Watashi's quick international voyage shook every Alan, Becky, and Carl across the inhabited continents. But there remained one spot of land still unmolested by her footprints.
The titan gazed north - and a patch of land caught her attention. "Oh? The grass is white up there. Is this turning into a winter dream?"
In only four earth-shattering stomps, the mediator has set foot on the Arctic. Conditions would normally be inhospitable for human life. But thanks to her thick dermis, and the square-cube law, the titan only felt a little chilly. In fact, the natural breast radiating from her melted glaciers and increased sea levels.
However, her height did little to help a simple fact: the icy reaches were still incredibly slippery. Her leg swung ahead a little too quickly - and lost balance. She fell backwards, pupils pointed to the stars.
It felt oddly familiar. As if, some time ago, she'd slipped on a loose banana peel...
---
Pomf.
Watashi's shoulders fell into her bed. Her long hair spread on the covers, dripping down the bedside. She rubbed her temples, stirred by the bright sunlight from the window. It made her head retreat into the soft pillow.
"Morning..." She blinked, and held a hand out. The dream world of green and blue plains disappeared before her eyes. Reality lay in its place. But still, her legs and backside ached, as if she'd exercised. Sleepwalking, perhaps?
That seemed unlikely. Her cooking utensils and books were where she'd left them. Nothing had changed in the room since the mediator climbed into the Sandman's spell. Nothing, that was, except the snoring fairies. Left alone, without their boxes, the little guys multiplied overnight. She sighed. From experience, that meant they'd been up to something. Something "fun".
The green fairy perked up, and gave an inquisitive gaze. "Learn new things?"
Another peeked over. "Learn old things?"
The one in purple turned his head. "Meet and greet the heretical author?" He held up a ripped piece of paper from the story she read last evening.
Half-asleep words rolled from their host's mouth. "Wh...whah? But I never even left the house..." She tapped her head, examining the ancient text again - stories about a massive monster, and the end of everything. What did these guys put in my food? Slipping from the sheets, trying to get another look at the old sheet, she paused. Her bare foot touched the ground.
Her slippers were missing. She brushed the base of her sole, to find strange dirt across it. Soft green and brown, with hard clumps of grey. It broke off against her index finger from every crease and curve.
With an eager grin, the captain trod over, waving his hands towards the litter. "Oh, you brought souvenirs?"
"Souvenirs?" That comment made Watashi stare closer. Amid the lumps, she made out long, thin shapes, resembling toothpicks. And if she squinted closely, that bit of green between her small toe and heel almost looked like a tiny Statue of Liberty... Or The Motherland Beacons?
And when she brought her ear closer, there was almost a tiny buzzing from it... As if it were a radio tower broadcasting a distress signal...
The red fairy pulled the captain back, shivering. "Stop! The souvenirs have EM waves!"
"Electromagnetic waves? Down there?"
Her companions froze. They couldn't stay around with that interference! Instantly, they scattered, packing up their belongings and jumping out.
"Geronimo!"
"Hasta la vista!"
"See you next mission!"
The apron-clad woman rushed to the window after them. "Wait! What was that about?..."
She stopped.
Her jaw dropped.
She pinched herself.
With bulging eyes, the worker stared at a massive structure out the window. "That... Wasn't a dream, was it?"
The torn paper fluttered to her toes. She looked at the paper's torn spots. "Not my dream, at least..."
A black dog barked from the mountain.
---
Y heard a knock at the door. She stuffed her yaoi into a drawer, buttoned her shirt and pants back up, and hastily wiped lubricant from her hands. "Come in, honored guest!"
Through the doorway, Watashi stepped in. She had copies of the old papers on her hands. "I've come to return these. Couldn't find anything for the Human Monument Project."
"Ah, that's too bad." Y shrugged, faking surprise. "I just gave those to you because my boss told me to. Didn't think they'd be worth much."
With a scratch of her head, the mediator stepped in closer, handing the papers to her. "There's one thing that concerns me, though. These are exact photocopies, right?"
"Of course. My copiers are the best in Camphorwood." Running a hand through her silver hair, the discoverer beamed.
Watashi pointed to the torn part of a paper, tilting her neck slightly. "Strange. A photocopier can't duplicate rips." She leaned in closer, smiling. "Which means someone must have ripped them after copying them."
Her companion crossed her arms. "Mistakes happen. Anyway, if there's nothing else..." She cut herself off. The mediator was rummaging through her waste bin.
Before anyone could stop her, the visitor found the other side of the ripped pages. She started reading them. "The great destroyer was a woman with pink hair... A giantess appeared from the sky to trample everything... This story is a work of fiction; however, it was inspired by real accounts of the extinction event, when a goddess visited Earth..." She laughed dryly at an illustration depicting a terrifying silhouette in a long dress, and buildings collapsing below it. "I don't think my feet are that big..."
Twitching, the host looked aside, fiddling with her collar. "I-I just... I didn't want you to... You'd think it was a joke!" Somehow, this smarty-pants found out - even when she'd tried to hide it. She was coworkers with someone who the fairies had sent to the past and grown to giga heights. Someone who'd inadvertently triggered humanity's decline. What could she say?
With a shrug, Watashi dumped the rest of the papers into the bin. She wiped her hands. "There. It's never turned out well when people call me a 'goddess' or 'Queen'. I'm a mediator, and I shouldn't overstep my authority." With a wide smile, she opened the door. "Let's keep it a secret between friends, okay? If this got out, the fairies might get ideas."
Those were her time-tested tactics. "Hide the truth. Manipulate information. Intimidate." Against that, Y couldn't do much but sink into her seat. "Right... Not like I was going to publish manga about it or anything. The secret's safe with me."
With a standard farewell, and an uncomfortable handshake, the workers parted ways. But as the silver-haired woman took her manga back out, she couldn't help but wonder: how had her companion figured the truth out? What led her to question the papers...?
Outside the window, the pink-haired traveler looked at two titanic landmarks, miles into the sky. Moss and scratches caked the sides. As she'd asked them to, Mr. Lefty and Mrs. Righty kept track of where she'd trod.
Her discarded shoes loomed over Camphorwood.
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