The black hole was momentarily illuminated by a flash of lightning. Unana jumped back a few steps with a scream, nearly falling off the roof.
"What's there?" Yueret asked.
Unana couldn't answer. Her hands shook so much that they stopped holding the bow and it disappeared into thin air. Only the violet aura kept her balance and prevented her from sliding down the steep roof.
Yueret decided to check "his" hole, and with a wave of his hand directed the glowing ball toward himself.
"This is an ordinary wooden floor," the older "bear cub" said. "It's true, it's made of planks, and some of them have fallen off, but there are no creatures here."
Unana calmed down a little and was finally able to speak, although the trembling did not disappear. She dropped to her knees and tried to approach the opening again, but couldn't take a single step.
"I thought I saw something," the youngest of the "bear cubs" said. "That can't be true."
"What did you see?"
"I can't say. It was so fast I couldn't see it, but it looks like a bird."
"So you imagined it. That happens because of the delay between your eyes and your brain."
This phrase finally calmed Unana. Soon, the girl stopped shaking and was even able to peer into "her" hole, slightly illuminated by the orb, but saw nothing frightening there.
"I shouldn't have fired the electric arrow there," Unana said. "It exploded, and I saw something that doesn't exist."
"So, we can go down?"
"Uh..."
"Let me go first."
Unana agreed. Yueret jumped into "his" hole and landed on the wooden floor.
The blue glowing ball "jumped" along with its summoner. Yueret immediately noticed he was in a space with multiple partitions made of planks. One of them was the largest, forming a dead end that was impossible to pass through, only to peer through a narrow gap.
"These planks separate 'my' part of the roof from Unana's. I need to see what's there. Otherwise Unana won't be able to descend."
Yueret peered through the gap, but saw only a black background. Even the energy lamp was of no help. The gap was too narrow.
Then, a seemingly simple idea popped into Yueret's head. He summoned a sword, activated an aura on it, and then struck the obstacle...
The blade, coated in blue energy, only managed to chip off a small piece of one of the boards before being thrown back. A wall of blue energy barrier appeared in front of the partition.
"It would be strange to hope for this to work. Dad's thought this through too well."
... Yueret deactivated his aura and returned to the roof, where his sister was waiting.
"There's nothing there. You can go down. But..."
"What?" Unana looked worriedly through the hole.
Yueret told his sister what he'd seen.
"It's a little scary, but interesting," Unana said. "I want to see what we'll find."
"I hope it's not a character. We already have one lord of wet beds."
"It would be better if she didn't exist either. When I meet Dad, I'll give her back. Let him deal with that stupid lizard himself."
Yueret summoned another spherical energy lamp and handed it to Unana. The brother and sister descended almost simultaneously into "their" holes and found themselves in identical "corridors" formed by wooden partitions.
"It's just like in a game," Yueret thought. "I didn't notice it at first. Dad probably really loved playing games and was trying to make a game in the real world. I hope it's not true, but... what if it's true?"
Yueret wanted to share this thought with Unana, but then remembered he couldn't send thoughts like messages. The big brother had to summon the screen and type in the chat.
The sound of an incoming message echoed across the roof. Unana heard it just as she summoned her bow and was wondering which arrow to load it with.
"Exactly," the little sister looked at the message. "Now I understand why we went to... uh... stupid lizard... Why am I thinking about you? You're a freak. Get out of my head. You're not my big brother, you're a stupid lizard."
Soon, the thought of that incident on the coast, where Timnichan nearly killed the "cubs," left the little eighteen-year-old archer's mind, and she continued reading the message:
"Yup, this looks like a game. I haven't played many of these games, but I know that such things definitely happen."
Unana wanted to shout that Yueret was the smartest, but at the last moment she was afraid that instead of calling her big brother by his name, she would again call him by the same word that little sisters call their big brothers in games.
On the opposite side of the roof, Yueret slowly moved along a peculiar "corridor" that suddenly began to descend until it came to a stone door with symbols carved into it.
"There are some lines and squares here," Yueret said, bringing the lamp closer to the door. "I hope I haven't forgotten how to read this."
The symbols were perfectly legible, but some of them were erased, as if censored. At first, Yueret thought they simply hadn't stood the test of time, but soon the missing symbols reappeared, as if they had always been there.
"What? Did I imagine it?"
The answer was simpler. Just as the symbols appeared, a message arrived from Unana, saying she had approached a stone door.
"My little bear cub, if you're reading this, it means your brother or sister has also found a door like this and is reading these letters with their little tired eyes. You've walked many, many steps through the woods with your paws, like real bears, and you deserve a gift."
"This doesn't look like what dad wrote," the "bear cubs" thought simultaneously. "Is this really...?"
"You already received your present from dad. I hope you liked it, but if you didn't, you'll definitely like mine, because it's made for real teddy bears."
"Is this mom?" the brother and sister thought simultaneously.
The answer was never found. As soon as Unana and Yueret finished reading, the symbols faded, even though they had been carved in stone. Only a small hope remained that there would be some kind of clue behind the door.
Soon that moment arrived. The door slid aside, like a stone slab in a game, and the "bear cubs" saw the gift that awaited them...
"Who are you?" Unana took a step back.
On the wall of a small hidden room, slightly larger than a shower stall, hung a brown teddy bear, staring at its future owner with glowing red eyes.
"It's not cute," Unana said, squinting. "It's a plush bear, why is he like this? And it eyes are like those of video game monsters. They're definitely shooting something."
Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the roof, Yueret spotted another plush bear, this one white-blue, with blue eyes. Out of habit, he summoned his sword and shield and was about to activate his aura with his mind, but something stopped him.
"It's just a toy. It probably doesn't even talk."
The sword and shield disappeared. Yueret summoned his inventory and approached the plush bear, but couldn't bring himself to move it. Its glowing blue eyes looked as if they were about to freeze him.
"No, there's something wrong with this toy. I wonder what Unana's doing with it?"
... At that moment, his little sister was already holding the brown, red-eyed plush bear in her arms, even stroking its ears.
"You're so soft," the girl said in a childish voice. "What's your name?"
"No."
"What?"
Unana turned the toy to face her and tried to figure out where the voice was coming from. But the strange creature had no opening capable of producing sound.
"You haven't named me yet," the voice continued.
"You speak," Unana frowned. "But you don't have a mouth."
"You need a mouth, not me. I speak with a signal."
"What do you mean?"
"Touch my ears."
Unana touched one of the bumps and felt something hard.
"There are antennas," the bear explained. "But they're hidden in your ears, so you can't see them. You only hear the voice in your head."
"Uh..."
Unana sank to the floor. Her brain refused to process what was happening, so she simply stared at one of the boards ahead.
"What will you name me?" the voice asked.
"Uh..." Unana answered again.
"You can't name me that. You weren't named that."
"What... my… name?" Unana began to regain her ability to think.
"When I was little, Yueret named me Unachan. Then I grew up and didn't want him to name me that. I was big now, after all. It would be weird if he named me that now."
Unana looked at the red-eyed plush bear sitting on the floor next to her. It was so small it could fit on the paw of a real adult bear.
"Let me name you Unachan," the archer suggested. "You're small, and that name is definitely available. I'm Unana now."
"That name is available. You can call me that. Are you sure about that?"
"Uh... Naming your toy after your childhood name feels weird. But I can't think of another name. If I choose a name for you, can I change it later?"
"No."
"Why?"
"You don't just change your name for no reason?"
"Actually, names can change. Yueret called me Unachan because I was little, and he, like a big brother, loved and cared for me very much. Now he still cares, but not as well. He used to put me to bed and even tell me stories about animals that got lost in the forest and escaped hunters. It was fun."
"Do you love your brother?"
"Uh..." Unana looked at the ceiling and smiled. "He makes tasty squirrels. I love squirrels, so I guess I love Yueret too."
"Then you can call me by his childhood name."
"What's Yueret's childhood name?" Unana thought. "Ueet… No, that's just his name, only in a childish way."
Soon, the archer realized she couldn't remember what she'd called her big brother as a child.
"Let's call you Unachan instead. You're a cute little bear, just like me when I was little..."
"Oh," Unana said in alarm. "Did I really say that out loud? It's a good thing it's just a toy."
"How old are you?" the voice asked.
"Eighteen," Unana answered.
"Can you play with me? You're a big girl now."
Unana looked down and accidentally noticed a breast protruding from her gray-purple top. Over the years, the girl had become so accustomed to this part of her body that she had stopped noticing it.
"It's been too long. I've grown up, but I still want to pet cute little animals. The main thing is that Yueret doesn't find out about this."
The archer looked at the plush bear again. It was still sitting on the floor by the wall and hadn't even moved his paw.
"Of course I can play with you," Unana said. "You're Unachan. But you don't move. You can't walk?"
"I'm not a doll or a robot. I'm just a toy with antennas in my ears."
"Then I'll carry you. You'll be my plush bear."
...Unana flew out of the hole in the roof, her face contented and her eyes closed. Her arms clutched the red-eyed brown bear cub tightly to her chest, as if it might accidentally fall.
"Well, that's it," Unana sighed. "Yueret's probably already out of here and waiting for us downstairs. We must hurry."
The archer opened her eyes, but instead of her brother or the "stupid lizard," she saw a girl with long purple hair and a blue plaster on her nose. Her torso was covered only by an apron-like armor made of dark blue rubber plates, and her legs were bound with black ribbons.
"It's a doll," Unana's heart sped up.
A moment later, the archer was already holding a weapon with a purple energy arrow in her hands, and a plush bear was peeking out from her top.
"You look like him," the stranger said. "But you're not him. Are you his sister?"
"What?" Unana realized the doll was asking something, but her fear was so strong it blocked her speech recognition.
"Do you know this man?"
The doll waved her hand in front of her, causing a screen to appear with an image of the head of a man who looked like Yueret.
"Is this the uncle I met in the abandoned village?" Unana wondered. "Or is it Yueret? No, it's not Yueret. I remember him too well, so I'll recognize him. Maybe it's…"
The bow with the energy arrow fell from the girl's hands. Unachan was luckier. The breasts held him firmly, despite the low-cut top.
"You didn't answer. You're hiding something. Maybe I should strike you with lightning? It makes people talk."
The doll waved her hand, and the screen closed. A bolt of electricity appeared in her other hand.
"A birdie is about to fly out," the doll waved its free hand like a wing. "It'll make you talk."
The bow and arrow, no longer connected to its summoner, vanished into thin air. Unana could have summoned it again, or activated her aura to escape, but the thought that entered her mind blocked all abilities.
"Is it really him? I've never seen him before, and now... I never thought I'd see him for the first time on a screen shown to me by some doll."
The electric clot in the doll's hand turned into a small bird that crackled loudly like lightning. The plush bear in Unana's top continued to stare at the approaching threat with its glowing red eyes and showed no reaction. It seemed as shocked as its owner.
"I forgot to introduce myself," the doll said suddenly. "My name is Nyonyokyo."
These words saved Unana and her toy. A blue energy beam erupted seemingly out of nowhere and severed the doll's arm, from which the bird had appeared.
"What do you want with my little sister?" A boy in a black jacket, pants, and boots, surrounded by a purple aura, leaped onto the roof, holding a short sword.
"Yueret," Unana immediately recognized her big brother.
"I asked her if she knew someone," Nyonyokyo summoned a screen with her remaining hand, displaying the image of that very man.
"You're a doll," Yueret's aura turned blue. "Who sent you?"
"Nobody," Nyonyokyo answered. "My sis and I are alone. But together we are very strong. You can tell by the two large things in front. My sister's size is the same size as mine. She also has pink hair. She's a healing doll."
"Is there another doll around here?" Yueret asked.
"No, my sis is somewhere else," Nyonyokyo answered. "We split up because we're looking for him."
"The man on the screen", Yueret said.
"Yes," Nyonyokyo answered. "Does he look like you and your... little sister?"
"How do you know it's my little sister and not my big sister?"
"By height," the doll placed her palm to her head, as if measuring her height.
"Are dolls all this strange?" Unana and Yueret thought simultaneously.
"You must know where this man is," Nyonyokyo continued.
"Why?" Yueret asked.
"Because you look like him," the doll explained.
"Can she read minds?" Unana thought fearfully.
"Why are you looking for him?" Yueret asked. "Did he do something to you?"
"It's a secret," Nyonyokyo turned her head back. "But if you defeat me, I'll tell you. If I defeat you, you'll tell me."
"Is this doll part of dad's plan, too?" Yueret thought. "If so, we have to agree, otherwise they'll force us."
Nyonyokyo closed the screen with the human image, and then summoned another screen, a round one with a black button in the middle.
"I'm going to record a video for my sis," the doll explained. "She needs to see how strong I am. I won't lose to her."
Nyonyokyo looked at own hand, which lay on the edge of the roof. Yueret and Unana watched as the severed limb rose into the air and flew toward its former owner, before returning to its original place.
"Now I'm ready," Nyonyokyo raised her hand to the plaster on her nose. "Let's get started."
Yueret summoned a shield and prepared to repel a possible attack. Unana finally recovered from her shock and was able to summon her bow with a purple energy arrow again.
Nyonyokyo placed her finger on the edge of the plaster and it stuck to him. The next moment, the doll abruptly tore it off, along with her face...