Pretty Guardian Sailor Lilith #4 – « Dreaming »

Kasumi looked around. For some reason, she knew this place wasn’t real. There was fog everywhere. Strange echoes could be heard in the distance. She walked for a bit, until she spotted a door in the middle of the mist. She hurried forward. Oddly enough, the door opened by itself as the girl reached for it. She took a glance inside and froze.

There were three people. One was wearing a black suit and glasses, and she was busy typing on a computer. Another one was looking through some kind of telescope. The last one was dressed with a white toga and sat on some sort of pedestal while watching the other two work. But the most intriguing thing was the fact that all three of them resembled each other very much. No, they all had exactly the same face. Her face. Her dark hair with her plaits and her hairpins. Her gray eyes.

The Kasumi in toga was the first to notice their visitor. She looked a bit startled, but her expression quickly showed great interest.

‘Now now, look who’s there...’

The other two looked up from their work and stared at Kasumi.

‘Will!’ called the girl with the periscope.

‘Finally!’ said the one with the computer. ‘Where’ve you been all this time?’

Startled, Kasumi stared at them speechless for a while.

‘Are you talking to me?’

‘Of course, Will, who else?’ the girl in toga said.

‘What did you call me?’

‘Will! Did you forget your name already?’ the periscope girl asked.

‘That would explain much’ the computer girl nodded.

Kasumi stepped forward and frowned.

‘Hey, hey, stop that already! My name’s Kasumi Nakano and I don’t know who you are... you might be confusing me with someone else...’

All three of the girls burst in laughter.

‘Looks like your absence has muddled yourself up.’

‘Honestly, you don’t remember us at all?’

‘Guess I have a bit of catching up to do’, Kasumi muttered.

The girl in toga jumped to the ground and stood proudly in front of Kasumi.

‘I am Judgment. Here are Perception and Memory.’

Kasumi raised an eyebrow.

‘And what exactly are you doing here?’

‘What do you think? We’re looking after Nakano-sama’s welfare. Perception is gathering intelligence, while Memory is building archives to keep track of everything’s that’s been done here. As for me, I take decisions based on the information they provide me.’

‘And so, who am I?’

‘You? You’re Will, our boss.’

‘Your boss? You just said you’re the one who takes decisions.’

‘Actually, I just choose what’s best to do. I’m just here to make your life easier. You’re supposed to oversee our work, and decide of our strategy.’

Kasumi gave a confused look to Perception and Memory.

‘According to you, I’ve been missing for some time now. How have you been dealing with your work without me?’

The three girls exchanged uncomfortable looks.

‘Well, we’ve been, uh – managing, I guess.’

There was an awkward silence.

‘Is something the matter?’

‘Well, no, uh – I mean, not really.’

Observation, the periscope girl, shrugged.

‘There’s no use hiding it from her. She’ll eventually find out.’

‘Well, okay...’ Judgment said, seemingly looking for the right way to put things. ‘We’ve been, uh, following someone else’s guidelines.’

‘Really?’

‘Yeah. It’s, uh, Dream.’

Kasumi remained silent. None of this made any sense to her, anyway, but the three girls seemed really scared to be punished for what they’d done. And she had to found out why.

‘C’mon, don’t be mad at us’ Observation begged. ‘You were gone without giving us any hint of when you’d come back. We were worried.’

‘You could very well be gone for ever’ Memory added. ‘I guess we, uh, sorta freaked out.’

‘Without you, our mere existence was threatened. Dream was the only one around who could handle things. So we turned to her.’

Kasumi pondered for a bit.

‘I’m not mad’ she eventually offered. ‘As long as everything goes back to how it was before, I don’t care what that dream has done.’

Judgment and Observation had a sigh of relief.

‘You rock, boss. We were so worried that you were gonna fire use for this...’

‘Yeah, you used to complain so much of her, we knew it was kinda hazardous to hang around with her...’

Kasumi turned to Memory. She looked away, pretending to be absorbed by her work. The girl strode toward her.

‘Is everything okay?’

‘Yeah, sorta...’

‘Look, Memory, I have a task for you. You’re keeping archives here, right?’ Memory nodded. ‘Okay then, I need some stuff... from – say, three weeks ago.’

The computer worker pursed her lips.

‘Will, there’s something I need to tell you... I know you’re going to be pissed, but–‘

‘What now?’

‘Well, Dream, you know – she persuaded me – I mean us – to, uh, shut away everything.’

‘What do you mean shut away?’

‘Well, see that vault behind me? Everything’s in there. Dream locked it down, and she took the key with her.’

Kasumi’s hopes shattered in an instant. Her expression darkened.

‘Haven’t you got any spare key?’

‘No, I haven’t.’

‘Isn’t there any other way to open it?’

‘No, there isn’t.’

‘Can’t you force your way inside?’

‘It could destroy all the archives – and this office, too.’

Kasumi clenched her fists.

‘Isn’t it your job to keep the archives from other people?’

‘Forgive me! Doing so, I hoped no one would be able to find them, even if I was to be missing... Like you were!’

Suddenly, Kasumi turned around and strode to the door. It opened by itself, as it had done earlier.

‘Hey, Will, where are you going?’ Judgment anxiously called.

‘Don’t worry, I’ll be back. I just need... some space. Keep up the good work until then.’

And so, she disappeared in the foggy field.