Part 1 || 5 | Ryder
A Tale of a Rebel Reaper I
Muse 3rd Grade Ryder Ellabellabelle had a strange nighttime ritual that Muse 2nd Grade Momo Yume had helped her develop to control her reaper powers. After typing her last report on the George Garland case, Ryder filed her paperwork away in her book bag and picked out a book from her bookshelf and started reading.
Yet unlike Judy Windermere, who read in a normal manner with her mind’s eye, Ryder read with her arcane magic throwing up holograms around her. In turn, these holograms occupied the contents of her mind in a hypnotized state, so that in between groggy spells of eating and drinking and taking care of business, she bore witness to the legendary accomplishments of other reapers as she read page after page into the wee hours of the morning. Which were many: peasant soldiers swinging war-scythes, armies of them besieging corrupted boyars, and one of her esteemed ancestors leading the charge. For Ryder, it was a form of lucid dreaming that allowed her to sleep in a way analogous to normal sleep, in which everything in the book manifested in her waking dreams without disturbing the dreams of her neighbors.
Then, just before sunrise, she got up and ate breakfast and dressed herself, then brought her book bag with her and took the subway to the Muse Bureau, doing all of that in her groggy hypnotized state.
Meanwhile, everyone in the subway carriage started and stared, mouths agape, at a petite girl that looked like she’d been drinking all night and was now recovering from a hangover and God knows what else. She stood amidst the passengers like a zombie, her hand limp on one of the hand holds hanging overhead, her long twin tails unkempt and limp, her jacket hanging off one shoulder, her shirt unbuttoned and revealing her bra and bare stomach, and her skirt clipped on too high past her hips and revealing her panties.
As such, her fellow passengers gave her a wide berth, mothers covering the eyes of their children, oglers darting lingering glances at her, and whispers of her activities hanging in the air. This continued for three stops, where passengers got out and others got in, till the subway stopped at a station near the Muse Bureau on the next block.
Ryder got out, passing the threshold onto the platform, walking on autopilot towards the exit.
But then two other women grabbed a hold of her arms and guided her steps towards one of the benches in the waiting area on the platform. They made her sit down, and the older woman placed a paper omamori charm over her forehead.
The woman said, “Wake up, you numbskull,” and she snapped her fingers in front of Ryder’s face.
The hiragana flashed on the charm, and Ryder’s groggy daze evaporated from her mind. After a moment, Ryder found herself in the custody of Momo Yume and a younger girl she hadn’t seen before. Or maybe she had, she wondered, and took a closer look at this cutesy fellow twin tail-wearer before her.
“Who are you?” Ryder said.
“I’m Sakura Yume,” she said and stuck out her hand. “I’m Momo’s younger sister.”
Ryder shook it, searching through her scattered thoughts for a familiar face, and said, “Oh, you’re the girl who was running like mad the other day.” Then she glared at Momo, saying, “And you’re the one who turned me into a peach blossom!”
“That was an accident,” Momo said.
“Apologize now,” Ryder said.
Momo sighed and said, “All right, all right. I’m sorry for turning you into a big fat angry peach blossom.” Then to her sister: “Sakura, this is my partner, Ryder Ellabellabelle. I know she looks like a mess right now, but she’s as dependable as I am.” Then she whispered into Sakura's ear, saying, “Just don’t get on her bad side. She tends to hold grudges.”
“I heard that,” Ryder said, but there were other things she needed to take care of. So she gave Momo her book bag, saying, “Wait for me.”
“Where’s the report?” Momo said.
“It’s in the bag,” she said.
She then walked towards the restrooms, garnering glances, double takes, and outright stares from passersby. She entered the women’s restroom and redid her sloppy sleep-induced morning routine, smoothing out her twin tails, fixing her jacket, buttoning her shirt, and adjusting her skirt over her hips to cover her panties. She did all of this with the practiced nonchalance of an everyday ritual, because this was her morning ritual whenever she went to work at the Muse Bureau. Thus, when everything was in order, she came out of the restroom looking prim and proper.
“Thanks for waiting,” Ryder said.
She took back her book bag, slinging it over her shoulder, and walked with her partners towards the exits, where the building of the Muse Bureau in the next street loomed over them like a leering old man.
A Tale of Their Next Case II
By the time they opened the door to Muse Inspector Nathaniel Coleman’s office, they found him talking to the Muse Bureau Chief himself, Taiso Takagi, on his desk. Taiso Takagi was a fist-sized chubby bunny in a suit, sporting a trilby atop his head and a long handlebar mustache hanging over his big grinning mouth, from which a pipe stuck out from the corner of his mouth. The little Chief was leaning against the base of an old rotary phone when he looked back at them with his handlebar mustache fluttering over his mouth.
The trio paused at the threshold upon seeing him, and Momo said, “Are we interrupting?”
“You’re fine,” Nathaniel said, waving the trio over to the pair of chairs before his desk. “In fact, you’re just in time. Have a seat,” and he snapped his fingers.
An extra chair appeared to the left of the two other chairs before Nathaniel’s desk, so all three took their seats. Momo and Sakura sat next to each other, and Ryder sat on the extra chair to the left of them. All three girls then looked from the Muse Inspector to the chibi-fied Chief of the Muse Bureau, then back at the Muse inspector, all three waiting for an explanation.
“So what’s the scoop, Chief?” Ryder said.
Momo nudged her with her shoulder, saying, “Ryder, this is the Chief. Be more respectful, okay?”
“You’re not my mom,” Ryder said, then to the Chief: “And what I meant to say is, what’s going on?”
“Ah, that’s what you meant,” Taiso said, looking back at her with raised bushy brows and twittering rabbit ears. “Pardon me for being out of touch with the current lingo.”
“Inspector, Chief,” Momo said, eyeing both of them in turn, “is there anything we should know about Judy’s case before we head out?”
“The Chief and I were just discussing that,” Nathaniel said. “And yes. There are a few things you need to keep in mind during the Windermere case. But first, let’s get this out of the way: Judy’s case is not a punishment for anyone. Is that clear?”
All three nodded, and Sakura said, “My sister talked to me beforehand, but how will we tackle this case?”
“You three will decide that on your own,” Nathaniel said, “but contact me if there are any major changes in the case and give me a report updating your progress on it every week.”
“So it’s gonna be reconnaissance?”
“Mostly that, yeah,” he said.
“Oh, man, that’s no fun at all,” Ryder said, deflating at the prospect of spending hours on end just watching over someone like a spy. “I wanna bust some nightmares, not babysit from the sitting position.”
“Ryder, what did I say?” Momo said.
“Oh, you’ll be getting into some of that before long,” Taiso Takagi said. He took off his trilby, revealing a squat pair of bunny ears, and shook it, till it grew to a size large enough to fit on a large head. He then reached into it like a magic bag and pulled out three shotguns from it and laid them on Nathaniel’s desk, catching the attention of the three muse officers. “These are no ordinary shotguns. They’re designed to take out some of the peskier nightmares that might surround Judy Windermere.”
“Now you’re talking,” Ryder said.
“Whoa, whoa, wait a minute,” Momo said, looking at the shotguns on the table, then at a pale-faced Sakura, and then back at the little Chief. “We don’t pack that kind of heat without some serious shit going down. Is there anything else we should know?”
“Yes,” Taiso Takagi said. “I’ll be taking off from the Muse Bureau for an important errand. If it’s what I think it is, I’ll make sure to relay the information after I find out. Now this is just conjecture at this point, but we think it’s a shadow stomper or a dream eater, both of which can attract the dream manifestations of unsuspecting dreamers. They’re hard to detect, though, so I’ll be on the lookout for them, and I’ll ask some of my cronies if they’ve seen or heard rumors of it during my errand. Mind, though, that this is just my thoughts on the matter. It could be anything, so keep your minds open and your eyes peeled on this case.”
“We will,” Momo said. “Any noticeable patterns?”
“Or repeating motifs?” Ryder added.
“Or anything that sticks out?” Sakura added.
Then Nathaniel pulled out a thick manilla folder full of reports and said, “Based on eye-witness reports from prospective muses and personnel during last week’s entrance exams, they all had the feeling of being watched, and a few even saw a pair of eyes peering at them, but only for a moment. So the main pattern seems to be a form of surveillance from a hidden source, though none of them had a clue what that source was. As for what ‘sticks out,’ that’s what Taiso and I were discussing as you three came in. I was thinking it was shadow stompers.”
“And I was thinking it was dream eaters,” Taiso added, “but the details from the witnesses are just too vague to really determine what we’re dealing with. That’s why we’re sending you three out to take a closer look, but there’s an anomaly in the way dreams occur in Judy’s case.”
“What’s that?” Momo said.
“Shadow stompers and dream eaters,” Taiso continued, “are outside influences that invade people’s dreams, which conforms to the observations of the witnesses, specifically with their feelings of being watched and their observation of eyes peering in on them during their entrance exams.”
“But in Judy’s case,” Nathaniel said, “there are no obvious influences other than Judy herself with regard to her disappearances from her house during the witnesses’ exam periods. In fact, for six nights in a row, the instructors and muse prospects have seen Judy disappear around 12 midnight and not come back until around 5 in the morning just before dawn.”
“You’re kidding?” Ryder said, thinking back on her own weird night and morning routines of reading one of her books and going on autopilot as she dreamed and slept-walked through the night. During those dreamy spells, if she was honest with herself, she couldn’t account for half of her bodily escapades from the small hours of the morning to after dawn, when Momo would snap Ryder out of her daze after arriving at the train station.
“I’m not,” he said. “That’s the anomaly.”
“I see,” Momo said. “The witnesses: did they try to find out where she went?”
“Yes,” Taiso said, “but their efforts proved fruitless.”
“That’s where you three come in,” Nathaniel said. “Find out where Judy goes during her disappearances, and you’ll find out what’s going on. Hopefully.”
“And you three aren’t alone in this case,” Taiso added. “I’ll be out there, too, doing my part.”
“Just keep me updated,” Nathaniel said. “Remember: I want a report due every week during your investigation. Even if it’s just your observations or thoughts, write them down. I want to know. Got it?”
“Got it,” all three muses said.
“Good,” he said, then to Ryder: “Do you have the report on the George Garland case with you?”
Ryder then rummaged through her bag and fished out the paperwork for the previous case, saying, “Here it is.”
He took the paperwork and placed them in the paper tray of ‘Closed Cases’ without reading it and said, “You three are dismissed. I’ll make a copy of all the eye-witness reports for you by noon, so get back here to get them.”
“We will,” Momo said.
“And don’t forget the shotguns,” Taiso added.
So the three muses rose from their seats, and Ryder took up each of the shotguns and placed them inside her magic bag. Then she caught up with Momo and Sakura outside of Nathaniel’s office, where Nathaniel continued his conversation with the Muse Bureau Chief after she shut the door behind her. Ryder then walked with the Yume sisters in silence through the corridors after their briefing with the Muse Inspector and the little Bureau Chief, all three girls nodding their salutations at their muse colleagues on their way out. They kept silent, till they passed the floating double doors at the main entrance of the Muse Bureau building, where the sun shone through the hologram of a giant clock hovering over the above-ground subway station like a shimmering ghost.
The time on the dial face was 8:15 a.m. To break the awkward silence, Ryder said to Sakura, “Are you hungry?”
“A little bit,” Sakura said.
“What about you?” she said to Momo.
“Do you have somewhere in mind?” Momo said.
“Yeah,” Ryder said. “There’s a place called The Cake Fairy. I heard their cakes are really good. It’s just a block away from here on the other side of the subway station. We’ll talk there and come back here for the reports.”
The sisters traded looks, then smiled at her.
“Lead the way,” Momo said.
So Ryder led the way, thinking of cheesecakes, tiramisu, coffee cakes, mocha cakes, carrot cakes, etc., to dispel the thumping of her heartbeats, and her colleagues followed. She had a lot on her mind during the briefing, but revealing them seemed inappropriate at the time. She needed to share some of her observations without the thoughts of the Chief or the Muse Inspector clouding them up, and sharing them over the comforting sugar rush of cake was the best option.
