Interlude Eleven - Existential Body Crisis

"These flesh…bags!" Ashvallen snarled down at her breasts. "How can your sister do anything with these…these…things…hanging off her chest?"

"Minji's boobs aren't that big, you know," Moon pointed out.

"They get in the way!" Ashvallen growled, flailing impotently. "And why must I wear these bindings? They pinch and grab and are just uncomfortable.

"Bindings?" Moon cocked her head. "Oh! The bra?"

"I don't know what it's called. That Anastasia woman told me it was commonplace and respectable in this era," Ashvallen fidgeted further, laying down her controller to pick at the straps under her T-shirt. "This era is stupid and awkward."

"Now, now," Moon soothed, leaning over, and wrapping her arms around Ashvallen to calm her down. "These are just the trials and tribulations we have to go through, so we don't poke someone's eye out when it gets cold."

Moon closed her eyes, relishing in Ashvallen's warmth in her arms. How long had it been, now? A month? Two? She wasn't even sure. Moving into the far more luxurious and accommodating Den had sapped her of the will to even care about the passage of the days. Thanks to the efforts of the Daughters she had been given permission to attend online college, provided she remained anonymous and didn't talk to anyone. She wasn't able to use a phone or social media of any kind, but she was able to begin teaching Ashvallen with books they'd provided.

Speaking of Ashvallen, they had grown considerably closer as the days had gone on. Despite being rather reticent at first, she had gradually come to accept a surprising amount of skinship, to the point where Moon scarcely had to give much thought to hugging and cuddling with her. Ashvallen could be gruff and impatient but was, Moon discovered, quite the softy. A fact Moon reveled in bringing out as often as possible.

"But I can't play this game device properly with these stupid udders and bindings and ridiculous chubby fingers this body has," Ashvallen pouted.

"When we get everything the way it should be, it'd probably be best if we don't mention any of that sort of stuff to Minji, 'k?" Moon patted Ashvallen's head soothingly. "Except the bra thing. I'm sure she'll be fine commiserating there."

"Shouldn't she be told her body is ill-suited to everything?" Ashvallen glanced up as Moon peered down at her.

"I…wouldn't…" Moon screwed her face up in a pained grimace. "She's already not going to be happy about her apartment, figures, sex toys, and weird porn being blown halfway across Seoul. Bagging on her boobs and fingers might be a bridge too far. I don't want to see her go into some sort of Otaku rage fit on you."

"Once I'm back in my body, I certainly won't be afraid of her," Ashvallen sniffed. "Speaking of which, she'd better not be doing anything weird with it."

"Ahh, ha ha ha," Moon chuckled nervously "That probably depends on your definition of 'weird'."

"How so? What could she be doing?" Ashvallen turned in alarm.

"Probably nothing! I'm sure it's…fine. Minji can be very responsible. I-If properly motivated."

"It'd better be nothing." She turned back around and let Moon's arms drape over her shoulders again comfortingly. "I'm simply saying if it were me, I would want to be told that my body is unacceptable for even the most basic of tasks," Ashvallen declared.

"Well, Minji doesn't really work like that," Moon shook her head. "Minji's…er…different."

"She has no business being that way," Ashvallen grumbled. "I tried to help this body, but it gets tired easily and is off-balance and un-coordinated with no muscles to speak of. I tried to let it do what it wanted, and it sat down and began to hyperventilate and cry. She should be embarrassed. Does she even exercise?"

"Exercise for Minji's a very…loose concept," Moon replied, the memory of Minji and her mom yelling at each other over Minji's dirty magazines and sex toy collection springing unbidden to her mind. "You have to know how bizarre everything you just said sounded, right?"

"It's no more pleasant for me, I assure you," Ashvallen pinched her arm and grimaced in pain. "Flab is what this is. I want my old body back."

"Minji might have a little fluff, but she isn't fat!" Moon giggled.

"She's built like a noble," Ashvallen sniffed derisively. "Just enough muscle to move to the banquet table and fill her gullet but no more. Unacceptable."

"What is your body like?" Moon asked, setting aside her controller, and laying her chin on Ashvallen's head.

"Well, like most of my race, I'm not very tall," Ashvallen took Moon's hands in hers, trying to remember her body as it had been. "Certainly this body is taller and more ungainly. I didn't get much to eat and my only way to support myself was fighting and stealing so I ran and climbed a lot. If I were to say, I'd consider myself…lithe."

"Someone's been studying," Moon grinned. "I'm proud of you."

"Well, this body's not good for anything else," Ashvallen blushed at the compliment.

"You're being temperamental, sweety," Moon booped her nose with her index finger and Ashvallen scowled. "Is it because you can't beat me?"

"…maybe," Ashvallen sulked.

"It's an acquired skill, you know," Moon soothed her. "It takes years of sedentary, mindless practice to reach my level."

"Well, if being sedentary was all it took, this body should be uniquely suited to it. Instead I'm forced to play with these accursed…fat…sacks…in the way," Ashvallen growled grabbing her breasts vengefully. "And how can you continue to tear my character's spine out like that? That's not even possible, you know."

The door to the game center they were seated in opened and a small girl with long dark hair and a pink marshmallow jacket shuffled in. She turned to bow at one of the guards before turning back to the room, stopping short in surprise. She flushed and bowed again, saying something to them in Japanese.

"Do you speak Korean?" Moon asked, hoping against hope she did. Moon's Japanese was tragically lacking.

"A little bit, yes," the girl glanced at her shyly.

"Oh, thank God!" Moon chuckled in relief. "I don't know Japanese."

"My mom taught me some Korean," the girl replied nervously.

"My name is Moon, and this is Ashvallen. Ash, sweety, you're still holding your boobs," Minji removed Ashvallen's hands from her breasts and raised one, using it to wave at the girl.

"I can wave myself, you know," Ashvallen huffed.

"Yes, but you weren't," Moon pointed out.

"I was getting to it. This body is very sluggish. It's like repositioning a catapult to get it to do anything," Ashvallen growled.

"You'll have to forgive her," Moon grinned. "She's having an existential body crisis at the moment."

"M-My name is Sakura," the girl replied. "P-Pleased to meet you both."

"So I take it you're an inmate like us, then?" Moon noted the disheveled look and haunted eyes of the girl and empathized completely.

"I-Inmate?" Sakura gasped, stepping back toward the door in alarm.

"It's just a figure of speech!" Moon immediately felt bad about her choice of words and smiled reassuringly.

"She's not far off, you know," Ashvallen noted.

"I just got here, and they said to come in here to relax until my room was ready," Sakura mumbled. "Are we really prisoners?"

"Ash seems to hold that view," Moon returned her chin to Ashvallen's head and wrapped her arms back around her. Ashvallen struggled for a moment longer impotently before giving up and becoming still once more. "I look at it more like we're under witness protection."

"P-Please forgive me for asking, but are you two sisters?" Sakura asked curiously, still obviously very nervous.

"Ah, that," Moon took Ashvallen's hands in hers and used them to shrug, eliciting yet another scowl. "It's hard to explain. Kind of yes, but mostly no."

"I…see," Sakura noted, not seeing at all.

"Well!" Moon enthused, wrapping her legs around Ashvallen's waist. "Since we're all here, shall we play a game?"

"I don't wish to play this game any longer," Ashvallen pouted. "I've been turned to charcoal, had my spine ripped out, cut in half, and been chewed up by a flying bird. I don't care for it."

"We've got plenty to choose from," Moon gestured to the wall where hundreds of games were lined up neatly in racks.

"That's a lot of games," Sakura breathed, staring at the wall.

"Yes, indeed! Pick one and we'll get our game on!" Moon giggled.

"Why do I get the impression I'm being ganged up on?" Ashvallen mumbled as her character collapsed in a bloody pool on the screen. "I thought you said this was a 'co-op' game. I am vaguely aware of the term, and I may be missing something, but this doesn't feel very co-op like at all."

"It is co-op!" Moon giggled. "We just have to unlock the feature, first!"

"By killing me?" Ashvallen jerked the controller, frantically pushing random buttons as her character pitched over the castle rampart to its death.

"Technically you killed yourself that time," Moon giggled.

"I was being pursued!" Ashvallen insisted, pointing the controller at Sakura. "By that one!"

"I-I'm sorry!" Sakura stuttered. "I thought that was how it was played!"

"Don't worry, it is how it's played. She's just mad because she's a poor loser," Moon smirked. "So how long are you here for, Sakura?"

"I don't know," Sakura mumbled, her lower lip quivering as she fought back tears.

"Come sit close to big sister Moon and Ashvallen," Moon prompted her, patting the sofa next to her. Sakura shuffled over and sat down where Moon indicated. "I don't know what you had to give up by coming here, but I can see it had to have hard on you. But you're not in this alone. You have us! We may not be able to make up for what you lost, but we can at least help! Isn't that right, Ash?"

"Ah," Ashvallen blinked up at the pair. "Yes. Yes, it is."

"See? Don't worry! We'll have lots of fun and learn all sorts of things. For now, aren't the holidays coming up?" Sakura nodded, brushing futilely at the tears that tracked down her cheeks.

"Holidays?" Ashvallen asked, annoyed once again at her body's failures. Her foot had become tingly. She flexed it briefly and grimaced in discomfort.

"Well, there's Christmas and New Year's!" Moon enthused excitedly, clapping gleefully. "My favorite times of the year!"

"I don't understand," Ash leaned forward, attempting to massage life back into her tingling limb but quickly drew back as the tingling intensified and became rather painful.

"Well, Christmas is a holiday where you give each other gifts and New Year's Day is a great celebration where you look back on the old year with fondness and greet the new with hope and food!"

"I thought Korea celebrated a different New Year than Japan and the west," Sakura asked, confused.

"That's why I celebrate twice!" Moon laughed. "Twice the food and twice the gifts!"

"And these holidays serve what purpose?" Ashvallen gasped, now trying to keep her foot from waking up. Unfortunately it seemed her motions had started an avalanche of discomfort which couldn't be held back once begun.

"Beyond gifts and food?" Moon cocked her eyebrow quizzically. "Who cares?" Moon clenched her fists in determination and her smile broadened into one of unbridled joy. "We should start preparing! We need to make this the best holiday season in the history of holiday seasons! We'll make all sorts of food and do crafts and make gifts and decorate everything! It'll be perfect! What do you say, Sakura?"

"I-It sounds fun," she nodded, a faint smile playing on her lips.

"I'm sure it's not what you were hoping for this year, but I bet we can make it magical anyway!" Moon patted her hand reassuringly. "Are you ok, Ash?"

"No!" Ashvallen gritted her teeth and pitched over onto her side, trying not to disturb her foot as it began to roar back to life painfully. "My foot!"

"Huh? Ooooh!" Moon grinned broadly. "Did your foot fall asleep?"

"It has no consciousness of its own to be awake or asleep!" Ashvallen grimaced again.

"It's ok!" Moon moved from the couch to the floor smoothly. "I can help!"

"Don't touch it!" Ashvallen cried.

"Touch what?" Moon grinned, sliding one finger up the sole of the offending foot.

"GAH!" Ashvallen yelled, jerking her foot back protectively. "Don't touch iiiiit!"

"It's fine, it's fine!" Moon grabbed her foot and held it firmly, massaging it while Ashvallen squirmed.

"No! It is not fine!" Ashvallen howled in agony as the feeling began to return to her foot with a vengeance.

"Shhh...I'll take care of it."

"Don't touch! Don't touch!" Ashvallen yelled, flailing wildly but unable to break free. With a grin Sakura could only describe as rather sadistic, Moon continued her ministrations. Sakura stared at them, not entirely sure what was happening. These people were kind of scary, she decided. They'd mesh well with Emi senpai, she sighed sadly.

I miss them, she shook her head sadly. I miss them all so dearly. Well, she corrected herself, maybe not Aria so much. But she especially missed Kasumi-senpai to the point her heart throbbed painfully. Kasumi-senpai was the center of her world and always would be, she figured. One day they would meet again. Wouldn't they? She wanted to believe they would. No, she corrected herself, she had to believe they would. Somehow. They would.

"Help me hold her down! I need to fix her foot!" Moon called, struggling with the writhing girl under her.

"Do not dare!" Ashvallen gasped. Sakura stood dumbly staring, not sure what to do. At least it would be lively, she thought.