A Hat in Time Loops

6: Antagonists, Arguments, the Afterlife and... the IRS?

Hat Kid...

And Mu remembered something else, not from her Loop memories, but from genuine events, from things Hat Kid told her in the Loop where she first Awoke.

Hat Kid was the Anchor. Hat Kid was always Awake.

And despite everything, comfort washed over Mustache Girl.

Hat Kid would come save her.

Footsteps creaked in the hallway, and a sickeningly familiar voice spoke, "Darling girl? Where are you? I know you wouldn't hide from me, dearest."

Oh. There that sinking terror was again, gripping Mustache Girl's heart and clenching in her chest with icy hands. Forming a pit in her stomach and making her feel almost nauseous. "I want to go home," rang from somewhere in her mind. Where was home, anyway? This place was her home for this Loop, and in baseline she's homeless and lives in an rocky alcove on the beach.

"I know you wouldn't run and hide and leave me like my prince did, sunshine."

Mustache Girl trembled, slinking further into the shadows under her bed and hoping again that Hat Kid would hurry.

Her sister needed her.

Mustache Girl stayed put, not knowing how much time had passed. She was thankful, at least, that Vanessa was apparently not the brightest, never once checking under the bed despite entering the room several times. Mu had covered her mouth with her hand and tried to quiet her breathing each time.

Eventually, the manor shook. A nearby wall was broken down. Mustache Girl peaked out from under the bed. She only caught a flash of purple (Snatcher? But the form was too small, too humanoid.) before whatever it was disappeared through the door.

Mu listened hard. She even crept to peer through the cracks between the door and doorframe. She couldn't see anything, but she could hear sounds of a scuffle, the familiar noise of Hat Kid's Projectile Badge.

A cry out, in a distorted feminine voice.

Silence.

Footsteps.

And as Mustache Girl scrambled back to her hiding spot under the bed, the door creaked open, and a familiar silhouette stepped through.

"Mu?"

Mustache Girl shot out of her hiding place.

And the sisters embraced, their reluctant father watching through the door.

———Loop 6.2———

"Why'd you want to save her?" Snatcher asks the next time he's Awake.

Hat Kid didn't look up from coloring with her tricolor graffiti kit, only offering a "Hm?" in response.

"You know, that angry little red girl! I'll take any opportunity to mess with 'my princess' obviously, but why do you care? You could've just let her freeze, and she probably would've deserved it!"

Hat Kid paused. She couldn't really deny that. Mu had cause a lot of suffering, but that was (mostly) just in baseline.

"It's been a lot longer than you think, Mu's had time to... she's better now." Hat Kid says simply.

"But haven't you seen her do all those horrible things, like, dozens of times by this point? I say you just laser her with that one badge of yours, it'll be fun~!"

"More like thousands of times," Hat Kid corrected, "and maybe I'll do that in a Loop where she's not Awake. Unawake Mu's the one who keeps telling me stuff like 'Nobody will miss you, and nobody will care' as she ends the world, but—"