Everyone’s Dreams, Coming True!? Chapter 2 - What’s Inside?

The first person we turned to about the little chest's secrets is Arle's acquaintance, Rulue. Arle said "I haven't seen Schezo or Satan today, so we should go see Rulue," before we headed out. Rulue has long, blue wavy hair and is an impressively mature woman. She may be pretty confident, but is also pretty scary when angry. Hey, she's kinda like Raffine, huh?

"Rulue's probably training at the Nahe Forest, isn't she?" Arle asked. Nahe Forest...Indeed she is! She's hanging on one of the tree branches, kicking at a log over and over to do away with it. That's like Arle. She's known Rulue for a long time. As if she knows how she behaves.

"Heey! Rulue!"

Arle gave a big hand wave to Rulue. Then she stopped her movements to look at Arle.

"Arle...What are your reasons for coming to see me?"

She overlooked us while putting a hand on her hip. Ah? She's a little intimidating...

"Uh. Rulue...looks a bit sour?"
"I-I think you're interrupting her lessons..."

Ringo and I nervously whispered to her, which Arle answered with a "Ahaha."

"Well, she's always here! Rulue's always viewed me as a rival. No worries! No worries!"

I-If you say so...

Arle turned to Rulue, asking her "Hey, do you know about this small chest?" and presents the usual little chest to her. Almost immediately, she shook her head.

"I don't recognize it. What are you doing with that small box?"
"I see, oh well. Someone must have lost it, but we don't know who the owner is...."
"You want to see what's inside, but do you know if there is something in it?"
"Yeah. It doesn't have a key or anything, but it can't even open. Here."

Arle handed the box over to Rulue. She tilted her head, feeling around the chest's lid, and just like that, it seems she figured out why it won't open.

"Calm down. If you want to open and see what's inside, I think I can give you a hint on the owner~..."
"Wha, then does that mean we can confirm what's inside it?"
"You can do that, Rulue?!"
"Ohh ho ho HO! Nothing is impossible for the Fighting Queen Rulue! Now look and see!"

After letting out that big laugh, Rulue threw the little chest up in the air.

"Eeh!? W-wait a second..."

I tried to stop her without delay.

"Here we go...Haganshou! Fuujinkyaku!"

Rulue threw an intense punch and kick straight into the midair box!

"Breaking is bad news, especially since it's someone else's!"

I raised my voice, then Rulue answered "Oh, is that so? I thought you at least wanted it open. How careless of me. I'm sorry," all nonchalantly.

Are Arle’s friends all this extreme!? I shoved Rulue out of the way to pick up the little chest on the ground, almost about to cry. Oh fiddlesticks, a fierce attack like that will destroy it for sure...! ...uh, wha?!

What was left to be found was the little chest, not even breaking or having a single scratch. It surprised me when I went to go pick it up.

"H-Hey, look at this!"

Ringo was the first one to look at it.

"Wow, this box is sturdy! I was wrong thinking it would be destroyed beyond repair...or even scratched up. I wonder when its resilience will give in..."

Then Rulue asked about the little chest while raising an eyebrow.

"The box didn't get a scratch from my attack, you say? What is the meaning of this, Arle!!"

For some reason she's closing in on Arle, who's forcing a smile.

"I-I kinda heard everything~...right, Carby?"
"Gu, gugu..."

Then Rulue gave a displeased sigh.

"This insolent little box! Well then, with special technique Joou Ranbu, it'll be sorry..."
"H-H-Hold up, Rulue! We're looking for some certain spell! Hold back on your special technique, kay!"

I hid the little chest behind myself in a panic.

---

The next one we're meeting is someone Ringo knows. His name is Maguro, and he's a really close childhood friend of Ringo.

"Maguro's quite the hobbyist, so he might know something!" Ringo said, while walking before us.

"Heya, this Maguro person...isn't it too sudden to hit him with this chest business?"

I was thinking about earlier when I timidly asked, but Ringo appears to be nodding to herself.

"Rest assured. Maguro is nice to everyone and quite the gentleman."
"I see, that's good!"
"I'm sure the box is kind enough not to discriminate, I'm sure of it!"
"...the box what?"

Then the conversation started to get weird. But then I spotted Maguro right around Primp Town's river. Ringo then spotted him too, and he was taking a stroll.

"Ah, Maguro spotted! Magurooo!" Ringo called, getting Maguro to look at her.

...well, maybe he saw, I think. Maguro's front bangs always hide his eyes, so we can't see his face.

"Hey, Ringo★ Hello~ and how are you★"

And Maguro talks in a weird way too. Ringo knows him, but he's a mystery to everyone else.

"Maguro, please look at this and tell me your conclusion!"

Ringo ran up to Maguro and held the little chest up in front of him without hesitating. Arle and I rushed up after her.

"Oh my~, what a cute little box★ What's wrong with it?"
"I'm sad I can't even open this lost item!"
"R-Ringo! Do you even know a thing you're trying to explain?"

Ringo's explanation fell flat, but Arle came to calmly straighten things up...

"I see~★ Someone lost this little box, and you want to open what's inside to confirm if the owner is someone you know. Yet it won't open and it's frustrating you. Coincidentally, I can explain the secret of the unopening box to Ringo in private★"
"Wait, you know how!?"
"Gugu!?"

Maguro immediately got the explanation, without needing to hear it again. Ringo continues to look shocked.

"Since he has various interests, he seems to know various things..."
"Let me see what you've got~★"

Maguro got the little chest from Ringo, brought it close to his face, tilted it, turned it over, and began surveying it.

"Right now, he's more or less trying out various spells. Relying on the important ones in particular.  Not even a full-power punch and kick from that lady had any effect..."
"All that power couldn't open it...really now★"
"That's right."
"Hmm."

Then Arle asked "Absolute might didn't do a thing, unsealing passwords couldn't make it budge either. What are you thinking, Maguro?" to him. He suddenly went silent for a few seconds after listening...

"Open Sesame★ Open Says Me★ Abracadabra★ Bibbity Bobbity Boo★ Open up chest★ Wait, don't open★ Sorry, open up~! I'd be happy if you'd open, you know...★"

Then he started appealing to the box. Uhh, I've heard all of these before!

"Maguro! Ringo already tried all of those passwords!"

Arle jumped in to stop him, seeing he's continuing to use all these phrases.

"Wha~? Okay~★"
"That's enough Maguro."
"Here you go then★"
"You're excused~!"

The two of them laughed without a care. They really think alike, being childhood friends for so long!

"Anyhow, with the exception of passwords, what approach should we take this time?"

Ringo reverted back to her serious face. Maguro thought for a few seconds, then answered, "This so-called box is a puzzle box, isn't it★"

"Puzzle box?"

Arle and I asked him, and he raised his finger up to explain.

"My home town has these. They're also called secret boxes. It doesn't use keys, but they're mysterious boxes that don't open normally. You shift the sides ever so slightly to open them up that way...In other words, the entire box is a puzzle in itself! It's a delicate craft, and quite beautiful to watch, so the puzzle's level of craftsmanship from all sides must be of high quality..."
"S-Stop, Maguro!"
"You lost Amitie, and you're making my head spin!"

Ringo and Arle both interrupted him. Maguro's obsession with what he likes is pretty nuts, seeing he tends to ramble when he starts explaining. I like many things, but when starts getting complicated, I get lost~!

"So sorry, Amitie★ Or rather, this box situation is turning into a puzzle, isn't it? Well then...★"

With that said, Maguro held the chest and started trying to push the sides with his fingers.

"Just like this...let's find the panel that moves...let's find it...★"

He went at it for a while.

"...No good."

Looks like he gave it his all, but Ringo just sighed.

"Hmm~, It didn't even budge an inch, huh...★ Guess I was wrong..."

---

After Maguro and us went our ways, we went back to the park, nighttime closing in.

"We couldn't get anything in the end~"

I looked at the little chest in my hands and forced a smile, while Ringo let out a frustrated, "Urgrgrgrgr..." grumble.

"Should we continue tomorrow then?" Arle asked, looking around everyone's faces. "See, even Carbuncle looks tired."

Arle pointed at him...I see. He totally lost interest in the little chest, playing around with the Puyo like beanbags. Puyo are creatures that roam everywhere around Primp Town. They're round, squishy, colorful, and everywhere you look at it, they're pretty cute. On top of that, they have this weird trait where if you put four of the same color together, they pop. We always go and pop them as a source of power for the "Puyo Battles" we play...

"Gu gu guu♪ Gu gu guu♪"

Carbuncle took a Red, Blue, and Yellow Puyo and is juggling them with his long tongue. Ah, that looks fun... Everyone's worn out from investigating the little chest's secret today, so maybe tomorrow? With that in mind, I also cheered "Carbuncle, you're so good!" and clapped my hands. Then Carbuncle looked this way, letting out a spirited "Gugu♪". Is it happy because I praised it? Then...Maybe I should jump in and play along with a three color Puyo set of my own! I think Carbuncle said "Let's play together♪" instead. But then I panicked really suddenly. He ended up taking the chest from my hands!

"A-AAH!!"

*Bloop bloop boing!*

The three color Puyo hit the chest one after another. The impacts only made it farther from me until it landed on the ground.

"Aah! C-Carby, don't do what you did just now!"
"Amitie, are you okay?"

Arle and Ringo approached me with concern.

"I'm alright. That surprised me though~"

I picked up the little chest on the ground.

"Geez. Now it's smudged with dirt."

Then I gently brushed off the dirt. Then...the next moment, the unthinkable happened!

*Clatter!*

I thought nothing would get it open, but then the little chest's lid forced itself open!

"Eeh!?" We yelled in shock.

From inside the box, with a "bwoosh" sound, a mysterious smoke kept spewing out of it!

"Uwawawawah, the heck is thiiiiiiis!?"

“Gah...what’s coming out!?”
“Amitie, close it at once, close it please!”

As Ringo said, I shut the lid in a panic...but...

“Amitie! Hurry~~~!”
“I’m trying to close it! But I caaan’t!”

I put in everything I got to close the chest, but it for some reason it's not happening! It's wide open and not moving an inch. Oh phooey, I didn't think it'd open, but now I didn't think it wouldn't close! We're in total chaos right now. Everyone's panicking and the smoke from the chest keeps coming and spreading! I can't see a thing with all this smoke in my view. There were some prismatic dust bits mixed in the smoke, giving the smoke some color. The sparkling does make it really pretty...wait, I can't be bothered with that right now! Uh, er...

After a few moments of panic, the little chest stopped spewing out the smoke. With a "psssh", everything went quiet. Our surroundings were covered in the mysterious smoke, but it gradually faded away in the wind until it was all gone. We were shocked at what was left, but Carbuncle was being carefree...

"Wh...what was that just now!?"

Arle and Ringo just shook their heads and said "We absolutely don't know." when I asked.

"Amitie, what was in the chest?"

I realized it when Arle asked.

"O-Oh yeah!"

I quickly checked the chest...but...

"What the...there's nothing in here."

Arle and Ringo both looked inside the chest, surprised to hear me. But how would we know who to see if there's nothing in here?

"How weird, it even made a sound from inside too...

Me, and everyone else tilted their head.

"Amitie, how did you get the lid to open?"
"Beats me. It conveniently went 'click-clack' and opened up."
"And somehow you weren't able to close it then?"
"Yeah! The lid wouldn't even budge...what the!?"

I tried to show them that the lid wasn't showing signs of closing earlier, but now it closes just like that.

"..."

They gave me this look of suspicion and just stared.

"Wh-What the?! I really mean it!!"

The little chest can open and close so easily now.

"This...is confusing me..."

Everyone was dumbfounded at the chest filled with nothingness.

"Gugu?"

And Carbuncle is being carefree like usual.

---

I don't know what to think, but that's all I can think of. I wanted to go home with the little chest,  wanting to break off for the day.

"Let's continue with the small box's investigation tomorrow!" Ringo said, with Arle beside her.
"Yeah, lets~. I don't know how it opened, but I feel like I had something to do with it."

Yup, that's right. I'm that kind of person. I'm doing this for the owner... Yeah, I'll give it my best with the little chest's investigation! There's no school tomorrow, so I have much more time than today.

"Well then, see you tomorrow!"

We gave our goodbyes and hand waves, and I headed down the road back home. Everyone has such high anticipation there. The next day, after the time the chest opened, I woke up to something surprising...