Kyoko Feat 3

"Koichi!" Rohan yelled. "Look at its hands!"

"Huh?" Koichi shot a glance at Rohan, then did as told. "What the...what on earth is that?"

In the stand's grip was a strange, puffy object that resembled a large wad of cotton with a series of smaller, rounder puffs that trailed like a tail, connected by nothing but air.

A thought bubble. As a manga artist, Rohan instantly recognized the object as something belonging in a comic book panel, but it was his first time seeing one in the three dimensional world.

"Is...that a cloud?" Koich pointed at the object, stuck in the stand's clenched fingers.

"Koichi-kun...it came out of you!" Rohan said.

"What?"

"You didn't see it, but the stand「pulled」it out of your ears before Echoes Act 3 froze it!"

Koichi swallowed nervously. "Are-are you serious? Is this its「ability」?"

Suddenly, the thought bubble began to lose its shape. Its surface stretched and distorted, its tails sinking into itself. Then, it expanded outward, growing into a large white shape that steadily changed color.

Inside the enlarged thought bubble came an image. An image that was familiar to both Rohan and Koichi, but had deeper emotional connections to the latter.

"Yu-Yukako?" Koich whispered. Even Rohan was shocked to see the bubble give rise to Yukako, or rather a mannequin-esque version of her. Only her upper half was fully formed, the rest coming out of the thought bubble's surface, merging with its cotton-like surface. She appeared like a bust out of a Greek art museum, her skin and school outfit colorless like an ancient statue, her face as blank as one. Only her hair had any semblance of life, its black tendrils waving in the air.

Love Deluxe lunged at Koichi.

"What the hell!" Koichi yelled as the strands of the Yukako doppelganger's hair ensnared him like a fish snatched up by the tentacles of a octopus.