In a state of weightlessness, the shock to his abdomen shuddered through the rest of his body. A stream of blue, green, and red passed by his vision, circling around and around. Even though his feet were off the ground, the first thing to come into contact with anything was his face as it slammed hard into the earth. Ripping pieces of weeds out and mixing it with dirt, his face was smeared thanks to the force he had been catapulted with.

Now with his whole body tumbling down the dirt land elevation of the perimeter of the city, the only thing keeping him grounded in reality was the pain throughout him. Rolling to a stop at the bottom of the land slope, he laid there limp. Riki heard a voice, telling him to pick up his feet to run to any place but here. Even though his ears were ringing nothing but a high-pitched tone, he could still somehow understand it. His head felt like it was about to burst, but he forced his body up in spite of his brain fog. Whatever that voice was, he had no choice but to listen to it. And so he picked up his feet.

There was nothing but static. As he ran through grass, dirt, and stone, his shoes splashing in the puddles of water that had accumulated from the sudden downpour. The sound of the rain did not mix well with the white-noise of the static.

-zzzzzzzzzzzzRizzzz

zzzRikzzzzzzzz

-zzzzzzCanzzzYozzzzzuzzzz

Someone was trying to contact him. Someone he could tell that was important to him, but his mind was far too jumbled to be able to make sense of what was going on. All he could do was just run.

I… I couldn’t do it! I… I’m so sorry, Charlotte! I’m so sorry! I…

-zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

His Aoi is just too much, how do you even fight that… how…

zzzzzzzzzz-zzzzzzzzzzzz

I couldn’t save her…! I couldn't save her… I couldn’t save her..r…

I…

I…

His hair grew heavy as the rain caused clumps of hair to fall over his eyes, making his vision even more impaired than it already was. Droplets of rain accumulated on his face and masked the dread in his expression. Once more he was lost with nowhere to go, but this time, no one came to point him in the right direction. He only ran. Eventually the static grew less and less apparent until it vanished completely.

…

Who… Who couldn't I save…?

Riki covered his face with his hand. All that he can remember was that he couldn’t save someone. Every single specific detail was lost, except for the fact that he was unsuccessful.

“Urk!”

His foot found nothing but air. He tumbled yet again. In his path was yet another land slope, but this time, he stopped himself short from plunging into the stream that was at the bottom. Though, his arm felt frozen as it was the only one that entered its water. His fingers dragged against the gravel from the current pushing his arm around.

Cold. It’s so cold. The water.

“Ha ha…” A chuckle exited his lips. It was strange to him that he couldn't remember the last thing that happened to him, let alone anything else for that matter. Everything, except for the fact that he had an all-consuming feeling that he failed to do something that he shouldn’t have.

“Ha… ha…”

Riki raised his head instinctively, as if an animal exploring uncharted area would check their surroundings. He looked around with vacant eyes. That’s when gray mass caught his attention: a stone bridge passing over the stream. Taking a deep breath, he supported himself with an arm and lifted his whole body up. At least there was one clear goal. He dragged his feet, following the path of the stream.

Underneath a bridge… this will do…

Riki collapsed on the grass. Sitting and leaning against the cold underside wall, he tried to calm his jumbled mind. But no matter what, he felt both a mess and empty at the same time. And the coldness of the storm did not help either. His fingers felt like frozen icicles and he could barely unbend them from their curled position. When he looked down at his hands, that was when he saw the purple lavender flower.

What…?

It was stripped of most of its petals from all of the scraping with the ground, but a few were still intact. He mulled it over again and again, but he couldn’t quite remember why he was holding a flower.

It’s a shame to see it in such a state.

・・・・・

Tamaki knew what she had to do. She forcefully exhaled and took another breath. After breathing from her diaphragm for 5 cycles, she analyzed the situation at hand.

They got separated. Riki is fast on the move while the maid remains with the enemy. Does that mean Charlotte is… I never knew she would be the one to hold the enemy down like that...

Through the screen of the monitor, a marker moving away from the others glitched a moment before it vanished completely. As soon as that occurred, one of the two remaining markers started moving away from where it came from as well and leaving the last alone.

Placing her hands back onto the mechanical keyboard, Tamaki issued commands to contact Charlotte first. But just her luck, the connection tapped out instantly as soon as she tried. Even though there was a much lower probability of success, she tried her hand with Riki.

“Riki?! Can you hear me?”

Seconds passed. No sound ever came. The effort proved to be futile without any response from the young man. From where she was inside an armored vehicle engineered by Azure, she was quite a distance away from the incident. Tamaki closed her eyes and tapped her face with the palms of her hands. She didn’t care how long she had to run, she just wanted them to be safe.

What am I doing...

Tamaki opened the automatic sliding door of the room. On the other side was a short hallway made out of entirely metal lit by a singular light fixture above and two light strips on both sides. The faint sound of rain was still audible, pinging against the flat surface of the roof. Though, every step on the ground echoed throughout the space and masking the rain entirely. At the end, she found the central control room and across from her was a singular hatch: the exit.

Tamaki, with one second to spare to open said hatch, when she felt something grab her wrist. Looking back, she saw a lass sitting on an invisible chair. But in reality this was thanks to an air bubble that she had manifested.

“You can’t stop me from going there myself, Oluka.” Tamaki said, looking over her shoulder.

“...You might be right. You’re not part of the exclusive club that is Azure. Plus Keijin and Katou left you to your own devices with me in this stuffy hunk of metal.”

“Exactly, so—”

“But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to punch some sense into you.”

Eh? Tamaki quickly pressed her hand on her sleeve in response, but she didn’t see any deformations within 10 seconds in the future. Despite her claim, Oluka remained seated and made no such movements against her.

“Listen girl, what are you going to try to accomplish going right where that enemy marker was?” she said with a stare Tamaki had never seen before from her.

“I…I don’t know how Azure runs its operations, but do you really expect me to sit and twiddle my fingers while people I know might be bleeding to death?”

“Ah, Tamaki you sweet summer child. Of course I am. I’d rather watch you do that than be slayed by someone for no good reason.”

—Tch. She wanted to rip Oluka’s hand off of her wrist and just book it there, but restrained the urge to. Oluka was right. Tamaki had no idea what to do in the event that she did encounter whoever those two were approached by.

“At least tell me. Was that him? One of the two that Asimov had shown us photos of?”

“From my guess, it has to be.”

Never before had Tamaki ever seen Oluka take up such a serious expression. For someone as laid back as her to do so, the situation must be grim. It caused Tamaki to lean back against the door and drop all of her weight. She thought back to Riki’s story about his encounter with the two before they met: about how it was the farthest back his memories could possibly go. If it was true that the man was the same person then...

If only I had more than just being able to see an object’s future…

“You should be happy that we’re both from outside of the capital and that it was me here.” Switching back to her iconic position of laying down on her stomach, Oluka floated to the main control panel of the vehicle’s entrance. There were two seats with one behind a steering wheel. There wasn’t a dashboard per-say, rather, multiple monitors displayed graphs, tables, and text that Tamaki could barely make out. Although, it was more like flat 2d holograms rather than a regular screen as the displays were monochromatic. For the first time, she saw Oluka undo her Aoi to sit on something that wasn’t her airbubble: the driver seat.

“Uuaa.. since this sorry excuse for a vehicle doesn’t run on things other than concrete that well, we’re going to have to get our shoes dirty. Or at least just yours.” Oluka said, fumbling with the hologram touchscreens.

“...Huh?”

“Plus it’s raining. You would need an umbrella first. And you know, Oluka here can act as an umbrella for you.”

“...Does that mean…?”

“It would be kinda inconvenient to have a citizen on the brink of death like that. So I guess I have to be the one to check on her. But I can’t have one of the members of an important family all alone like this. With Oluka around, you’ll have the strength of a hundred men.”

There was a pause before a grin sprawled on Tamaki’s face. The moment she understood, she believed her risky request had been granted. To her, Oluka was definitely strange indeed. Wording her reason like that, it was as if that member of Azure was too embarrassed to say it upfront.

“...You know. It’s like you’re a big sister, Oluka.”

“Huh. Huh? Did you just say something exceedingly mortifying just now, at least for me?”

“Hee-hee… Nothing. Not at all.”

“Whatever it was, don’t say that ever again, or I’m actually going to eat you.” Oluka said, turning the ignition.

As the whole inside of the vehicle revved itself up, Tamaki scrambled into the second seat as the vibrations proved this wouldn’t be a smooth ride. At this point, she was acutely aware of Oluka’s rather impressive driving skills during a test run that almost knocked down a few sign posts.

“Back on topic, the dang communication system is broken again?”

“Yes, we can’t reach those two at all.”

“Well that just sucks. That thing had always been broken until your Kaori friend went ahead and fixed the whole thing. Too bad she’s with Keijin and Katou right now.”

“I much rather have her be with us… to be in the investigation team like that…”

Tamaki peered out of the window, a frown on her face. All that time ago, Keijin told her and Kaori that this was the perfect opportunity to see first hand what type of work Azure does. A non-governmental organization aimed to maintain the foundation of humanity, that is Azure. Members dedicate themselves to safeguard knowledge, people and nature. Not only that, they also handle tasks that even the military police cannot handle by themselves, such in the case of this current situation.

“We are called the stargazers. Because our job is to look into humanity’s future which, in appearance, is a sea brimming with light. Each shimmer in the sea represents one’s future of opportunities in the vast canvas that is humanity.” Keijin said to the three of them on that day.

“It’ll be fine.” Oluka said, with a granola bar mysteriously in her other hand.

Eh? Where did she get that?

“Keijin and Katou are like super powerful, you know? If they ever encounter any monsters, they’ll beat them up no matter what.” she said, shadowboxing the air.

Right…

Just then, Tamaki lunged forward in her seat, forced to hold onto the cushion for dear life. If her heart wasn’t already palpitating enough, it now was.

“Looks like it’s gonna be bumpy from here on out.” Oluka said, with the granola bar between her teeth.