User blog:Mai Is Me/Forest of Bewilderment

This is from the original Japanese website, here. This is a fan translation by me.

Performing: Dakota ・ Matt ・ Vivian ・ Van

◇Fugue Forest

Inside the dim forest, a group of children walk looking around and looking worried.

Matt: 「…Didn't we just pass this way?」 Vivian:「It feels that way.」 Van:「It seems we're lost.」 Dakota: 「…Ooh, I'm so hungry...」 Vivian:「Dakota, you originally said you wanted to go to Fugue Forest.」 Dakota: 「Because, you said there was a super delicious phantom mushroom…」 Matt: 「Sorry, I heard a rumour that it was deep in the forest…」 Van:「This isn't the time to place blame.」 Vivian:「You're right. I'm sorry.」 Dakota: 「Um, I know! Let's all eat some chocolate! That'll cheer everyone up!」

The children, tired from walking, sat down to share the chocolate.

Van:「Let's calmly go over the situation. Why did the marks we left disappear?」 Dakota: 「My and Matt's bread crumbs were eaten by little birds…right?」 Matt: 「That was a mistake…」 Van:「I left some sparkly pebbles that I had polished but they're also missing.」 Vivian:「I specifically tied a ribbon to a tree branch. It's missing too though…」

With an anxious air wafting about, everyone faltered.

Matt: 「……Do you think the witch got rid of them so we'd get lost?」 Van: 「The witch is just a rumour adults made up to teach kids.」 Vivian:「That just makes me want to prove that they're not real.」 Van:「But this certainly isn't a normal forest. Look, this magnet can't settle on a direction.」 Dakota: 「Yeah, it's so full of trees you can hardly see the sky.」

When everyone looked up at the sky, a bird could be heard loudly flapping its wings. Seeing a human figure coming out of the bushes, the surprised children flee.

Dakota: 「Aaah!」 Matt: 「Waah!」 Vivian:「Eeek!」

Matt: 「T-That was scary...」 Dakota: 「The witch! It's the witch! She was really there!」 Vivian:「N-No she wasn't! You were just imagining things because you were scared…」 Van:「Should we go back and make sure?」 Vivian:「…No, it's fine. That aside, we should find the path out of this forest.」

Dakota began running, like she had noticed something. She closed her eyes and began smelling the air around her.

Dakota: 「…I smell cake!」 Matt: 「Huh? You do?」 Vivian:「Dakota, you're just imagining things because you're hungry…」 Dakota: 「No, I'm positive! This way!」 Van:「Dakota, don't run!」

The children run after Dakota who was pursuing her belief. They see a figure of a person waving its hand.

Dakota: 「Oh, it's Mr. Wizard!」 Wizard:「Is everyone safe? Thank goodness. …The adults are all worried.」 Matt: 「…We're sorry.」 Wizard:「……Tonight will be filled with……scolding. Um, ……Here, a snack. …For you.」 Dakota: 「Wow, it's cake! Thanks!」 Vivian:「…Ugh, returning home is depressing.」

With a gloomy expression, Vivian let out a sigh. The Wizard went to see the children off out of the forest. Van looks over his shoulder at the forest.

Van:「I wonder if that really was a witch…」

With the sun sinking in the sky, the kids left behind a peaceful Fugue Forest.

In the complete darkness, the witch softly approached the Wizard.

Wizard:「……You could have given it to them yourself.」 Witch:「If they thought it was from me, they would have run away!」 Wizard:「……Because you were gathering their marks」 Witch:「They were leaving behind cool stuff… And it didn't know that they were leaving it as marks! Besides, I gave them a cake to apology… Ugh, I'm going home!」

After hiding a somewhat lonely face, while yelling angrily she left the situation.

Wizard:「…Jeez」

The Wizard's small murmur and faint smile were swallowed up in the forest. Realizing that bringing a close to the messy disturbances of the witch was becoming his duty, his sigh was tingled with a smile.

END