Chapter 55: Chapter 94 – Ivory, Mimic or Elf?

On this fine early Saturday afternoon, a couple of us decided to come out to one of the many parks in the city. The large park had wide, flat fields for picnic spaces, a nearby jungle gym which was filled with children playing on it, and a whole lot of people just taking their dogs out for a stroll or playing fetch.

"I want to go check out the duck pond!" Tamara exclaimed, trotting off with Rakka.

"Tamara, dear! Don't run off too far!" Ange put both hands on her hips when the sheep girl didn't hear her. She threw me a scolding look and pouted. "You could stand to be a little more responsible for her safety."

I was sitting leisurely on a bench without a care in the world. Ines had promised to take care of the house chores in my place if that's what it took for me to get a day off. Even though she was busy herself, that woman was willing to shoulder some of my workload. Before leaving, I should probably pick her something nice to eat from the city.

"Tamara's fine. She has Rakka with her, and that mana beast is like the perfect guard dog." I glanced over to them by the pond, the pair having drawn not just a crowd of ducks but also a group of children who wanted to play. She was a natural at drawing attention and making friends. Her carefree and friendly demeanor also put worried parents at ease.

Being young herself made the whole netherfolk thing less of a problem it seemed.

Ange sighed and sat down next to me. We intertwined our fingers, and she leaned her head against my shoulder.

"I'm beginning to realize we're acting more and more like her parents by the day." The succubus smiled.

"Really? Because it feels more like I'm the dad to everyone in the dorm!" I joked.

"Oh? Is that how you wish to play then, daddy?" she teased.

Shivers ran through my body.

"Oi, oi! No flirting in front of the children!" Ivory grinned, returning with Remmy from buying large pretzels from a street vendor.

Remmy's pretzels were already drifting around within her slime body, quickly disintegrating from the corrosiveness.

"I wouldn't expect a mimic to understand love. How about a lesson in how many sex toys from this world you can turn into?" Ange smirked.

"Yeah, I'm good. Keep your mangy mitts off me, succubus!" Ivory recoiled with disgust.

Ange got up to go keep an eye on Tamara and Rakka. The other two tenants took a seat next to me. They had become almost inseparable the past few days. It wouldn't surprise me if there was more going on, but how such a relationship could even work was beyond me.

Suddenly, Ivory's stomach laterally split open into a gaping jaw with sharp rows of teeth. They tossed the pretzels in, wrapping paper and all, munched happily. My brain went blank.

"Y-You've been here for a week, and I'm only just now learning… Is that your real mouth?" I asked in horror.

"Hah! Did you think my face was up here all this time?" Ivory pointed to their grinning elven face. "It's all my body, but I don't see, eat, or hear from there."

"Wait a minute… then—"

"This is my eye." They tapped the side of the pendant.

When I took a closer look, the lizard-like eye moved to meet my gaze.

Ivory transformed into the same iron-bound chest from when they first arrived as. It creaked open, whipping out a large tongue and revealing thumb-sized teeth along the edges.

"This was my favorite form in dungeons. I scared Ivory half to death like this when we first met!" The mimic laughed.

"Come to think of it, don't you both have a preferred form except the humanoid one?" I asked them.

"I'm most comfortable like this." Remmy turned into her blob form like I expected.

As for Ivory, they turned back into the elven body. "I don't have a preferred or favorite, but this is just the one I like best."

After talking to Ines, I was beginning to understand Ivory a little more. Maybe not having a form they could default to was part of the problem. The mimic instead chose to assume the body and identity of someone else. What if they could reconcile that and accept being Ivory, both the elf and the mimic?

"Ivory? Ivory!" Remmy was desperately shaking the living mimic who had gone still.

"What happened?" I asked her.

"Ivory suddenly went quiet for some reason…" she said in panic.

I snapped my fingers in front of Ivory's face, then remembered that the head received no sensation or stimulus. It was then, as I turned my gaze to the pendant, that I realized the eye within it was closed when it was normally open.

"Ivory!" I tried shaking them awake to no avail.

A dreadful thought crossed my mind. The living mimic was as still as a corpse.

"We could hear you screaming from across the park!" Ange came running back with Tamara and Rakka in tow.

"Something's happened to Ivory. We can't wake them up, and they won't respond to us!" I explained to Ange.

The succubus leaned down and pressed a hand to the shut pendant.

"Ivory's magic pulse is very faint," she said. "We should get them home now."

"Sorry, Tamara. Looks like we're going to have to come back to the park another day." I frowned.

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Tamara shook her head. "It's okay. Ivory is more important right now!"

We drove straight home and laid Ivory on the couch. Ines and Val rushed downstairs to see what the commotion was.

"Are you guys okay?" Ines asked.

"I don't know," I answered honestly. "For now, we should… probably call…"

"Akira?" As everyone crowded around me, their faces appeared to blur.

"Sorry, guys… I think I'm a little tired…"

My head became foggy. Every ounce of strength left me all at once.

"Akira!"

All I heard was my name being called repeatedly as I fell unconscious.

I woke up on the ground, lying flat on the hard and damp stone inside a dark corridor. Droplets of water fell on my face. Moss and vines grew along the walls. The only light offered to me were flickering torches that were on the verge of going out.

"No way…" Slowly, I picked myself up and leaned against the wall to stay steady.

Having gone through this several times before already, I knew this could only be one thing— Ivory's memories. Ange must have thrown me in here for a chance to help them? 

"Did I faint?" I asked myself.

Ines had been getting on my ass to take a break. Everything probably caught up with me when I saw Ivory go still. Just thinking back on how they looked like an actual dead body sent chills up my spine. However, the fact that I was in here now was proof they still lived.

Several questions crossed my mind. Why did Ivory go still like that to begin with? Their eye in the pendant never closed before. What was the significance of that?

"Ivory!" I screamed down the hall only to be answered by my own echoes.

Should have figured it wasn't going to be that easy.

The first door I found along the corridor was just a rotting plank. Opening it led into a mostly empty room with only a vanity mirror inside. A reflection of Ivory showed up. I whipped around thinking it was them, but no one was behind me. Checking the mirror a second time, I raised a hand to my face and the reflection did the same.

"W-What?! Did I seriously get genderbent?"

I was somehow Ivory in this dreamscape. Pointed ears, short, feminine appearance… There was no mistaking it. The only difference was that I wore a white robe with intricate designs like a fantasy mage would, not the simple one-piece dress.

My curious hands went straight to the chest and was disappointed that Ivory was flat chested.

"No boobs, huh." I sighed in disappointment.

"Akira?"

I jumped and slammed my back into the wall.

"I'm sorry! I was just curious, that's all!" I apologized profusely.

It turned out to be Remmy by the door.

"R-Remmy? How?" I asked.

"I begged Ange to let me in… I wanted to help Ivory no matter what," Remmy said.

Her conviction brought a smile to my face, thankful that Ivory wouldn't be alone.

"How did you know I wasn't Ivory? You see me as the elf, right?" I joined the slime girl outside and picked up a torch to help light our way through.

"You don't have the pendant." Remmy pointed to my neck.

That much was true. I didn't have the same pendant as Ivory, the living mimic did. Which meant that I was taking the role of the real Ivory in this dream. 

Everything started to make sense. Years back, it was Ivory who had found the living mimic in this dungeon. Now Remmy and I had to find the mimic Ivory if we're to get through to them.

A daunting task lay ahead of us. Ivory was stuck as an object for god knows how long in this place. They could be anywhere.

Remmy grabbed my hand. She was shaking.

"Don't worry. We're going to find Ivory. Even if we have to turn this damn place upside down to do it," I said, squeezing her hand.

The slime girl nodded and smiled.

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