Illusion Queen

Chapter 2

Tsukimi slowly floated back into consciousness, her first sense to come back was the soft mattress she was sleeping on, the firm pillow underneath her head, and the silky blankets on top of her, all of which are unfamiliar to her. Her hearing came second, picking up sounds of cooking in the kitchen. Her internal clock estimates that it's around dinnertime. The faint smell of fish cooking makes her stomach growl in hunger as she listens for some time before she slowly opens her eyes at a sky blue painted ceiling.

"Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore." Her mind unhelpfully supplied.

The habit of waking up was supposedly brung from the Before. Whenever she wakes up, she feels inclined to pretend she was asleep in case there are enemies. She only does this when she's in an unfamiliar place but she ended up doing the same thing at home. Her head doesn't hurt that much anymore although if she concentrates, she can feel a dull throbbing just waiting to make itself known to her poor, concussed head. It's funny how she regained her memories by hitting her head. It's like one of those cliche movies that Tsukimi had the unfortunate situation to be seeing, dragged from her selection of wonderful, detective dramas to cheesy, romantic movies by her partner.

Tsukimi rises slowly from bed and walks to the bathroom to make herself presentable for dinner. A stool was in front of the sink, reminding her that she's physically not an adult anymore, that she's in a different world in a different body. She can already feel the full weight of her age settling in her mind as she climbed on the stool and peered at the child's- no, her- new face. Staring back at her was a little girl with short, silver hair that rests on her chubby cheeks. A lone hazel eye stares back at her. The other eye is covered by, what she remembers it being called in the Before, a "peek-a-boo" or "emo-bang". Tsukimi snorted at the name of her hairstyle and pushed her hair away from her eye to see a dark blue eye.

Based on the animes her teenage cousin had watched and fanboyed about to her, some animes don't follow the normal laws of physics or reality. From what she remembers her cousin saying about One Piece's plot, there's a lot of dangerous events going on. Tsukimi bets her memories that One Piece is an anime that has some questionable things. And knowing herself, she won't survive, not without knowing what will come and who to steer clear of and a means to defend herself. Currently, there's not much to do to defend herself. Starting weight training early would definitely damage her body more than help it. At least she thinks that's the same because she's human. Humans don't really have resilient bodies at a young age.

Relying on her cousin's chatter of the anime is not enough. She needs meticulous, more reliable, unbiased information. She needs it now more than ever because she doesn't think she can remember the important details her cousin told her about the anime. A pang of regret rose up within her even though there's nothing she could do about it. In the Before, she didn't need that information as work continued to pile up and take up a lot of space in her head.

It's only fair that she investigates the character names that she remembers (even though she only remembered the main character so far) and put her detective skills to good use. She loves her job too much to let it go in this world. And she loves the feeling of finding the truth of a case.

And she also wants to live a longer life than a mere 24 years. To do that, she's fine with interacting with plot heavy characters but not without a good disguise if she wants to gather information. If she's interaccting with them about things other than wanting information, she'll just go with her normal self. It's not like her presence is going to affect a lot of events. She doesn't think it's that kind of anime. From what she remembers of fiction books and animes, something always happens to the protagonists to make the plot move forward. However, they should have a lot of first hand information about things. She's fine with never joining the marines or any pirate crew because that's when the plot secures her in their trap and never lets her go. She's not interested in joining either one anyway. It's more trouble than it's worth. "The World Government sucks!" is what Tsukimi remembers her cousin saying. Her first major case might as well be about how the World Government "sucks". There must be some first account witnesses from their actions or records of their actions in their records room. Besides, there was a reason why she chose to be a private detective instead of a police detective: she promised that Cassandra and she will be private detectives together. They'll have no boss except for themselves.

Her job as a detective forced her to be observant and be proficient in finding information from what looks like miscellaneous clues. She can offer her services as a detective should her customers need it although detectives probably aren't much needed in this world with the marines in control. That makes her upset. She did love the mystery of solving cases although some cases aren't nice (e.g. murder cases). Tsukimi hardens her resolve, determined to live to a ripe old age surrounded by cats. This time, she'll be extra careful not to overwork herself and lessen her lifespan in this life. She'll be a great detective, just like in the Before.

She washes up, taking care not to wet the bandage, and grips the sink, memorizing what she looks like so she can familiarize herself with her new body. Heterochromatic eyes look cool and all but it's rare in this world. It'll attract attention. Attention is not wanted as a detective. Attention to oneself gets them killed. As much as having an emo-bang covers half of her eyesight, it'll have to do for now until she finds a contact that matches her hazel eye. Tsukimi peers at the mirror again, closing one eye and leaving the other open. Her dark blue eye under the emo bang wasn't seen in the mirror but she somehow could see through her bang clearly.

"Hmmm...must be one of those anime logic." Going back to her appearance, silver hair is okay but wearing a black or brown wig would be better. Especially when there's an unruly strand of hair sticking up from her head. She tugs the strand down, only for it to pop right up. "Getting my hair done would be troublesome." Normal looking people would pass by a marine or pirate and wouldn't be noticed because of their plain features. Her job as a detective would be dangerous if someone recognizes her and threatens her to solve cases or wants to take revenge on her. The World Government and influential pirates certainly would kill her if they find out what sensitive information (dirt) she has on them when investigating.

For now, she'll plan and prepare what she needs as a detective. First, she needs to train and develop her skills so that she can at least hold her own in a fight and not get killed so quickly. She needs to act like a normal girl and she needs to act natural, not being surprised at the color of her hair or the color of her eyes. She's not Marie the private detective anymore. She's Tsukimi, the aspiring 2 year old detective. She doesn't have brown eyes and straight, black hair framing a heart shaped face. She has heterochromatic eyes and spiky, silver hair framing her face, the silver hair slowly reminding her of a certain ninja that her cousin mentioned. Tsukimi closed her eyes, erasing her thoughts on the ninja. He doesn't exist here and if he did, he would be in the wrong anime. But if he did exist, Tsukimi would certainly try to recruit him to be her bodyguard, assuming that her cousin's exclamation of, "He's a skilled ninja! He beats up bad ninja while staying alive!" is true.

"Mamoru! Dinner's ready! Please call Tsukimi for dinner." Her mother called Tsukimi's father.

Right on time, Tsukimi's stomach rumbled with hunger. She looks at her foreign reflection one more time before she steps out into the hallway, meeting her father, and going to the dining room for dinner.

"I may not be the daughter they're supposed to have, but I may as well be the best daughter I can be for them...I owe them this."