Dr. Chapman and Hinata had been safely returned to their own timeline and the Normal HQ. The mission was a success: one of the board members of the One Humanity was dead, Robertson was always ineffective and sympathetic to the anthros, his assassination would ensure he no longer held the organization back. Even better they now had confirmation Bong-cha, Setepenre, and Luca were alive, the traitors who escaped them. Hinata had easily slipped a cloaked tracker on the punk’s car, now they knew they were in Circe’s Amusement Park and working with the terrorist known as Misery.
Hinata was leaving the debriefing when she ran into the Lolita scientist, Dr. Eastly. The short girl had held out a box for the kitsune.
“Here—I know you were just doing your job but I’m grateful you kept Dr. Chapman safe. Just don’t tell him I said anything, I don’t want him thinking I was worried or anything.” The lavender haired scientist explained.
Hinata accepted the gift with a slight bow, she didn’t know what to say, as the doctor said: the normal agent was just following orders. She’d also never received a gift before, the closest thing was when she inherited Moon Slayer after Cassidy’s death.
The small scientist rushed away, her skirt’s petticoats bounced underneath her lab coat.
When Hinata returned to her quarters she opened the gift Dr. Eastly had given her, it was a fruitcake. The note said: “Don’t worry, this fruitcake was specifically engineered by me to actually taste good. -Dr. Eastly”.
Hinata went to her table to retrieve a plate and utensils when she found a wooden crate on top of the table. She opened it and inside was a Katana and Tantō. They had white sheaths and wrappings. She unsheathed them and the blades were a red steel, she noticed the engravings were similar to Japanese clan symbols but couldn’t shake the feeling they were familiar.
A message in Japanese was with the weapons, it read: “We are glad to learn you are alive. You don’t remember us but we remember you. We will reach out to you, for now take these blades, they belonged to your father. The Rebellion Remembers.”
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Felicity was annoyed that Choon Hee had taken her to the office Christmas party. She had dresses the blonde girl in a plaid, bib collar Christmas dress, her hair was in a halo braid and she wore black ballet flats. The Kumiho wore a red wobble skirt dress and her black hair was pulled in a high ponytail.
“Shouldn’t we be searching for other girls to join the Dark Garden?” Felicity asked.
“That will have to wait until school starts again.” Choon Hee replied.
“Can you at least have me enroll in East High in this timeline? I don’t want to attend school with furry freaks.” The girl requested.
“Unfortunately that is up to The Boss. At the moment he believes it would be beneficial to have you attend high school in the other timeline, with the recent incidents and attacks on the One Humanity, I have to agree.” The woman said.
“Of course you agree, you always do. Do you ever think for yourself?” Felicity argued.
“Of course I don’t!” Choon Hee replied with a smile.
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The Boss was annoyed at the current state of the Normal Headquarters: Demeter had decided to make the place more festive by growing Christmas trees in place of the other plants. He decided to let her be for now, he was felling charitable at the moment. sergeant 1st Class Wallace had returned form Siberia with a Shell-stone, with it their HQ was protecting from teleportation and portal spells, the attack that resulted in Felix’s death could not be repeated. He turned his chair to the fireplace where his gift from Demeter was burning, she knew he didn’t care for these kinds of things but she did so anyway.
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Diana’s head was still fuzzy when she got home. Because of the visions she’d been having she started to question her entire life, she doubted her parents were even her real parents. Diana composed herself as best she could as she went upstairs into her room, hoping her “parents” wouldn’t notice anything different about her. A few hours later her parents had left for the Normal office party and she feigned being sick to get out of it. A few days ago and she would have loved to go with them, the boring small talk, the bland food. Now she didn’t know what she liked and who she really was. Then the front door rang and she went down to answer it, on the other side was a girl who seemed strangely familiar. She had tan skin and dark hair dyed sea foam green, she had dark makeup and wore a studded and patched denim jacket and black jeans. When the girl saw Diana she went in and hugged her.
“Dai! It’s you you’re alive!” She cried. Diana pushed the girl away confused.
“I-I am sorry miss, I do not believe I know you.” The brown haired girl said.
“Dai w-what’s going on? It’s me, Trisha! What happened to you? After the protest you went missing, that was over a year ago!” The green haired girl replied.
Then another flash of memories flooded out of Diana’s mind: shouting in a crowd, holding Trisha’s hand. As soon as they appeared they were gone. Trisha helped Diana to the couch and looked around with suspicion.
“Dai, what happened to you? Your hair? Your clothes? What are you doing here?” The punk girl asked.
“I-I don’t—do not k-know. I am sorry.” Diana said trying to clear her head.
Before Trisha could continue her questioning, the doorbell rang and a voice called out,
“Hey Diana, it’s me Rick! I heard you weren’t feeling well so I snuck some potions form Dr. Eastly!” He yelled.