose, lest you wish to be devoured by the wolf." A smirk of satisfaction crosses her face, as if saying some old proverb will change Lunar's mind.
"That's not how the saying goes," Lunar argues. "It's-"
"Lunar, would you just let us come?" I shout, exasperation heating my cheeks. The two stop their bickering and stare at me. Bobo's eyebrows must hardly be on her forehead at this point, and Lunar's typically emotionless face is pulled into one of surprise. "Please," I add hastily, cheeks flaring from my sudden outburst.
Lunar thinks, watching us for a moment. Her hesitation fills me with hope. Will she agree? She must. Her face is thoughtful and considerate, hands folded on top of each other. She opens her mouth. Bobo and I lean forward, hearts soaring.
"No. And that is final." My heart drops into a dark pit. I search her face, desperately hoping for a hint of amusement to tell me this is some kind of joke. I know I won't find anything, but when my search comes up empty, it pains me anyway.
"I would like to thank you for your service." She sifts through her pocket, and out come more coins. After awkwardly handing them to Bobo, she turns and quickly whirls away. Her blue robes swish around her until she disappears where Vivi had. And then she's gone.

After standing in shock and fuming in anger behind the bar for a good hour, Bobo and I head back to the hotel. We sit on the bed. Bobo keeps turning to talk to me, but turning away again when she realizes there's nothing to say. My eyes are trained on the ground. I wish staring really could burn holes. It might make me feel better to see the carpet melt away, then the floor, as I stare at it with a burning intensity.
Just when I'm expecting flames to sprout from the crusty gray floor, Bobo shifts so she's closer to me. I sigh and drag my eyes from the carpet to the pillow she holds out to me. I take it and squeeze it. "It just doesn't make sense." Bobo nods. I'm not sure if she agrees or just doesn't want to fight. For my own sake, I believe the first one. We're silent again.
"Why do you care so much?"
"Huh?" I look up.
She says it again. "Why do you want to help her so much?" She cocks her head. "What does this mean to you?"
I open my mouth to answer, but what can I say? I woke up in a forest with a cat and a queen, who promptly challenged me to a clothing contest? I'm on orders from the queen of Lilith Kingdom to save Miraland without the aid of my memory? Then I learned magic is real, and that styling contests are just a thing? And everything here is so confusing and makes no sense? It would sound crazy to a local like Bobo. I sigh. "It's... it's nothing. Forget it."
Momo leaps onto the bed, as if he knew I was just thinking about him. He wanders over to me, glaring at Bobo. He sits and watches me expectantly. Are you gonna pet me or what? I smile softly at him and pet his back. He snuggles down , satisfied.
"I don't think I can," she replies after a moment. "You're my friend, Nikki. My best friend. I can't ignore something that's clearly important to you. So tell me," she says as she lies down, "what's up?"
I stroke Momo's head, not sure where to start. "I..." I pause. Bobo doesn't push me, waiting patiently. Momo, already bored of my attention, stands and wanders over to her. He hisses at her before lying down, using her leg as a pillow. "It started yesterday," I finally push out. I try to say more, but my throat closes up.
She nods as she picks up the stroking, Momo purring contentedly to himself. "If you want, you can pretend me and Momo are your kids and you're telling us a bedtime story," she offers, eyes round with playfulness.
I laugh. "No, I think I'll be able to just tell a story to my friend." Bobo laughs too. "It started yesterday, as I said. I woke up in this forest with Momo, and someone else was there."
The words come so easily after that. I feel like I'm opening a floodgate, and my mind is pouring it's contents through my mouth. I tell her about my memory and Nanari, and the mission she gave me. I tell her about all the weird Miraland customs I don't understand, and Aron's kindness followed by Bobo's own. I tell her everything that's happened since we met.
Once I've finished, she's quiet. Her eyes squint at the sleeping cat on her lap as she soaks it in and processes everything I told her. "Why didn't you say so earlier?" she finally asks.
"You didn't believe me when I said I didn't run away from home, and you seemed so shocked at my lack of knowledge with styling." I trace figure eights slowly on my pillow. "I thought you wouldn't believe me." I raise my eyes to meet hers. "Do you? Believe me?"
A smile crinkles her eyes. "Of course I do! You're not the only person who just fell out of the sky!"
The news hits me over the head like a brick. "I'm not? And I didn't say anything about falling out of the sky."
"Of course you're not! There are only a handful of others, and most of them are long gone, but there's still one or two who live in Miraland with no recollection of how they got here. They just build a new life in their chosen nation and pray it doesn't happen again. Oh, and the sky thing was a metaphor," she adds.
I'm not alone. There are others out there like me, others who don't know who they are or how they wound up here. Do they feel the same way I do? A puzzle piece in the wrong puzzle? A huge smile stretches across my face, cheeks throbbing. "That-that's amazing! Well, not amazing, but at least I'm not crazy or something."
"But I'm pretty sure you're the only one who was 'summoned'." She air quotes for that. We laugh before she continues. "It makes sense now. You want to go back to Queen Nanari, don't you?"
The tone of her voice steals the smile from my face. "Yes. Why?"
Bobo pauses, stroking Momo with one hand and squeezing the other. "She's... she's sick, Nikki."
My heart hammers. That must be why she kept saying she was weak when I met her. She was sick. "When will she be better?" A new thought crosses my mind. "Will she get better?"
"Don't worry, Nikki. The doctors say she'll be fine in about a month or two." She thinks. "Or three."
I shake my head. "That's too long. I need to know."
Bobo shrugs. "I'm sorry, Nikki. Nothing I can do. But while we wait those few months out, we can practice styling. And, hey, why don't we do some of that good she told you to do?" She smiles and leans over as far as she can with the white lump beneath her. "We can start by tracking down a certain Cloud girl and her thief."

A/N
Thank you guys so much for 100 reads! It means so much that people read my book, especially since it's a particular favourite of mine. Thanks again, remember to have a good day,
and if you are not feeling well, get some rest, because rest is good.