"Hey, want to hear a plot twist, Lina?"

"Sure, but first, any eights?"

"Go fish, loser."

"Rude." Lina picks up a card. "So what's the plot twist?"

"I actually have nothing to do with reality breaking. I just knew it was happening, that the Zombielands are the most stable place in Mendass, and that it'd be funny if I painted it like I was the one doing it."

"Huh… got any threes?"

"Damnit." Instead of handing over a card, Myka throws her hand up in the air out of frustration. "I'm literally cheating using reality warping powers. How the hell are you winning?"

"Nigh-omnipotence, baby!" Lina sends out finger guns, which gets a scoff in return.

"I fucking forgot about that." The bunny girl glares at the human, who returns with a smug grin. The maid was about to retaliate before realising something. "How come you didn't use said nigh-omnipotence so we could save Merida and Speedy?"

"Why didn't you use your reality warping to escape the kidnapping? Why doesn't Maddy take over the world using Shadow Cloning? Why do Sacred Power holders suck at using their Sacred Powers?"

"Geez… and I'm supposed to be the meta one."

"Because they're idiots."

"Oh… I thought you were going to say, 'Because that's a boring story.'"

"Look, I may have figured out we're fictional, this is clearly a web novel, and we're seemingly the main characters, or at least Madeleine and Mel are, but I also know one other thing."

"What?"

"It's clear that the narrative doesn't fucking matter."

"Huh?"

"As far as I can tell, we get the benefits of both reality and fiction."

"Which is?"

"We get the choice to do whatever the fuck we want, and that we have the ability that'll allow us to do whatever the fuck we want." The holder of Side Character gave a smirk to the reality warper, who could only look back with confusion. "It's why you probably saved me instead of Madeleine."

"Haah? What the fuck do you think you're saying?! What are you trying to insinuate?!"

"Haha… nothing, really… I've kind of used up all my brain cells and can't continue this thought train."

"..."

"I really have no idea where I was going with that."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"..."

"Hahahaha!"

"What the fuck are you laughing at?"

"At how serious you're taking this. I thought I was the straight man, and you were the idiot."

"Hmph. You've ruined my mood. Consider this date finished." Myka snapped her fingers, teleporting herself and Melina to a cave somewhere in the Zombielands.

"Where are we?"

"The cave of the Necromancer, the chick who caused the whole Zombielands debacle. Her best friend and herself are the last Sacred Power holders further in. Stay put while I go fetch Madeleine and Mel. Before I go, though." Myka snaps her fingers. "I just fixed reality. Some idiot in Cyst City had the audacity to hack into Mana's system using her stupid ID Card thing and ended up corrupting the core of Mendass. That stupid manager owes me." Myka lets out a peace sign at Melina, suddenly disappearing before the Side Character could even say a thing.

Meanwhile, near a giant cube

"Honey… I don't feel so good…" For some reason, the Creator is turning to dust. Right now, he's lying down on the ground, her head in mom's arms.

"How melodramatic." There it is! Mel's signature sarcasm! I'm finally able to recognise it!

"Haha… an Injustice… refere…" And with that, the Creator disappeared, leaving behind my mom and me. Geez… what a deadbeat father, couldn't even spare time for her daughter.

"Well then, I must return to my duties at the Maid School. Should you ever return to the academy whilst on your journey, feel free to visit my office. It is always open for you." Mom then jumped into the air, disappearing into the sky.

"So what now?" I look toward Mel, hoping she has the answers.

"What makes you think I know?" She asks, to which I respond with a shrug. Before we could figure something out, I felt a presence behind me. I quickly turned around, brandishing a dagger, only to find out it was Myka. "Oh hi Myka."

"What up."

"The sky."

"Anyways, I can't be arsed to give a lengthy explanation, so let me just say the important stuff. Your other mother ain't dead, reality is fixed again, and we're going to a zombie cave.

"Oh, okay." Zombie cave sounds cool.

"What do you mean you fixed eve-" Before Mel could ask, we were teleported.

"I'm back, Lina." Ooh, a cave. Wait… do I like caves? I forget. Eh, whatever. Oh, look, it's Mel's sister! The Merida replacement! Next to her is… oh, a zombie.

"Just Maddy and sis. What about Merry and Mimi?"

"They're off on their own adventure. We'll meet them again later down the road. Maybe by the time we meet them, Mimi will have married into royalty."

"I still have questions!"
"And I don't care, Mel. Ask your sister and maybe you'll get lucky. In the meantime, Madeleine and I will acquaint ourselves with the zombie and say hi to the Necromancer. Then we can get the fuck out of this fake arc and enjoy some gay girl adventure shit until that Eldritch wannabe loser decides he wants to exist in this story again."

"What is up with the character change?"

"Like I said, ask your sister."

"Fine." And so Mel walked over to her sister. At the same time, Myka dragged the zombie over to me.

"Hurry up and link up with Madeleine." The zombie turns towards Myka. Somehow I can tell it was because of confusion. "I know because I'm fucking overpowered and have decided to actually use that overpoweredness because of some stupid internal development caused by that motherfucking side character. Now hurry up and fucking link."

'Hello there, can you hear me?'

Woah… is that a new voice in my head?

'You already had voices in your head? Oh, apologies, to both you and the other voices. Sorry for taking up some space.'

I forgive you. Don't know about the voices, though.

'I don't need forgiveness, I'll be leaving soon, so this inconvenience will only be temporary.'

Coolio. So this is a Sacred Power, right?

'Correct. It allows me to link my mind with another. Very convenient, considering my current lack of vocal communication skills.'

Yeah, you sure have a broken mouth… so completely normal question, can I look at your eyes?

'Umm… sure?'

Coolio. I look into the zombie's eyes, which seem incredibly dead. No pupil, completely white. I do see a bit of a soul, though.

"Now that that's over and done with, take the maid to the Necromancer. Y'all can talk for a while, discuss zombie stuff, then come back. All I want is for the maid to look into the Necromancer's eyes, okay?"

The zombie seemed reluctant but suddenly flinched, faced Myka, and quickly nodded. She grabbed my wrist, then took me further into the cave. Ooh, I wonder how a zombie cave compares to a normal cave.

Character profile: Samantha

Sacred power: Link

Favourite animal: Stuffed bears

Description: The Necromancer's undead best friend. She originally was from an elven tribe that lived in the Mirror Jungle, but due to slavers, she was captured and sent across the entirety of Mendass, no one willing to buy a wild child as a slave. She ended up in the country of Lichen, the country which would eventually be turned into the Zombielands. She managed to escape the slavers taking care of her and took refuge in a cave near the capital's outskirts. There she came across a little girl, who was similar in age, who had been imprisoned in the cave for harbouring a foul Sacred Power. The girls would befriend each other, the girls naming each other after learning they were both nameless.

Chapter namesake: Wonderful Dead 005 by Masafumi Takada for Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls

pojlk

This whole thing happened because I was listening to the Ultra Despair Girls OST, looked at the 5 different Wonderful Deads and thought 'Man, these songs would be useful for a zombie-related arc for a story where every chapter name was a musical reference... wait a minute, don't I write one of those?' That and Sacred Power #115 was zombie related. Man... I sure make a lot of references outside of the chapter names, now that I think about it. Do any of y'all get them? Just curious.