I had a strange dream last night.

I was in a beautiful meadow, playing with someone. I don’t know who she is, but I seemed to be having so much fun with her.

She was still a child, and I was too, so I thought maybe she was someone I was friends with a long time ago. But, for now, I’ll have to think about it another time. I need to get to work.

I arrived at the station and got on the train, looking through my phone. Looks like I have a call from Miki.

“Hello?”

“GAAAAAAHHH!!! SPIDER!!!!”

“Eh?”

Before I could say anything else, the call cut off.

“What’s going on over there?”

When I got there, I got my answer. Miki was standing on TOP of the couch, a small black spider on the counter. She was shaking hard in fear.

“GET IT OUT!!! GET IT OUT!!!! GET IT OUT~~~!!!!!”

“Hai hai.” Nana let the spider crawl under a sheet of paper and placed a glass over the spider. “There, it can’t hurt you now.”

“GET!!! IT!!!! OUT!!!!!”

Nana opened a window and threw the spider out.

“There.”

Miki sighed heavily and collapsed on the couch.

“Thank God.”

“You’re really afraid of spiders, huh?”

“I just don’t like them, is all.”

“Yeah, and you ‘don’t like’ a LOT of things.”

“Monsters.”

“Heights.”

“The dark.”

“Okay, I get it! But, hey, I’m not afraid of anything. The Akuma don’t scare me.”

“You sure?”

“SHUT UP!!!”

“They all have a point, though,” Miichan said. “Miki-chan, I get that you’re scared of a lot of things, but you need to face them head on so you can conquer them.”

“I told you, I’m not afraid of anything! I wanna be like you, Miichan!”

“Eh?”

“You’re awesome! I’m gonna be just like you, okay?”

“Uh, well, okay. I won’t stop you.”

Just then, Miichan’s phone rang. She got it out and answered it.

“Hello? Oh, Yuko… What?! Y-you are?! But, I thought… Oh… Okay. We’ll be right there.” Then, she hung up.

“What’s wrong?”

“Yuko… is in the hospital.”

“Eh?!”

…..

“Excuse me,” the nurse came in and greeted all of us. “Oshima-san said that she would allow one person to come in and talk to her. She’s still very weak.”

“Mako-chan?” Miichan looked at me. “You wanna go?”

“Eh? Me?”

“I’ll be fine out here. You can go on if you want.”

I nodded and got up slowly, following the nurse. I finally made it to the room Yuko was assigned to. She excused herself and I was left alone, so I knocked on her door.

“Yuko?” I opened the door slightly and saw her sitting on the hospital bed, staring out the window.

“Hey…” She turned to me with a sad smile.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah…”

I sat down beside Yuko’s bed, clearing my throat. “Everyone was worried about you. What happened?”

“Do you really wanna know..?”

“Un…”

She sighed and looked at me, holding both of my hands.

“Ever since I was born, I’ve had a heart condition. The doctors haven’t found a cure for it… I’m dying…”

“Uso…”

I can’t believe it… Yuko’s going to die?

“But, you know… it’s strange. Things have started opening up for me. Every day, I can see things more clearly. Colors became more vivid, smells are more potent, sounds are clearer. Everything around me has heightened my senses.”

“Really..?”

“It’s times like these, when you truly open up, that you see how beautiful the world is, how everything is connected by light…”

Wow… I never knew Yuko could be so….deep.

“Mako…” She leaned closer and hugged me. “I want you to know, there is so much more to this world than you think.”

“Eh..?”

“You’ll understand. Soon.”

After that, I excused myself and left. But, after leaving, I felt like I was going to cry. I wonder why…

…..

Momo and Hayate were walking the streets alone, disguised to fit in with the crowd. Just then, they heard a loud scream.

They looked and saw a certain twin tailed girl, Miki, standing behind Miichan and shaking. She was screaming because something was in a trash can and causing it to shake.

Momo groaned. “It’s probably just a cat or something. What a wimp that girl is.”

Just then, as she expected, a cat jumped out and meowed. All of Miki’s fear was gone and she petted the cat cheerfully.

Momo facepalmed and turned the other way.

“What’s with her? She got THAT scared over a cat?”

“Hehe, she’s a scaredy-cat. Maybe we can really scare her so that she won’t win the next battle.” Hayate said with a grin.

Then, Momo had an idea.

“Ah… sou ne. Maybe we can.”

…..

As everyone was walking back to the agency, I still couldn’t get my mind off of what Yuko said. When we finally arrived and sat in the empty café, I took out one of my notebooks.

In this notebook, I normally write personal things, like about the dreams I’ve been having. But, I couldn’t help but feel what she said was very important.

I needed to write it down.

I let my hand move on its own and write down Yuko’s words as if they were poetry. I was so lost in thought, I started to daydream.

Eventually, I fell asleep without even noticing…

“Princess!”

Ah… this dream again…

“Princess, do you know what this flower is called?”

“Mm… no.”

“This is the ‘*Queen’s Heart’. Just as the name says, it represents the Queen’s pure heart.”

“It’s Mama’s?”

“That’s right.”

“Sugoi~ How did you know that, Yuko-san?”

“I was asked to protect it here in the center of the *garden. It’s the Queen’s most precious treasure.”

“Uwaa~ it’s so pretty.”

“Yuko! Princess!”

Are? Miichan…

“Oi, Miichan, what are you doing?!”

“I was playing hide and seek with ******* and I lost her…”

“I’ll find her.”

Who..? I didn’t hear her name…

“Nee-chan!”

Eh… someone’s calling to me.…

“*******!”

“Mako!”

“Eh?” I woke up with a shock, dropping my pen. “Wh-what happened..?”

“Have you seen Miki anywhere?”

“No…”

“Where did she go?”

“Maybe she already went up to the office.”

“I’ll go check.” Mio left the café and walked over to the agency building. I tried texting Miki, but her phone was turned off.

Where is she..?

“Guys!” Mio came back, a panicked look on her face. “You might wanna check this out.”

We all walked over and saw a huge mirror standing in front of the agency building. The glass was black and we couldn’t see a thing in it.

“What’s this doing here?”

Just then, Miki suddenly appeared on the other side of the mirror, banging on the glass and screaming for help, but her voice couldn’t reach.

“Miki!”

As the black smoke covered her, Miichan picked up a note that was on the ground.

“Time to play. See if you can beat me, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. -Hayate”

“Oh no…”

Not again…

===============================

Footnotes

*1. Queen’s Heart - A special flower that was named after the Queen and represents her pure heart. The secret of its origin is still unknown…

*2. Queen’s Garden - A large garden where the Queen keeps all of her flowers, including flowers that also bloom on Earth.