“Thanks, Charlotte…” Lying down on the grass staring up into the clouds, Riki sipped on a concoction of medicinal herbs Charlotte had whipped up for him. With tissues plugging his nose to combat his nose bleed, he had no choice but to breathe through his mouth.

“The least I could do.” Charlotte responded, sitting seiza-styled next to where he laid.

“Honestly, I seriously thought you were dead set on killing me. Do you even know the definition of ‘restraint’?” Not expecting such bluntness, his tone evoked Charlotte to burst into laughter.

“Wha… What’s your deal?”

“Ah… Nothing… It’s just what you said.” she explained as she wiped a tear from her eye, “I might’ve over did it on the whole ‘testing’ idea, but you ended up trying to kill yourself in the end instead. That, I had no control over.”

“Yeah, I thought my nose would never stop bleeding… You never told me anything about that. But, uh, seriously… Charlotte, you’re that powerful? Even with that so-called handicap?”

“Well, for one, Asimov had me do all kinds of quirky experiments, thus strengthening my Aoi up. But that’s beside the point. Riki, I’m telling you this for your own good. You cannot force yourself to use your Aoi more than you trained it or it will have adverse consequences on your body.”

“I could tell. So it’s something that you can train?”

“Yes, just think of it as exercising your body. You wouldn’t just run a 5k right off the bat. You would prepare and train first. Of course, you needn’t worry about that right now. Just take it slow and steady.”

You got a point...

Riki shifted his body around, trying to find a good position. It was an awfully hot day and the closest tree that casts sufficient shade would take too much effort to walk to. Every time there was silence, the only thing that occupied his mind was the heat on his whole body. That was when he thought about the heat of those fish flames made by that foreign-looking girl on that day. Just thinking about them made him shudder.

“That is… unless I’m forced into a situation where I have no choice but to keep on firing off those light spheres. And a place where that happens would be in Sozuraka on that observatory, right?” he said, staring right at her.

“That's... So you just want to cut the chit-chat, huh?”

Riki nodded. “The anticipation is killing me. Please tell me what I have to do in order to rescue that girl.”

“You want to know so badly? I admire your perseverance. You personally saw the capabilities that humans can do and face a challenge where you are on the opposing side. Yet despite that, it has not swayed your spirit. It’s commendable.” Charlotte could tell that Riki was not pleased at her response by his dead look. She closed her eyes and slowly shook her head.

“I see patience isn’t your strength.” Reaching into her pocket, Charlotte pulled out a folded piece of paper. She pauses before holding it out to Riki so he can take it. Without a delay, he performed a situp, swiped the paper from her hand and plopped right down on the grass in one swoop. Charlotte quietly sighed as she saw the eagerness in his face.

Did you even listen to anything that I just said?

“The note reads, ‘Warn Azure and save the world’. Huh.” Riki rubbed his eyes to make sure he didn’t misread it. Sure enough, the words hadn’t changed. “What the heck. Nothing specific, just one simple instruction?”

“That’s the type of man Asimov is. I’m sure you would’ve realized that by now.”

Riki groaned and allowed his arms to go limp, sprawling them on the grass. The feeling of every blade melted into his skin.

“What am I gonna say to Keijin now?” Irritated as he was, he had one thing going with him: the fact that he can use his Aoi now. Not as freely as Riki wanted, but at least he didn’t feel so left behind by everyone.

“What did he have you do that made you antsy?” Charlotte asked, tilting her head.

“To figure it out on my own, guessing the plan that is. I admit I came here clueless…”

“It’s like you’re a lost kitty. But I feel like I’m much worse off than you in terms of being lost.”

“You don’t know either, huh… So does that mean you taught me how to use an Aoi out of your own volition? Man, Charlotte, you’re too kind.” Riki said as a smug expression spread across his face.

“It—it was merely an experiment. After seeing you create a light sphere that revitalized my hibiscus, I just had to run some trials!”

Riki understood that she was speaking the truth, though. But he didn’t want his final trump card to be begging Keijin to join in on the operation. His stern face just gives him bad vibes, like he was ready to shoot the ground near Riki’s feet and order him to dance or something. At this point, he felt like he was grasping at straws. The breeze, however, picked up and allowed him to feel much more comfortable in the open field.

“At any rate, it should be ready now.” Charlotte said, standing up and patting her clothes off.

“It?”

“I made a little something while I was creating the herbal concoction. Be patient while I retrieve it.”

Later armed with a wooden bowl in hand, the smell of cooking lingered through the air. Riki looked inside the bowl to find a soup filled with meat and vegetables. It was rather thick, consisting of carrot, onions, and celery along with beef.

“Thanks, you didn’t had to…”

“It’s only expected for someone to serve their guest after all.”

“...You have a kitchen inside of a garden house?”

“Now look who is the one that’s stalling. Eat.”

While he was too busy to notice his hunger, after taking a whiff of the soup, Riki did indeed felt his stomach grumble. Taking up the spoon, he took a bite and without a delay, the warmth of the soup melted into his mouth. Warm. Delicious. It was everything he could ask for. Seeing Riki’s satisfied face, Charlotte, too, started her meal. And so, as the two savored their luncheon as they watched the clouds brush along the sky.

・・・・・

After taking the last spoonful of the bowl’s contents, something of a static sound can be heard emanating from thin air. Confusing him at first, Riki thought he was losing his hearing or was hallucinating, but he looked over to Charlotte who also noticed the strange static. The quality slowly altered until the both of them could make something out of it.

“Is… Worki…. Working… Ri…”

With a faint sense of surprise, Riki realized that this was a voice and someone was calling his name, even though he and Charlotte were the only one sitting in the field. Someone was trying to communicate to them with who knows what. Given a little time, the quality steadily became clearer as well as the distinction of the person’s voice.

“T...esting, testing 1 2 3...”

“Testing?” Riki whispered.

“Oh? This transmission thing works! ...But of course it works. As expected of myself.” There could only be one person to have such a high-class time in their voice.

“Ta—Tamaki?!”

“Well this is certainly a surprise.” Charlotte said.

“Uh… Tamaki, how am I hearing your voice right now?” Riki said, unsure where to turn his head in this situation.

“Mm. It’s a long story, I won’t have time to explain every minute detail. Just know that it’s technology by Azure with the help of an Aoi. You two can’t see me, but I can see your locations on this screen of mine.” Tamaki said through the supposed transmission.

“Wait, seriously? That’s kind of creepy, but also cool. It’s like a fusion of fantasy and science.”

“Right? Took the words out of my mouth. ...That said. It was Kaori who was the one to bring this communication system up to speed. She is more of an engineer than I thought… Really I didn’t expect her to jump up and down as soon as she stepped into one of Azure’s base of operations. I wouldn’t be surprised if Kaori suddenly develops a virtual reality game that garners millions of players and then make it so that people die in real life when they are killed in the game...”

“Hold on, time out.” Riki said, waving his hands in the air, “Didn’t you say you were on the fence on joining the operation?”

“Urgh. Again with the questions… Wait. Huh? Did I say that? You’ve most likely just misheard me back then. I meant that I was on the fence to be part of the team to storm Sozuraka. I did say it was a long story, so I’m not going to explain it here. Other than that, I do have a reason why I’m contacting you through this prototype system.”

Over on her side, Tamaki shifted her gaze to a monitor hanging above her. What was displayed on that monitor was like static itself, but much less ‘busy’. The only way to describe it was an amalgamation of white across the screen.

“You two have to come here to look at this. Our situation was much more dire than we thought. We got an anomaly in our hands, and it’s not pretty.”

An anomaly…? What is she talking about?

“Coordinates, Tamaki? Where are you right now?”

“Right I’m sending you the coordinates right now, so be patient. This is my first time doing this so bear with me.” The sound of keyboard typing can be heard through the transmission. It made Riki scratch his head. He expected her to read the address to a house or something, not deliver some sort of e-mail. How and where would she send such a message to?

“I’m almost there… Wait hold on… what is this?” Tamak said, stopping her typing. The sound of rummaging followed. Papers, water bottles, wires, and others were thrown out of the way supposedly.

“What’s going on Tamaki?”

There was no answer right away, just the omnipresent sound of her sudden jagged breathing. Because this was the first time overseeing the controls, she didn’t know what to do at first nor know how to explain it. All she knew was that it wasn’t good.

“This is… no way. Something is being detected near your locations. Supposedly at your 12 o’clock! Weird… shouldn’t you two be seeing whatever it is right now?”

But he saw nothing. With one glance at Charlotte, Riki knew that Tamaki wasn’t being flustered for nothing. She too had a bead of sweat running down her face.

“Riki! Charlotte! You have to get out of there now! What kind of reading is this?! What’s this… insane energy reading?!”

“Tamaki, what’s going on?!” Riki demanded, having no clue what she was talking about.

“Riki!” Charlotte yelled, “His ability… it’s making you repeatedly ‘forget’ that he is there in front of us…!”

It’s like her words triggered him to open his eyes. That was when Riki finally saw him. With one glance, he was reminded of his first day of existence. On that day, everything disappeared. A man stood wearing a black suit, his black hair barely reaching his gray eyes. In age, he appeared to be in his late twenties: still at the prime of his youth.

It wasn’t fear that gripped Riki. It wasn’t confusion either. No, it was quite the opposite. The moment the two locked eyes on each other, he felt the boiling bloodlust and hatred within him. Even though that man had wronged him for two reasons, Riki could tell that the inside of his chest shouldn’t bear a grudge this strongly. It felt much, much more than simple animosity.

“I thought I sensed Aoi usage here. And here I thought I would be done with Azure. Yet, it seems that I have to clean up where I left off one week ago.”