Charlotte woke up after sleeping through all morning. She looked around and sat on the bed. She had a nightmarish headache, as if she had spent all night long drinking and fooling around.

“Fuck… I’m dying... I need… Water…”

Dragging herself to the bathroom, she drank tap water for almost a minute, feeling bloated and still weak, legs shivering and eyes heavy. She raised her head and looked in the mirror. On it she saw her thick makeup crumbling away, seeing in some spots her freckles and some shadows under her eyes. She decided to wash it away and make it anew, she wasn’t doing the new one after all, Gut was.

After some minutes of scrubbing it off, she was able to see her real face once again. Her skin was whitish red because the mistreatment it just received. They’ve been walking around almost all day for the past five days while touring the cities, so she was getting sunburnt. She looked at her freckles in between the red and white skin she had, she knew how many there were and the general location of them.

“Uh… I’m getting new ones…”

Being exposed too long to the sun always implied getting more freckles! It was a torture for herself and also one of the main reasons she didn’t like to go out as often. At this time, though, she couldn’t be picky about what to do.

“I’ve no seen you lot in a while, howdya do?”

She talked to her freckles as if she was talking to a baby. She was trying to think about her headache and how to placate it. It was hurting more and more with every passing second.

A consequence of using it indiscriminately? Ugh…

Looking at herself, she saw she was bandaged from her navel to the armpit, two different sets of bandages.

I believe this wasn’t here yesterday…? Whatever, he kind of saved me….

She was sure it was Gut’s doing, she couldn’t come with any other explanation, she was brought at some time to the room.

Aliens, maybe? Heheh.

Leaving the bathroom, she stood beside Gut’s bed.

“Hey, big guy, get up~”

She talked as softly as she could, her head hurt more when she spoke so she tried to be as quiet as possible.

What will happen when others speak, or there’s a car going, or an explosion …!

She paled at the thought of having her head being split open by the pain.

“Oh, you are finally up, I thought you will be staying there until night came.”

“!”

She almost fainted when she heard his voice, she gritter her teeth, trying to keep her reasoning. After breathing two times, she said:

“Don’t, speak. Ugh, I’m dying… And I want to eat, yes, gimme something to eat. Go, you go.”

She couldn’t stand the noise at all so she put a hand in her head, she pointed at him with the other and then to the door, indicating for him to leave.

“You-“

“Shut! The! FUCK! UP!!”

After shouting, she felt her consciousness drifting away, she had never felt that way, not even when she was as drunk she couldn’t even form words. It was a miracle she even managed to finish her words. She then went to her bed while tumbling around, laid down on it with her back facing the ceiling and put the pillow over her head. She didn’t want to be part of the functioning world.

“… Uh?”

Meanwhile, Gut was astonished by her behavior. What he saw was akin to someone having a severe hangover. One so bad the person having it would stop drinking for months to come, or just continue drinking forever so they wouldn’t need to worry about it anymore.

Was it because of yesterday’s thing? Heh, it is more troublesome than I thought.

He adjusted again in the bed after looking at her, he did what he was asked to do. Keep the place in total quietness. After five minutes of waiting for her reaction, Gut sighed and got up from his bed. He checked her out to see if something was wrong.

She’s sleeping again, it truly looks like a hangover.

Then went out of the room.

****

Gaining consciousness again, Charlotte smelled something delicious. Something heavenly delicious!

Getting off her bed as fast as she could, she searched for the origin of that heavenly smell. On top of the nightstand beside her bed were two different dishes. She didn’t know nor care what it was, her only thought was.

I’ve been starving for so long, I’d even eat poison if I was offered some!

She started to gobble it all down, sparing nothing. Putting down the plate, it was completely empty, there were no traces of any leftovers, as if there was nothing to begin with.

“… I still can go.”

She was not fully satisfied! She still had room for another dish!

Maybe two?

Shaking her head, she decided against it. Digesting too much would lead to bad consequences!

“You still want more? There is something really wrong with your body, you know that.”

“Uh? Oh, you’re here. Hey! Thanks! For yesterday, and for the food! I’m really sorry about my attitude. I thought I was a goner on both occasions…” She said while ignoring his remark.

She knew her body was strange but it was not worth to argue with someone whom solely talked for argument’s sake and not to make a point across the other. She was also like that sometimes, so she knew very well when someone just wanted to get on your nerves, and how bothersome one can become.

“You did? I found you sleeping soundly.”

“Oh, uhm. Yeah, you saved me at that point, no?”

“Yes, it was nothing serious anyway. What do you want to do now?”

She grinned at his question, it was obvious! Gut felt some apprehension at that smile, though.

“Let’s go find somewhere to eat! It’s time to look for things that are delicious!”

“That was not tasty?” He shook his head.

“You made it?”

“No.”

“Then it doesn’t matter, I didn’t taste it at all. Too hungry for that, heh. Before, I ate out of starvation, now it’s to savor the dishes!”

Nodding at her newfound principle, she started to get ready.

She took a shower after looked at her scorches to see if something new appeared, put on the bandages on her chest and belly and disguised herself as a boy with Gut’s help.

Going out of the building with all their lugage, they started touring the city again. It was, however, pretty late already. The sun was setting in the horizon.

“Uh? How long did I sleep?”

Looking back at Gut who was following her, she asked when she saw the blackening sky.

“It is close to six. I noticed you waked up four times during the day. Sometimes too groggy to say anything, now that I think about it. I thought you were traumatized at first and just wanted to shut yourself out again.”

“Oh… Four times… Uhm, I only remember two… Heh.”

Maybe the reason I don’t remember is because there was too much noise and my brain ended up erasing that kind of memory? Traumatized much…

While walking along the street, she still kept having that urge to kill someone because of the noise. Everywhere was booming with sound! It was a state of pollution she hadn’t experienced before! That was the reason for she was leading this time. She wanted to find a place that looked quiet enough as soon as possible and stop being tormented while in the middle of the street.

They walked into a mall that was on the outskirts of the downtown, looking for one of the most private restaurants in there. They then asked for something extravagant. It was all Charlotte’s choices, though. She ate hers and half of Gut’s with glee.

Gut, on the other hand, was starting to feel aggravated by all the food the girl was eating. Where was it all going?! Was what he kept thinking.

“Uhh, now I’m starting to feel full…”

She said when she was through half of his dish.

“I do not believe you, where is it all going?”

“I guess I’ve got a fast metabolism?? I’m not sure myself, so don’t bother with it.”

It was something she was also concerned about, she didn’t know anything about the food’s place of rest. She only knew she was hungry and that it was like she was being killed from the inside. Even so, she still felt a little grateful, despite all the things she had eaten, her belly was as smooth as ever!

After having a satisfying meal, they continued touring for a bit and booked another hotel before it was too late, unlike yesterday. They had decided to stay the night to see more of the city the next day. Though it was a little bothersome for Charlotte, as she didn’t like its people. She couldn’t say anything as she had already said she’d follow Gut’s instructions.

After having dinner, again, they went to the room, it was around 9. Charlotte was bored as she didn’t have anything else to do. Wondering for a while, she started playing the game in her portable console. After playing for about an hour, she got tired of it and decided to go to sleep.

She failed miserably after trying to get a wink for half an hour, despairing on the inside. She wanted to find something to do! Whatever was fine! Looking at the bed next to hers, she gulped down.

Nono, I’m not that desperate… Am I?

She was desperate alright, even if she had other things to do, she didn’t want to do them. She was afraid. Afraid of going to the Crystal’s Space and finding a mess, everything being black and she being unable to do anything, losing her control over the crystal. She didn’t want to think about it and had been avoiding it during the day. Now, however, she had nothing else to distract herself with.

Resigning herself to the fate prepared by destiny, she mocked herself.

Sighing, she went to take a bath. At least this hotel room had a tub and not only a shower, like the previous one. Waiting for the tub to be ready, she took all her garments off and looked at her back in the mirror. It was the same as always, an ugly and dying skin.

Can’t it recover faster? I want to feel my back again…

She didn’t care if it left a scar, as it obviously would. There were a lot of cosmetic surgeons in the world who could make it disappear as if there was nothing to begin with.

Getting in the hot water of the tub, she groaned in pleasure, it has been a long time since she last used a tub like this, just to relax. She set it to keep the water hot and let her mind drift away.

After a while of the pleasure bath, she went in the Crystal’s Space. She finally saw how it was.

Her vision was half normal and half black. The meaning was obvious for her, the headaches she was constantly getting were in consequence of the black spots of her vision, they couldn’t be called spots anymore, however.

She called forth the External Projection and looked at her body. To her surprise, it hasn’t changed at all. There were still the brown spots. Though they were a little bigger and clearer this time. She didn’t know how to call the process they were experiencing. She at least felt reassured of her body. Concerning her vision…

“I must get rid of this blackness… Fuuu, I’ll leave the brown ones for later.”

Getting herself ready, she started to will it to disappear. Slowly, she started to feel tired but her vision remained practically the same. Even though she could see where the blackness had ceased to be, there still was too much of it.

“… This’ll take while…”

She then looked at the External Projection and told Prism to expand it, she had realized two things yesterday.

When she was trying to make things happen as fast as possible, she exited once the Crystal’s Space without ending the External Projection first. She entered immediately after realizing her mistake, telling herself to be more careful in such a dangerous situation, only to see that the projection was still on and she was where ‘she’ had been. It could be left on all the time!

The second one was when she was moving between places to be as fast as possible, she had a random thought of implementing a ‘script’ to move herself between locations, teleporting herself in there!

These two were the points which allowed her to do things as smoothly as she did.

She could only guess what they meant to her headaches. Nevertheless, she still thought that it was because of this that she was ‘oh so fucking tired’.

Really, why do I require so much food sometimes?

She said when she came back to reality. She then decided that for the next few days, she would only enter the Crystal’s Space to reduce the size of the black vision to see how her hunger worked.

She enjoyed the bath for a long time, feeling lazy to do anything else. If it wasn’t the fact that it was bad for one’s health, she would have stayed all night long. It was so cozy and warm there… Thinking that she would melt in it if she stayed any longer, she ended her pleasure bath and got some clothes on. Wearing a black tank top she bought that went down to her breastbone and white short, she went to her bed. Once she was lying down, she entered the Crystal’s Space and continued to expel the black vision-spots. After doing it for a while and feeling pretty tired, she fell asleep.

The next day, they toured the city and left for the next one after having lunch.