#shadell

Lavinia Mortlake, I think I full name was, had... some connection to Counselor Naotake? She'd showed up the same time the new Counselor had, with her having gotten a job on staff through them. I guess maybe she was the Avaritia to Naotake's Noir. In the general sense of course, unless there really was something supernatural going with them, which really wouldn't surprise me by now. She had what could be called an 'overachiever' or 'smartest in class' look to her, with her glasses, dark braids, and freckles. Made me think back how much I'd been slacking in my own studies.

I stepped back into that Counselor's office once again, and my eye immediately caught on something Mr. Noir certainly didn't have. A large box draped in a woolen sheet dominated much of the room. I magnetically moved towards it, my hand outstretched, before I heard a loud cough and a velvety yet firm voice proclaim, "Chiro Dunne, I believe your business is with me."

"Ah yes, of course, so sorry!" I blurted out upon Counselor Naotake calling me out, my face already flushed. I then sat down before the Counselor; 'Dr. Kaguya Naotake' emblazoned atop her desk. Towering over me, she was as intimidating as Mr. Noir was, with her long midnight black hair marked by a single silver streak, deep and piercing eyes, and her dark, elaborate dress like that of a doll from hundreds of years ago. I tried to keep Inessa's recommendation in mind as I gazed upon her, yet simultaneously, I had to commend her on dressing so strikingly. I knew I was far too self-conscious to wear an outfit like hers.

What she did next caught me more off guard, she actually smiled and chuckled at me. "Really, my dear Dunne, no need for apologies. Protective as I am of her, I can't blame you for taking such notice," Doctor Naotake said, her voice lighter and softer. For some reason, I took that the 'her' she mentioned wasn't Miss Mortlake. "In fact, that's exactly what I've been meaning to talk about with you," she said next, her voice again growing firmer. "I hear you have a rather nasty habit of apologising when you have absolutely no need to. Awfully improper and impolite of you... though now I've said that I suppose your natural inclination is to apologise. That one's on me, I admit."

She was all too right, as I was about to say sorry before her words stopped me midway. I was even about to say sorry for saying sorry. I then changed it to, "Yeah, I suppose that's true," but then had to ask, "Wait, how did you know? I thought these sessions started with you asking me what the problem was? Er, or so I've experienced."

"Simple, my dear. Miss Brandt told me all about you," Doctor Naotake said, then eyed me closer, "and how you've found yourself swept up from one bad situation to another." I winced and nodded, but then she said, "Chiro, I absolutely do not blame you for that, doing so would help nothing. If I may play the 'relatable' card, I found myself in quite the bad crowd in my own schooldays. Why, some would insist I still run with a bad crowd even now."

I shuddered to ask just what about this 'bad crowd' Inessa had told her about. I knew she absolutely wasn't the sort of person would just tell on me, especially with something of Abyssal Forest magnitude. And yet, given what I'd done, didn't people have every reason to be warned about me? Clearing my throat, I ventured "So, you're saying I can get out of this bad crowd? Cause if so, er, thanks for the encouragement, but I really believe I've gotten in too deep now..."

Before I could finish, Doctor Naotake then raised a hand, as a butterfly suddenly came flying in and landed on her fingers. "Can a butterfly break free of its cocoon, or a snake shed its skin?" she asked me. "Of course they can, as can you break free of the two prisons you find yourself in. I shouldn't need you tell you what the first is, but the second, Chiro dear, is the one you've built in your own mind. I'm not saying everything will be fine if you just escape your self-loathing, there's still an arduous road ahead, one I've walked myself. But they say 'all journeys begin with a single step' for good reason."

"No, I can't!" I gasped, nearly losing control of myself, before I blubbed, "I'm... I'm not that sort of person." I wasn't even a butterfly or snake, but a bat. I could picture Naotake saying that was but semantics, but I wasn't assigned that animal for no reason.

Dr Naotake then sighed; I couldn't blame her as her exhaustion with me emanating like miasma from her. "I am most likely going to regret this, dear Chiro. In my deal with time, this is a most grey area," she said. All I could think at the moment was what a 'contract with time' even was, I think I would've heard if there was a Saint or Beast with time powers. "But I can see drastic measures are called for. Bear with me a little while, I'm just off to fetch someone." Drastic measures? No, please, not for someone like me, I'm not worth them. And definitely not if it involves messing with time or breaking a deal. Of course, I was too weak to voice any of this before the Doctor did what she did.

She then lifted up the cloth to reveal what I could only call a blue box underneath, stepping inside. Wait, it had 'Police' written on it, didn't England have those way back in the day? The weirdness of a British police box being here was then eclipsed as it vanished right before me, making a wheezing, groaning noise as it did. I know I really shouldn't have been surprised by a sight like that anymore, yet I still found myself almost falling back in my chair.

While Dr Naotake was out, Miss Mortlake came back in and asked "Guess she talked to you about apologising too much, right? She tells me that all the time too." I nodded, which made her come closer and add, "But if The Doctor says there's a way, then there really is a way. I used to be in, well, she called them a 'cult'. I thought I'd be trapped there forever, yet she really got me out. So I know, I just know she can do the same for you!" her voice raised.

I instinctively shook my head, about to say that she was worth it, I wasn't. And that whatever her situation was, mine was completely different. Except, was it? I knew nothing about the cult Miss Mortlake used to be in. It couldn't have but somewhere in the Abyssal Forest, but who was to say there weren't... other places?

That wheezing, groaning sound came back again, and Dr Naotake walked out along with something else, both having somehow fit in that one box. That someone else was... me? No, she looked like just me, but there was no way it could be! This person was a girl, and I'm not, I can't be...

"Quite the adventure, but we've finally made it," Dr Naotake said despite having been gone only seconds. "Chiro Dunne, since you're still shy with introductions," she added, patting the green girl on the back, "may I do the honours? Chiro, yourself from the future. Miss Chiro, yourself from the past." Hearing that nearly broke me.

"I, I know I'm going to stumble saying this, but I really am you! Er, I mean you're going to be me," the future 'me' pleaded with me. i trembled as I saw she was even holding Count Fruitula, if a little patched up.

I blushed again and felt the urge to leave the room, were Miss Mortlake not blocking my way. I just shook my head fast and faster instead, then said to the girl from the future, "N-no, I'm sorry, whoever you are you've gone too much out of your way for me. There is absolutely no way you can be me., you're too pretty, too feminine, too-"

"I remember," the girl suddenly said, "I remember saying those exact same words. Chiro, myself, please, don't hurt yourself by saying that. It'll only be start, but you have to be kind to yourself, tell yourself you can change for the better! It's, well, a lesson I still have to learn even now. I'd give anything to have learned it sooner..." she looked downcast, then muttered, "I still don't think I can truly love myself, but you have to try! At least accept yourself, accept you are-"

"A girl?" I asked, with me feeling ashamed over how quickly that word came to my head. Again, I was about to say no, and again I couldn't. I felt I had to say no, but did I really want to?

"If it helps, I used to look like a man myself. Granted, I have, how to put this, certain 'privileges', but the principle's the same, " Dr Naotake chimed in, "If a caterpillar cannot imagine itself a butterfly, how shall it ever grow?"

My 'future self' then looked at Dr Naotake and, with some hesitation, asked, "Doctor, may I? I know you don't like this sort of thing..."

"Well my dear, I did say your circumstances called for drastic measures," Dr Naotake said back to her, then narrowed her eyes, "but any damage to your own timestream is on you, am I clear?"

She winced and nodded, before 'myself' looked at me and said, "Gentle as a spring breeze, Angelic Saint Humanitas takes the stage!" Were Miss Mortlake not there to catch me, I would've fainted seeing this girl who said she was me transforming into the very image a Saint right before me. I am no Saint, that should be proof she couldn't be me, yet she still said, "Chiro, I was you, so I know you cannot believe this, even I still find it hard to believe, but..." she said as I was engulfed in her green aura, "This is your future!" Upon detransforming, she looked back at the blue box and said, "Suppose I really should go, timestream and everything. Not to mention how Michael would react to what I just did."

"Oh yes, that 'Who is like God'. We shall have words," Dr Naotake said, then smiled at 'me' and said, "It's all perfectly normal, my dear. My own interactions with my past selves have never gone smoothly either. But that's another story for another time."

Having no way to believe what I just saw, I tried asking something else instead, something more plausible... relatively. "Dr Naotake, er, if I may ask, how is it you can all fit inside that box?"

"The word you're looking for is TARDIS, Chiro dear. And it's simple, a little thing we call dimensional transcendence. Oh, and you can just call me 'Doctor', only reason I call myself Kaguya Naotake is your school made me give some name when I set up shop as Counselor here," The Doctor told me. She then looked past me at Miss Mortlake and said, "Lavinia dear, time we were off. Now this whole business with the Daleks exploiting the Abyssal Forest has been sorted, our job here is done." Wait, Dalek? Did she mean the Beast of Wrath?

"Ah, can I just have a few more minutes? There are people here I wanna say goodbye too, that's all," Miss Mortlake asked, having to readjust her glasses. That she already had people to go out of her way to say goodbye to cast a dark mirror on my own social skills.

"Alright, just a few more minutes. I've always found farewells rather bothersome myself, but if they mean that much to you," The Doctor told her.

Before Miss Mortlake got back, I knew I should ask one last thing... I just didn't know what. The thought of my own future, my own identity, was still burning in my head. Yet I froze at the thought of asking about, well, who I really was, even if that was what these sessions for. So instead, I asked maybe not the best question, but definitely no small one either. "Doctor... are you an Angel? You don't act like a beast at all, but I'd know if you were a Saint."