Wuthering Waves: For The Future of Me, Myself and I

"Abby, can you wake up for a moment?" Rover whispered to herself.

"Ugh, eh? Ah! Rover! What do you need... uerggh!? What's this disgusting smell?!" Abby floated out of Rover's Tacet Mark and immediately covered his nose.

Abby looked towards the source of the smell, a certain black haired girl hiding behind a tree.

"Why does she smell so bad!? Rover! You shouldn't wake me up for these!" He exclaimed. "It's like smelling a rotting corpse!" 

'Katsuri', offended, thought of shooting back her own insult but decided against it at the sight of two different tall individual. She's clearly outnumbered here.

If she counted that flying creature... an Echo, it's three people.

She can't do anything if they decided to gang up against here, it's a 3v1.

Perhaps if this was an FPS game, she could've clutched the round but this is real life, she holds many negative traits... Like social anxiety for example.

If she was more active when she was younger, her social skills wouldn't have deteriorated so badly.

But that's old news, this is now her reality. She had already reaped what she sowed, there's nothing she could do anymore.

"Don't say that out loud, that's a very rude thing to say to someone you met for the first time." Rover responded back to Abby's targeted sentence.

"Huh? Isn't that Katsuri? What do you mean someone I first meet?"

'Katsuri', hearing their conversation, also tilted her head in confusion.

'I mean... yeah, he's not wrong. But isn't it one sided? I've only ever seen them through the screen, right?' Katsuri pondered by herself.

She knew them. They're characters from the game she had gotten addicted to back in the day.

Her first exposure to legal gambling, a gacha game.

Was it fortunate that she doesn't do any real gambling, but instead waste a bunch of money on online PNGs that could've been hand drawn instead?

...Well, she's not a good artist either. So yeah. It's worth it.

Besides! They have their own charms and story behind their character design! It's not empty spending!

Rover stepped forward, slowly cutting the distance between them. Of course, the tree was still standing sturdy between them as a border.

A step taken forward by Rover led to a step taken backward by 'Katsuri'.

"Rover, call for me again when you need me. I don't think I can handle this smell any longer!" Abby scrunched his face then rushed back into Rover's Tacet Mark.

Meanwhile, Zani was still confused about what's going on.

Out of the three remaining individual on the field, it seemed like only one somewhat understood what's currently happening.

One step forward.

One step backward.

The cycle repeat until Rover passed by the tree separating them and Katsuri was hiding behind a different tree.

Of course, the trees around them was all very lively, very contrasting the previous gloomy atmosphere over ran with Tacet Discords.

Rover had an inkling that this... 'Katsuri' had taken them away from their 'reality'.

An Artificial Sonoro, the black haired girl's own Domain. (Not sure if I'm using Sonoro correctly)

Which meant that she's the most powerful being in here.

But from the way she's acting, it doesn't seem like she realized the fact.

Which meant that the moment she decided that both her and Zani is no longer welcomed in this space, they're going to get immediately kicked out.

But for some reason, she doesn't deny their entry.

This was proven by the fact that they are still in this space.

"Katsuri, Danjin is waiting for you back home." Rover carefully said after contemplating the correct words.

"...L-like I said. How do you know that... name?" There were less stutters inside her sentence proving that her social skill can still be improved back to what it was.

In fact! The reason she stuttered in the first place was because these fictional characters knew of her old online persona!

How the heck!?

She had thrown away the name 'Katsuri' years ago! After cutting ties with all her friends, she had effectively become a Shut-in!

How would you react if you had social anxiety AND someone suddenly brought up knowledge about you that only you should know?

Moreover! These people shouldn't E-X-I-S-T!

They're fictional characters!

How did they know a name from the real world? More specifically, her online persona's name!

"Isn't that your name? Katsuri, you told us that." Rover said, slightly lying about the real story.

After all, it was Danjin who had introduced Katsuri, not Katsuri herself.

Now... would she deny it?

Or would she go along with it?

"...Are you being for real? I told you my name? Do you even hear yourself right now?"

"No, are you hearing yourself?"

"...I can't argue with people anymore, my skills has rotted to the root. There's no way I can win any argument ever again. You're right." 

When 'Katsuri' thought about it again, she really did not hear what she herself said.

Isn't it natural for a person to introduce themselves to another person they met?

...Wait a minute, but she had never met these people face to face. They are all game characters that shouldn't even be sentient unless programmed to be.

But that kind of reasonings only worked if the person themselves remembered meeting the other.

'Gugh, my brain hurts.'

Too much thoughts going on, she can't make sense on any of them.

"Then, what is your name?" Rover asked. "If you deny the fact that your name is 'Katsuri', then... What is your name? Could you please introduce yourself to us?"

"..." From behind the tree, a single eye peeked out, capturing the appearance of both Zani and Rover.

The white haired woman still looked pretty confused, meanwhile the black haired lady had a determined look, probably dead set on solving this small mystery.

"...If I tell you my name, promise me you'd go away and not bother me again." She decided that since she can't beat them, she could only compromise with her own terms and hoped that they'd accept.

"Sure, we'll leave this place then." Rover said. Of course, inside her mind something different was brewing. 'Since she said so herself, which means that we'd probably be forced out of this place the moment she said her name. Even if the creator doesn't know they're inside their own Sonoro, the Sonoro would still work to their advantage.'

'Which means that the contract have been signed, now none can take back what had been said. She'll tell us her name, and we'll leave this place, both destined to happen... even if forced.'

She turned around slightly, looking at Zani from the corner of her eyes and blinked slightly.

Zani, catching what was being silently said, summoned her gauntlet and walked a little bit back as to not scare the owner of this place.

Katsuri didn't mind this, there were not sign of malice being thrown towards her so it doesn't matter what happened.

"My name... I don't like it. Apparently my... guardian, had given me the name in a drunken stupor. No thoughts was placed into my name. It simply happened."

"Hah... Why am I telling my back story all of a sudden?"

"Anyways, back on topic... My name."

"..."

She inhaled deeply, before exhaling everything back out, as if preparing for something that could change her life forever.

But she's simply telling her name, there's nothing dramatic about it.

"It's... Faith."

"My name is Faith Havensith."