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magicaldogtoto · 1 year

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Parallel Worlds Record Chapter Seventeen: Please... Don't Leave Me

Rating: Teen

Genre: Magical Girl, Fantasy, Angst, Drama, Crossover

Word Count: Approx. 5,700 words

Summary: Still stunned from the revelation that Amare was hiding information from her, Yachiyo and co. continue to Glinda's palace, where the Sorceress offers a way to help Yachiyo find her missing alternate self.

Author's Note: Thanks again to @celesticnova and @evatriceakiyama for beta-reading this for me! Also thank you to my friend Luce on Twitter for letting me include her version of Lucina in this fic, as well.

[Also posted on AO3.]

***

[YACHIYO]

Yachiyo felt a ringing sensation in her ears. “W-what? Please tell me this is a sick joke.”

Amare looked away. “It isn’t… I helped Epithene conquer Oz.”

Yachiyo stepped back, just looking at her. Her mind was in a whirl. She thought about how Amare had kept to herself ever since they arrived in Oz. How she didn’t want to join in the tour of the Emerald City. How she said she didn’t think her parents would want to see her again. It all made too much sense.

All this time… and Amare never told her! Had she been traveling with a war criminal this whole journey?

“Amare…” Yachiyo clenched her fist. She wasn’t sure what else to say.

“She’s telling the truth,” the girl on top of Amare said. She got off of Amare, only to give her a swift kick in the stomach.

Amare yelped, wincing on the ground from the impact. “Please…” she said weakly. She attempted to get up, only to wince once more and fall onto her side.

“My home in the Munchkin Country,” the girl said, glaring at her. “Epithene’s army burned it down. You were there, I saw you!” She kicked Amare once more, causing the dark-haired girl to cry out again.

“So many of us died during that war! My family…!” the girl screamed, tears forming in her eyes. “Why are they dead, while you aren’t?!”

“Hold on,” Yachiyo said, holding up her hand. “This isn’t…”

“Thought you could get away from what you did by running off to Japan, huh?” the girl next to the first one said. “You have a lot of nerve showing your face here again.”

Amare didn’t say anything else, simply staring at the ground. Her wavy black hair was a tangled mess, and there was dirt on her face. It was a pathetic sight, and Yachiyo didn’t like the thought of watching Amare get kicked around while defenseless.

The sound of footsteps running could be heard from behind Yachiyo. Neseel immediately got in between Amare and the other girls.

“Don’t hurt her!” the young Magical Girl said, her arms outstretched as she glared at the girls with her brown eyes.

The girl who had kicked Amare hesitated, before glowering at Neseel. “Out of the way, Neseel,” she said, “she deserves it!”

“If she deserves it,” Neseel began, “then so do I! I worked for Epithene, too!”

Tara glanced at the other two, waiting to see what their next move would be.

“You’re different, Neseel,” the girl who kicked Amare said. “You were just a child; Epithene manipulated you. You joined us and helped fight to protect Oz. You’re nothing like her!”

“Neseel’s right,” Yachiyo said. “We don’t have to do this…”

They turned to her. “Don’t get too carried away, Yachiyo Nanami,” the first girl said. “We still don’t get why you still chose to stay with a worthless girl like her.”

Yachiyo paused. “I…”

“You’re wrong,” Amare said. “That’s not Yachiyo… not the one who I fell for.”

“What?” Tara asked. “What do you mean, Amare?”

Amare grimaced. “It’s complicated…”

“If that’s the case,” the first girl said. “Then she won’t mind if I do this!” She pushed Neseel to the ground and raised her hand, preparing to strike Amare.

Before Yachiyo or anyone could do anything, someone grabbed the girl by the arm. A hand wearing a blue, fingerless glove held the girl back.

Amare looked at who the hand was attached to. She blinked. “Lucina?”

“That’s enough now.” It was a girl with long, blue hair (as long as Yachiyo’s, even, and with a gold headband on top), and blue eyes. She had a lithe body, and wore a blue tunic with knee-high, blue boots, in addition to the gloves. She even had a blue cape on, and a sword by her side.

“Big Sister!” Neseel got up and ran up to her, hugging her tightly. Lucina hugged her back before looking her over.

“Hello, Neseel,” she said. “How was the Witch? Are you hurt?”

Neseel looked up at her. “It wasn’t too hard. Kira and I ran into Yachiyo and her friends, too!”

“Yachiyo, right…” Lucina turned to Yachiyo. “We were expecting you…” There was a familiarity in her eyes, something that Yachiyo could not return.

“Am I… supposed to know you?” Yachiyo asked.

Lucina smiled at her. “You are. We fought alongside each other before. Glinda did mention that something had happened to you.”

“Lucina,” the girl the former was holding onto said, “let me go.”

Lucina turned to the girl, her face stern once more. “Only if you promise not to hurt Amare.”

The girl glared at Lucina, then at Amare. She sighed, putting her hand down. Neseel moved to help Amare back up.

Lucina released her. “There we go,” she said. “You three should know better. What would you do if Glinda saw you like this?”

At the mention of Glinda, the other girls tensed up, their faces pale. Their eyes darted around the area, and Yachiyo wondered what it was they were looking for. Her eyes caught sight of a red bird perched on the tree nearby. It seemed to be looking at the group. Watching.

“Is everything alright?” Another girl walked up to them. She wore the same red uniform with gold braids that the other girls were wearing. Her hair was also long, and dark brown, as were her eyes. She had tanned skin, and a sword and pistol by her side. Even in the red uniform, Yachiyo couldn’t help but notice how fit she seemed, nor could she ignore how impressive her bust seemed to be…

“Aliss,” Lucina turned to her. “Amare’s here…”

“I can see that,” Aliss said. Amare had managed to get back on her feet, and looked Aliss in the eye.

“A-Aliss, hi.” Amare seemed to have a look of regret and guilt in her eyes.

Aliss smiled at her. “Hello, Amare,” she said. “It’s been a while. I was wondering when you’d come back to Oz.”

“You’re Aliss?” Yachiyo asked. “Amare’s mentioned you before.”

Aliss turned to her. “I am,” she said. “The other you and I are also friends.”

“I’m getting used to being told that,” Yachiyo said.

“Glinda said you’d be coming by today. Sorry we had to meet like this, but we ended up getting ambushed by another Witch. Lucina took care of it.”

Yachiyo turned to the other blue-haired girl. “You’re a Magical Girl?”

Lucina held up her left hand, showing her Soul Gem ring. “I am indeed. I’ve been protecting Oz for over a year now.”

“I see.”

Aliss surveyed the area, before turning back to Yachiyo. “Here, how about you come with us? We’re just about to head back to the palace. We can guide you there.”

Yachiyo nodded. “That would be wonderful.”

“Hold on,” one of the girls said. “If we’re all traveling, Amare should stay in chains. Just so she doesn’t do anything.”

Aliss frowned. “I don’t think we have to…Ozma pardoned her, remember?”

“It’s fine. I’ll do it.” Amare looked at the ground. “I won’t protest or anything.”

Aliss’s expression remained. “If you’re sure…?”

Amare nodded. “Please. Let’s just go now.”

Aliss shrugged. “Okay. But you’ll ride with me. And I’ll be making sure that Glinda hears about this… all of it.” She glared at the three other girls, who seemed to tremble just a bit.

Yachiyo, meanwhile, noticed the red bird taking off from the tree and heading Southwest.

With that, Amare was led away by the other girls. She glanced back at Yachiyo, their eyes meeting one more time, before she turned away.

Yachiyo watched them leave, saying nothing. She turned to see Mifuyu a short distance away, and walked over to her.

“Hey,” she said. “Are you okay?”

Mifuyu looked up at her. “I… I’ll be fine,” she said.

Nearby, Yachiyo could hear Claudine and Uwasa Tsuruno arguing. She turned, and saw Kira in the middle of the two of them, trying in vain to reign things in.

“You could have gotten us both killed!” the blonde girl said, her voice sounding even louder in the empty field.

Tsuruno seemed taken aback. “I was just trying to stop the Witch,” she said. “If you’d just let me go ahead and attack first…”

“You just ran in there without thinking,” Claudine pressed on. “What if one of the Familiars got a lucky shot? You’d be dead!”

“There’s no need to get too heated…” Kira said, holding up her hands.

“I’m the Mightiest Uwasa!” Tsuruno shouted back. “You can’t hesitate in battle, that gives the Witch enough time to kill you! If you really were as great a Magical Girl as you said you were, you would understand that…!”

Claudine glared at her. “I may not be the best Magical Girl,” she began, “but at least I’m an original. I’m not a cheap copy of another girl!”

Tsuruno flinched at her words. The life seemed to fade from her eyes as she slumped.

“Tsuruno?” Yachiyo walked up to her.

“...” Tsuruno turned and slowly trudged along the field, back to their carriage. She passed by Kira, who reached out to her, only to stop, frowning.

Yachiyo glared at Claudine. “Nice job,” she said.

Claudine just crossed her arms and looked away. Kira looked at everyone, clearly trying to figure out the right words.

“I think we’re done here,” Kira began after a moment.

“I agree,” Yachiyo said.

Up ahead Aliss, Lucina, Neseel, and the other girls had gotten on horses. Amare remained with Aliss, now tied by her wrists and holding onto the older girl. Kira walked over to them and joined on her own horse. Yachiyo sat back in front of the carriage. Claudine was from the opposite side from Tsuruno, looking out the window. Meanwhile, Mifuyu sat in-between the feuding duo, leaving Yachiyo to sit on her own. By now all of them had de-transformed.

“Everyone in there?” the Sawhorse asked. “Let’s get going, then.”

The Sawhorse began making his way down the road once more, the party on horses traveling ahead of them. Yachiyo watched the scenery go by, not entirely sure what she should be feeling right now.

“Did you know?” she asked, eyes still on the grassy fields passing them by.

“What?” Claudine asked behind her.

Yachiyo turned to face the blonde, who’s magenta eyes still seemed fiery with emotion. “Did you know?” she asked again. “Did you know about Amare?”

There was silence for a few seconds. “Yes,” Claudine said. “I did.” Tsuruno remained silent, her eyes still glazed over.

Yachiyo frowned. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Amare made us promise not to,” Claudine said. “She wasn’t sure how you’d react, given that you don’t know anything about this world.”

“I didn’t know,” Mifuyu said quietly. “Amare and I weren’t close enough for her to tell me.”

The white-haired girl gazed out the window next to her. “Another Magical Girl who makes a mistake because she’s afraid…” she whispered under her breath.

Claudine’s gaze wandered to Tsuruno, before immediately looking away. Tsuruno still seemed lost in her own world, her face unreadable. Yachiyo decided to let her be for now.

“What about Ozma?” Yachiyo asked. “She didn’t say anything while we were with her.”

Claudine glanced at Yachiyo, her elbow propping her head up as she watched the fields go by. “Amare told her she would take care of it. She really wanted to be able to tell you herself.”

All of this was too much for Yachiyo to take in. Just when she thought she got the hang of things around here, more details emerged to catch her off guard. She closed her eyes, the fight and lull of the journey now getting to her. Before she knew it, she was drifting off to sleep.

When she awoke again, they were now journeying about brooks with wooden bridges, and wide fields with flowers and grain growing. The homes were all red now, and now and then Yachiyo could see people wearing all manner of red clothes.

“Are we there yet?” she asked, covering her mouth to stifle a yawn.

“I hope so,” Claudine said quietly.. Next to her, Tsuruno was looking out the window, still saying nothing. Ahead of them, the girls riding on horseback kept going.

Within minutes they saw a castle with red columns and roofs standing on a hill. As they traveled closer, they passed by many beautiful gardens, and Yachiyo could even see water fountains splashing in the distance around them. There were girls walking among the gardens; some wearing military uniform and carrying spears, and others wearing maid outfits or more casual dress. The party on horses went ahead of them, heading into the palace.

Soon they reached the gates at the entrance of the castle, where three girls in red uniforms and wielding spears were standing guard. The Sawhorse stopped in the front.

Yachiyo emerged from the carriage and walked up to the three girls.

“State your business,” one girl who couldn’t have been more than a year older than Yachiyo said.

“I’m Yachiyo Nanami,” the girl said. “I’m here to speak to Glinda the Good Witch.”

The girls turned to each other, then back at Yachiyo. “We knew you were coming,” the girl who greeted her said. “Glinda has been expecting you. Come on in.”

Yachiyo motioned for the others to get out of the carriage. The girls walked behind her as they made their way into the palace. All eyes were on them as they entered, though Yachiyo did her best not to notice. She was used to strangers looking at her, after all.

Once they had walked into a grand hall, Aliss appeared to them.

“There you are,” she said. “Follow me, Glinda’s in her throne by the colonnade.”

They walked further through the castle, passing by more and more girls. Amare was right, there wasn’t a man in sight. The girls all seemed to range from their late teens to late thirties. Of course, knowing that no one in Oz had to age unless they wanted to, Yachiyo couldn’t help but wonder how many of them were actually as old as they appeared. Yachiyo did, however, have to agree with what Amare said: there was a certain beauty and grace with how they all carried themselves. Even the maids seemed to move with little effort in looking composed while they dusted the vases or carried items around. And the soldiers and guards were equally graceful.

Eventually they reached the palace court, which was made of white marble. Fountains poured water into stone basins, the sound greeting Yachiyo’s ears when she entered the court. At the other end of the court was a vast colonnade, which overlooked green fields with pretty flowers and fruit-bearing trees. Further than that, Yachiyo could make out a vast desert that seemed to stretch out into eternity.

But what really caught her attention was the woman sitting on the golden throne before her. Yachiyo had already heard everyone talk about Glinda, the Good Witch of the South. She vaguely recalled that name from hazy childhood memories. Half-formed images of an old anime, some illustrations in a book she had borrowed from someone from somewhere. She even remembered the images she had seen when she watched The Wizard of Oz a long time ago, a woman who appeared from a floating pink bubble, holding a wand and wearing a pink dress with puffy sleeves and a crown on her head.

This Glinda was nothing like that. This Glinda had long, red hair that fell over her shoulders in ringlets. She had skin that looked like it was formed from pure marble, and bright, blue eyes, nothing like Yachiyo’s own dark blue ones. She wore a long, white gown that covered everything but her delicate hands and head. She looked like she could have been anywhere from thirty to fifty, but there was no way for Yachiyo to deny it. She was beautiful, in a mature way that made her seem like a welcoming mother.

She smiled at Yachiyo, and the blue-haired girl felt her cheeks burn a bit. It was a smile that even she would have been willing to fight for. No wonder she had so many women working for her.

“Hello, Yachiyo Nanami,” Glinda said. “You’ve surely come a long way to get here, haven’t you?”

“I…” Yachiyo took a moment to compose herself. She was so focused on the Sorceress, that she barely noticed the few handmaidens who were sitting around the court, wearing similar white robes as Glinda. Yachiyo took a deep breath.

“I have,” she finally said as professionally as she could. There was a light breeze blowing in from the south, and it washed over the palace court, a warm feeling that hummed against Yachiyo’s skin.

Glinda stood up from her throne, nearly a head taller than Yachiyo, and slowly made her way towards the girl. She stopped and looked her over. Yachiyo had to remind herself that she was already in a relationship. Even then, she hoped she didn’t look too unkempt from being cramped in a carriage for most of the day.

Glinda looked over at Yachiyo, at the other girls. “Welcome all of you, as well,” she said. “I hope your journey wasn’t too rough.”

The others murmured and nodded in agreement. Glinda turned to Aliss.

“Thank you for bringing them here, Aliss. I wouldn’t have expected less from my personal bodyguard.”

The older girl smiled demurely. “Of course, mistress.”

Glinda turned back to Yachiyo.

“Ozma told me about your plight,” Glinda said. “You were ripped out of your world, and stranded in this one. Curiously, the Yachiyo of this world appears to have been taken from it.”

“That’s… that’s what I’ve been told,” Yachiyo said. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Claudine taking the sight of the palace court in. “I need to get back to my world. And we need to find out where the other me went.”

Glinda nodded. “I can help you with that. At the very least, I can help you find out what happened to the other Yachiyo.”

Yachiyo blinked. “You can?”

“I can. And soon, I’m sure we’ll get you back to your world, too.” She looked at the rest of the party. “I’d like to speak to Yachiyo alone for now, if that’s all right.”

Yachiyo looked at the others. Tsuruno was still a bit despondent, and Mifuyu was lost looking at the handmaidens. Claudine stepped forward and curtsied.

“If that’s what you want,” the blonde girl said. “What should the rest of us do until then?”

“The palace and all its features are for you to use,” Glinda explained. “You can eat in the dining hall, walk around the gardens, or swim in the pool. Anything you want, my maids will get for you.”

“Thank you…” Tsuruno said quietly. Yachiyo and the others looked at her. Her magenta eyes were still rooted to the ground, but it was the first thing she’d said since the battle.

“It’s my pleasure,” Glinda said. She summoned a maid to the court–a short girl with shoulder-length, brown hair and green eyes.

“This is Meela,” Glinda said, the girl bowing to Claudine and the others. “She’ll help you settle in.”

“I’ll do my best,” Meela said. She looked up at the girls, her attention soon going to Mifuyut. Mifuyu herself seemed distracted by Meela’s green eyes.

“I’ll see you all later,” Yachiyo said. The others said their goodbyes and walked away, including Aliss, leaving Yachiyo alone with the Sorceress.

“Wait,” Yachiyo said when she and Glinda were alone. “What about Amare? Is she… is she okay?”

“Hm?” Glinda turned to her. “She’s in her room for now. Don’t worry, she’s free to move around the palace.I even made sure her Soul Gem was given back to her” A small frown appeared on her face. “I’m not sure if she’d like to leave her room, though…”

“Can I… Can I see her?” Yachiyo felt she at least should talk to the girl.

Glinda nodded. “After our talk. I think Amare needs to be alone and take everything in. Don’t you agree?”

Yachiyo thought it over; she slowly nodded.

“Good. Follow me, then.”

She led Yachiyo out of the court, and through the palace once more. Once again Yachiyo found herself being observed by the girls who were wandering the halls. They passed by many other rooms–most were lodging for the girls working and staying in the palace, but others included an indoor pool, a spa, and even a public bath like the ones Yachiyo had read were once common in ancient Rome.

“You sure have a lot of things to do here,” Yachiyo said as they turned a corner.

Glinda smiled. “I want my girls to be as comfortable as possible. Of course that now includes you and your group.”

Soon they walked through a wooden door and were in a library with pink walls and lined with shelves full of all kinds of books, some possibly even older than a hundred years.

Yachiyo looked around in awe. “Are all of these books… yours?”

Glinda nodded. “I’ve accumulated many books on all kinds of subjects over a very long time.” She walked over to a corner and pulled out a dusty old tome with a brown cover. She flipped through the pages and stopped on one. “Does this sound familiar?” she asked, offering the book to Yachiyo.

Yachiyo gingerly held the tome in her hands and read the section that Glinda pointed out with her hand:

“... The Master Woodsman turned to the White Rat. ‘Do what you need to save all of Creation, but take no more than what you need from mankind.’ The White Rat nodded, and vanished from the Forest of Burzee.’” On the page was a woodcut showing Ak, the Master Woodsman, recognizable by the horns on his head, holding a silver ax in his hand. He was looking down at a familiar, feline creature with red eyes.

Yachiyo frowned. “Kyubey.”

Glinda looked at the page. “He’s been around for a long time, hasn’t he?”

“I still can’t believe the Immortals of this world allowed him in.”

Glinda sighed. “The Immortals are caught up in their own machinations. It’s our job to do what we can in the world.”

“Right.” Yachiyo handed the book back to Glinda. “So what exactly did you want to show me here?”

Glinda pointed a slender finger at a corner of the library. “That.”

In the corner was a small podium with a light and a cushioned stool behind it. On the podium was a thick book that seemed to have a million pages. Glinda walked over to it, Yachiyo behind her.

“This is the Book of Records,” Glinda said. “It records everything that my spies see. As soon as they see it, it appears in the pages of this book.”

Yachiyo tilted her head. “Spies?”

Glinda smiled and opened the window behind the podium. A red bird–the same red bird Yachiyo had seen before?--alighted itself on the podium, before gliding down to the carpeted floor of the library. Before Yachiyo’s eyes, the bird began to grow, its shape became intangible, until it solidified again as a human girl in a red dress with red eyes, and red hair like Glinda’s.

“I have many familiars, Yachiyo,” Glinda explained. “And I don’t mean the kind you find in Witch Labyrinths. These are spirits that have helped me watch over Oz for a very long time. They can take on many forms, but they make the perfect spies, don’t you think?”

The familiar smiled sweetly at Yachiyo. Yachiyo nodded. “They do.”

The familiar leaned up to Glinda and held her hand up to her mouth. Glinda leaned down and listened to what the familiar said, but all Yachiyo heard and saw was some whispering and a frown growing on the Sorceress’s face.

“I see,” she said.

“What’s wrong?” Yachiyo asked.

Glinda straightened herself back up and turned her attention back to Yachiyo. “This one saw how some of my girls treated Amare when they ran into your party.”

Yachiyo winced. “Oh, right. That…”

“I’ll be sure to discipline them for what they did,” Glinda said, her tone stern. Even when upset, she still looked beautiful. “The people of Oz may not have forgiven Amare for her actions, but I don’t tolerate attacking her like that.”

Glinda excused the familiar, which wandered off into the shelves of the library. Yachiyo spoke up once more.

“If that Book can show everything that happens,” she said, “can it show us what happened to the Yachiyo of this world?”

Glinda frowned. “About that…”

Glinda walked towards the Book. “I had familiars present in Kamihama the night that Yachiyo vanished. There’s a passage here…” Glinda flipped through a few pages, before stopping at one point. “Here it is.”

Yachiyo was immediately by the Sorceress’s side. “What’s it say?” she asked.

Glinda skimmed the passage. “It says that Yachiyo was out hunting that night, when she came across…” she frowned. “Unfortunately, the text can’t say, because the familiar that was present is no longer around.”

Yachiyo frowned. “What?” she asked. “Why?”

“Something… erased it from existence. I cross-referenced this with other familiars present in the city, but aside from some strange sensation, none of them can really report on what had happened. Whatever it was, it just slipped in and took this world’s Yachiyo away.”

Yachiyo clenched her fist. “We have to find her.” She thought about Amare, how she had cried the day before.

Glinda nodded. “That’s what I also wanted to use the Book for,” she said. “My familiars found something that could be of use to us.”

She went and got another old book from a shelf, and opened to a marked page. “This is a potion I found. When someone digests it, the potion allows them to mentally connect to a version of themselves from another world. Like a trance, of sorts.”

“I get it,” Yachiyo said. “If I take that potion, I can see where the other me is.”

“If she isn’t dead, that is,” Glinda added.

Yachiyo tensed up a bit. “For Amare’s sake, I hope not.”

“Precisely. I was able to gather all the ingredients I could, but one ingredient eluded me. A rare flower called a Moonlight Bloom.”

“‘Moonlight Bloom?’”

Glinda pointed at a woodcut on the page. It was a flower with silver petals opening to the light of a full moon. The moon had a comical face on it that smiled down on the flower. “It’s rare, but I used the Book of Records and my familiars to find a place where it may be. The nearest one is in the territory of the Hammerheads.”

Yachiyo blinked. “It’s in the ocean?”

Glinda chuckled. “Not those Hammerheads. These Hammerheads are creatures native to Oz. They are fiercely territorial, and though they lack arms and have short legs, their heads can really pack a punch. The Moonlight Bloom grows in the middle of their land, and getting to it during the day would be difficult.”

Yachiyo realized what this meant. “You want me to get it at night.”

“Not just you,” Glinda said. “You’ll have to take a small group with you. I think Aliss and Lucina would be able to help you with this. Neseel and Kira can help you, too.”

“I see.” Yachiyo thought it over. After how Claudine and the others had underperformed during that Witch fight, maybe it was better to go with a group that seemed more together.

“I’ll do it,” Yachiyo said. “I can even go tonight.”

Glinda smiled. “Perfect. Then I can get started on the potion right away.”

“Thank you. That sounds like a good idea.” Yachiyo looked around the room, deep in thought.

“Yachiyo? What’s wrong?”

Yachiyo turned to Glinda. “I was just thinking… about Amare.”

Glinda looked at her, putting the potion book down. “You’re worried about her, aren’t you?”

Yachiyo nodded.

“If you want, you can go and talk to her now. She’s probably still in her room.”

“Can I?”

“Of course, now that we’re done here. And right now, I think you’re the person she’d want to talk to the most.”

Yachiyo’s mouth was in a firm line. “But… I’m not the Yachiyo she misses.”

“I still think she’d rather speak to you.”

Yachiyo decided Glinda was right, and soon found herself following another maid towards Amare’s room. It was at the end of a hall with doors leading to other girls’ rooms.

The maid left Yachiyo alone as soon as they arrived. Yachiyo took a deep breath before knocking.

For a moment, there was no answer. Then, Amare’s voice drifted out. “Who is it?”

“It’s me,” Yachiyo said.

Soon the doorknob turned, and Amare opened the door. Her face stared out from the darkness.

“Yachiyo…” she said.

Yachiyo held her hands behind her back and tilted her head. “Amare,” she said. “May I come in?”

Amare seemed taken aback, but nodded, letting Yachiyo enter and closing the door.

The room was sparsely decorated. The bed seemed barely made, and the curtains were drawn, casting a dim light.

“This is your room…?” Yachiyo asked, looking around.

Amare shook her head. “It’s just the room they gave me,” she said. “My old room… Aliss’s girlfriend is using it now.”

Yachiyo looked around a bit more, before fixing her eyes on Amare. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Amare looked down. “I didn’t know how to tell you,” she said. “You didn’t know anything about this world. You don’t even know about what went on before you arrived here…”

Fair enough. Yachiyo frowned. “I can’t believe you all hid this from me. I didn’t have any clue about what you did before moving to Japan. Had I known…”

“What? What would you have done if you had known?” Amare scowled. “We were the only way you could get help here.”

“What else are you hiding from me?” Yachiyo asked. A million thoughts ran through her head. “Is there something about the other Yachiyo that I don’t know about? Some other dark secret…?”

“No!”

Amare’s voice was louder that time, and in the quiet of the room, it seemed to echo off the walls. Yachiyo shut her mouth, looking at the dark-haired girl before her.

Amare looked down at the ground. “The Yachiyo Nanami of this world is just as good a person as you are.” She closed her eyes. “That’s why I still can’t believe she’d have anything to do with a good for nothing girl like me…”

Yachiyo held back from saying anything. She didn’t like how Amare seemed to easily refer to herself as good for nothing. It reminded her of Mifuyu.

Mifuyu… She hoped she was okay back home.

Amare for her part sniffled, tears beginning to leak out.

“I was scared, okay?” she said, her voice choked. “I thought I was going to lose everyone! So I contracted with Kyubey and joined Epithene. I thought… I thought I could make a deal to have her spare my friends and family. I did it for them…!”

She buried her face in her hands, her body heaving. “And now… I can’t even face them without feeling guilty…”

Yachiyo watched her, unsure what to do. Like Mifuyu with the Magius… she thought quietly. “What made you change your mind?”

Amare looked up at her, her eyes red from tears, streaks of water trailing down her cheeks. “You,” she said.

Yachiyo blinked. “Me?”

Amare wrung her hands together. “I came to Kamihama to get Ozma back for Epithene. While I was there, I ran into the other you, and after our initial hostility, she showed me that I didn’t have to be so afraid of losing everyone. That was when you–she– told me… told me that she would never let me be alone ever again.”

She didn’t look up, teardrops falling to the floor. “Even when the war ended, and people still hated me… she was still there for me. She let me stay in Mikazuki, until I could figure things out. No one understood my pain more than she did…!”

The emotions seemed to become too much for Amare, and she resumed crying once more. Yachiyo, unsure what to say, walked closer to her.

“Amare…” she began. What could she say? Could anything she say matter to Amare when she wasn’t even the Yachiyo she wanted to talk to?

“Amare…” Yachiyo said again. Instead of saying more, she simply pulled the shorter girl in for a hug, wrapping her arms around her.

That seemed to catch Amare’s attention. “Yachiyo,” she sniffled. “What are you…?”

“It’s going to be okay,” Yachiyo said, rubbing Amare’s back. “I’m going to do everything I can to help you. I promise.”

“R-really?” Amare looked up at her. At her height, Yachiyo couldn’t help but note how easily Amare’s head could fit under the crook of Yachiyo’s neck. She wondered about how often the other her and Amare had held each other like this. Were their nights when Amare still needed comfort, after all that she went through? Was the other her better at understanding what this girl needed?

Yachiyo smiled softly down at her. “Really.”

Amare returned the smile. Before Yachiyo could say one more thing, Amare moved her face closer to Yachiyo’s, closing her eyes, her lips close to the blue-haired girl’s.

Immediately Yachiyo let go of her and stepped back. “What are you doing?” she asked, eyeing the other girl.

Amare looked like she had just been slapped. “Y-Yachiyo,” she began. “It wasn’t… I mean…”

Yachiyo clenched her fist. “I’m sorry,” she said, “but I have a girlfriend, Amare. It… it wouldn’t be right.” She turned to leave.

“Yachiyo, wait!” Before Yachiyo took three steps, she felt Amare’s hand holding onto her arm. She looked back.

Amare stared at her, desperation in her eyes. “Yachiyo, please,” she said. “Please… don’t leave me. We can stay here and talk some more… Just the two of us.”

Yachiyo yanked her hand away. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I can’t.”

She immediately went to the door and left the room.

“Yachiyo!” Amare cried out, but Yachiyo shut the door and kept on walking, fighting down the burning feeling in her cheeks.

#parallel worlds record #magia record #the wonderful wizard of oz #the wizard of oz #revue starlight #fire emblem awakening #yachiyo nanami #claudine saijou #glinda the good witch #mifuyu azusa #tsuruno yui #uwasa tsuruno #lucina fire emblem #fanfic #my writing #my post #text

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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 3 months

Text

By: Aaron Sibarium

Published: Jan 30, 2024

It's not just Claudine Gay. Harvard University's chief diversity and inclusion officer, Sherri Ann Charleston, appears to have plagiarized extensively in her academic work, lifting large portions of text without quotation marks and even taking credit for a study done by another scholar—her own husband—according to a complaint filed with the university on Monday and a Washington Free Beacon analysis.

The complaint makes 40 allegations of plagiarism that span the entirety of Charleston's thin publication record. In her 2009 dissertation, submitted to the University of Michigan, Charleston quotes or paraphrases nearly a dozen scholars without proper attribution, the complaint alleges. And in her sole peer-reviewed journal article—coauthored with her husband, LaVar Charleston, in 2014—the couple recycle much of a 2012 study published by LaVar Charleston, the deputy vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, framing the old material as new research.

Through that sleight of hand, Sherri Ann Charleston effectively took credit for her husband's work. The 2014 paper, which was also coauthored with Jerlando Jackson, now the dean of Michigan State University's College of Education, and appeared in the Journal of Negro Education, has the same methods, findings, and description of survey subjects as the 2012 study, which involved interviews with black computer science students and was first published by the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education.

The two papers even report identical interview responses from those students. The overlap suggests that the authors did not conduct new interviews for the 2014 study but instead relied on LaVar Charleston's interviews from 2012—a severe breach of research ethics, according to experts who reviewed the allegations.

"The 2014 paper appears to be entirely counterfeit," said Peter Wood, the head of the National Association of Scholars and a former associate provost at Boston University, where he ran several academic integrity probes. "This is research fraud pure and simple."

Sherri Ann Charleston was the chief affirmative action officer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison before she joined Harvard in August 2020 as its first-ever chief diversity officer. In that capacity, Charleston served on the staff advisory committee that helped guide the university's presidential search process that resulted in the selection of former Harvard president Claudine Gay in December 2022, according to the Harvard Crimson.

A historian and attorney by training, Charleston has taught courses on gender studies at the University of Wisconsin, according to her Harvard bio, which describes her as "one of the nation's leading experts in diversity." The site says that her work involves "translating diversity and inclusion research into practice for students, staff, researchers, postdoctoral fellows and faculty of color."

Experts who reviewed the allegations against Charleston said that they ranged from minor plagiarism to possible data fraud and warrant an investigation. Some also argued that Charleston had committed a more serious scholarly sin than Gay, Harvard's former president, who resigned in January after she was accused of lifting long passages from other authors without proper attribution.

Papers that omit a few citations or quotation marks rarely receive more than a correction, experts said. But when scholars recycle large chunks of a previous study—especially its data or conclusions—without attribution, the duplicate paper is often retracted and can even violate copyright law.

That offense, known as duplicate publication, is typically a form of self-plagiarism in which authors republish old work in a bid to pad their résumés. Here, though, the duplicate paper added two new authors, Sherri Ann Charleston and Jerlando Jackson, who had no involvement in the original, letting them claim credit for the research and making them party to the con.

"Sherri Charleston appears to have used somebody else's research without proper attribution," said Steve McGuire, a former political theory professor at Villanova University, who reviewed both the 2012 and 2014 papers.

One-fifth of the 2014 paper, including two-thirds of its "findings" section, was published in the 2012 study, according to the complaint, and three interview responses are identical in both articles, suggesting they come from the same survey.

According to Lee Jussim, a social psychologist at Rutgers University, "it is essentially impossible for two different people in two different studies to produce the same quote." At best, he said, the authors got their wires crossed and mixed up interviews from two separate surveys, both of which just happened to involve 37 participants with the exact same demographic profile. At worst, the authors committed data fraud by framing old survey responses as new ones—a separate and more serious offense.

The Journal of Negro Education did not respond to a request for comment. Sherri Ann Charleston, LaVar Charleston, and Jerlando Jackson did not respond to requests for comment.

Monday's complaint, which was filed anonymously, comes as Harvard is facing questions about the integrity of its research affiliates and the ideology of its diversity bureaucrats, most of whom report to the sprawling office that Sherri Ann Charleston oversees.

The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, one of Harvard Medical School's three teaching hospitals, announced in January that it would retract six papers and correct dozens more after some of its top executives were accused of data manipulation. That news came on the heels of a viral essay in which Carole Hooven, a Harvard biologist, described how she had been hounded out of a teaching role by her department's diversity committee after she said in an interview that there are only two sexes.

The school is also facing an ongoing congressional probe over its handling of anti-Semitism and its response to the plagiarism allegations against Gay, which Harvard initially sought to suppress with legal saber-rattling. Half of Gay's published work contained plagiarized material, ranging from single sentences to entire paragraphs, with some of the most severe lifts coming in her dissertation. Though Gay stepped down as president on January 2, she remains a tenured faculty member drawing a $900,000 annual salary.

Some of Charleston's offenses are similar to Gay's. In her 2009 dissertation, for example, Charleston borrows a sentence from Eric Arnesen's 1991 book Waterfront Workers of New Orleans: Race, Class, and Politics, 1863-1923, without quotation marks and without citing Arnesen's work in a footnote.

She also lifts full paragraphs from her thesis adviser, Rebecca Scott, while making minimal semantic tweaks.

"There's simply not enough difference to consider them original words," said Jonathan Bailey, the founder of the website Plagiarism Today. "Though the sources in those examples are cited"—Charleston includes a footnote to Scott at the end of each passage—"the text either needed to be quoted or properly paraphrased."

Bailey added that the plagiarism of Scott alone merited an investigation—ideally, he said, "by a neutral party with no ties to either the school or the school's critics."

Harvard did not respond to a request for comment. Scott and Arnesen did not respond to requests for comment.

Charleston also lifted language from Louis Pérez, an historian at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; Alejandro de la Fuente, an historian at Harvard; and Ada Ferrer, an historian at New York University, among other scholars.

Charleston cites each source in a footnote but omits quotation marks around language copied verbatim. The omissions violate Harvard's Guide to Using Sources, a document produced for incoming students, which states that quotation marks are required when "you copy language word for word."

Pérez, de la Fuente, and Ferrer did not respond to requests for comment.

The range of examples presented in the complaint, which was also filed to the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, highlights how plagiarism can shade into more severe forms of misconduct when it involves interviews or other data.

In fact, some experts said the term "plagiarism" didn't quite capture the dishonesty of duplicate publication, which is sometimes categorized as a separate offense and accounts for 14 percent of all paper retractions in the life sciences.

"You cannot just republish an old paper as if it is a new paper," Jussim, the Rutgers psychologist, said. "If you do, that is not exactly plagiarism; it's more like fraud."

Wood said the case was really a combination of the two offenses. "Because the second paper, on which Sherri Ann Charleston is one of the three co-authors, recycles so much of the text of the original paper by LaVar J. Charleston, this does have the earmarks of plagiarism, but the plagiarism is compounded by an even larger effort to deceive," he said. "The universities and journals need to investigate."

While scholars can reuse data across multiple papers, they must make clear when they are doing so and provide appropriate attribution to earlier studies, per guidelines from the Office of Research Integrity and the editorial policies of top academic journals, including Nature and Cell.

But the 2014 paper never indicates that it is reusing research from 2012. Instead, it claims to present new data that fill a "gap" in the literature and "corroborate" the 2012 study, among others, and on two occasions refers to survey subjects as "participants in this study."

Those participants appear to be the same people whom LaVar Charleston interviewed in 2012. Both surveys involved the same number of undergraduates, graduate students, Ph.D.s, and students at historically black colleges—all drawn from the same computer science conference—a similarity that experts said was a red flag.

"It is curious that the proportions are identical," said Debora Weber-Wulff, a German computer scientist who researches plagiarism and other forms of academic misconduct. "This would be grounds for the universities in question to request the data and investigate."

Jussim agreed. "This seems sufficiently improbable that, absent something saying they are re-reporting an already-published study, it would be fraud," he said.

LaVar Charleston did not respond to a request for comment about whether the two studies used the same interviews. The University of Michigan said it was "committed to fostering and upholding the highest ethical standards in research and scholarship," but declined to comment on the complaint. The University of Wisconsin-Madison told the Free Beacon it had "initiated an assessment in response to the allegations."

The main difference between the papers is a long section in the 2014 article about "culturally responsive pedagogy theory," which the authors say their findings support. Both articles are littered with the tropes of progressive scholarship, including a disclaimer about "positionality"—the authors assure readers that they reflected on their own "racial, gender, and socioeconomic status"—and a lament that computer science is a "White male-dominated field."

Both also criticize the idea that "computing sciences is for nerds, only for White people, [and] only for geniuses."

Such language is typical of the diversity initiatives Charleston oversees. Since 2020, her office has pumped out a stream of materials that bemoan the "weaponization of whiteness," discuss the ins and outs of "white fragility," and urge students to "call out" their peers for "harmful words." One message, signed by Charleston herself, was titled "A Call to Dismantle Intersecting Oppressions."

"We must continue to work against systematic oppression in all its forms—racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, and more," she wrote.

Her office also curates resources for students seeking to become fluent in progressive patois, including a "glossary of diversity, inclusion and belonging (DIB) terms" that provides examples of "gaslighting."

Tactics can include "shooting down the target's ideas," the entry reads—or "taking credit for them."

Here we go again...

If you haven't already figured it out, the DEI-related faux-"disciplines" - the "Studies": Ethnic Studies, Women's Studies, Gender Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Media Studies, etc - are the most corrupt, the most ideological with the absolute lowest academic standards of all. All they care about is echoing back the "correct" opinions, not valid scholarship.

And yet, somehow these lunatics and fanatics end up the most powerful people in the asylum.

Harvard needs to fumigate the house, top to bottom.

#Aaron Sibarium #Sherri Ann Charleston #Claudine Gay #Harvard #Harvard University #academic corruption #DEI #DEI bureaucracy #diversity officer #chief diversity officer #diversity equity and inclusion #diversity #equity #inclusion #plagiarism #academic fraud

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