"What?! You actually lost your memories?!”

“What?! You’ve already regained your memories?!”

Standing in the somewhat cramped vehicle, Riki wasn't expected to be interrogated by Tamaki and Kirk after mentioning the fact that he had indeed lost and recovered his memories within a couple of hours. Begging Katou multiple times to heal him failed as he wouldn’t even care if Riki was bleeding out. That was until everyone else peer-pressured him into using his Aoi due to Kirk also being injured. This brought the attention of Tamaki, wondering how exactly Riki got into that position in the first place.

“Um, yeah. Both, I think. I’ll explain later.”

“Prove it right now. What are the advantages of using steam as a working fluid?”

“Wha— what does that have to do with my memories?!”

“A person never forgets the raw power of pistons…”

The young man couldn’t help but chuckle a bit after seeing Tamaki’s and Kirk’s concerned expressions. But he was also chuckling as if he was going insane from everything that happened. The dog named Cavall that is roaming around the vehicle is surely the same dog Charlotte had mentioned she created. That fact bothered him more than it should, but he decided not to dwell on it.

So this is the car that Tamaki was in at that time, huh? It’s a little too dark here for my tastes, but honestly, it’ll make for a good place to live in. Wait no, with Oluka as the driver, I’d rather not…

“That reminds me, how did you manage to send your voice to us like that back then?” he asked Tamaki.

“That moment? You should ask Kaori and Keijin about that. They’re the ones who handled that system, so they would explain it a lot better than I would.”

“Alright, but honestly I was kind of hoping you wouldn’t say that. Those two scare me a little.”

“Haha, really now? I can see why for Keijin, but Kaori? I might be biased, but she’s the nicest person out of everyone I’ve met.”

“As for the capt’n,” Kirk said as he crossed his arms, “To me, at least he knows how to not aggravate people. He has the decency to pay for property damage. In spite of that, I can tell he really takes whatever he can to fulfill his goals... Wha— Hey.”

When Kirk turned his attention back to the two, he saw Tamaki shoved Riki into the hallway and dusted her hands in a satisfied manner. Without so much of remorse, she turned back to Kirk, who arched an eyebrow.

“...The best way to get used to somebody is to spend time with them.” she explained.

“She sent you here didn’t she?” Kaori asked as Riki approached her after getting lost in the hallway.

“...You know Tamaki well.”

“Do you want the short version or the long version?”

“Long.”

“Let’s see then. Bioelectromagnetics is the study of EM radiation and how they interact with living organisms—”

“Wait wait, nevermind I want the short version after all.”

Kaori grinned. “Figured. I’m guessing Charlotte gave you a lavender flower at some point? You heard Tamaki say ‘on your right’.”

“Lavender… oh!” Riki reached into his pocket and brought out the same lavender flower that she had slipped into his hand. “There is no way…”

“Keijin’s Aoi is able to make objects act as transceivers as well as location monitors. It’s just that he needs a computer to be able to do all of that. Apparently said computer was broken by the time I walked in here, so I fixed it myself. Though, I heard it broke again so I quickly went back and fixed it one more time by the time we did that little stunt.”

“So that’s what that was… Honestly, it gave me a heart attack both times I heard Tamaki’s voice… no offense…”

“Oh no, I know what you’re coming from. I get heart attacks too whenever she calls out to me.”

Uh… Is she supposed to say that?

“...Look. Someone just wants to relax on the roof from time to time. To hear your name knowing that someone accidentally dropped a vase and that you have to clean up the mess just irks you, you know?” Kaori kept eye contact with him, but Riki could tell that her gaze became glazed.

“I am hoping that never happened to you.”

“Right, thanks. But yeah, we should go to the central room, just in case.”

“If you’re that worried, then what were you doing here sitting alone?”

“...People are hard to deal with.”

I can so relate to that.

“Ara, you two seem like you guys are getting along.” a familiar voice emanated from the hallway. In came Tamaki who rested herself against the doorframe on her two hands, “Keijin will start the briefing soon. If you don’t want to get kicked out, then come into the main room.”

The both of them stared at Tamaki in a way that she had never seen them do before. It caused her to think she had something on her face for a second.

“What’s with the silence? What did you two discuss exactly?”

“Nothing, chief. Just how to balance work life.” Kaori sounded like she was teasing Tamaki, leaving her even more curious than before. As her valet walked out without batting an eye at her, Tamaki shifted her attention to Riki, who only shrugged.

“Don’t mind her, she just cares for her ‘chief’.”

“It troubles me sometimes whenever information is withheld by any means, but if it means two people bonding over something, then I’m ok with that.” Of course, she knew more than she let on. The dampness in her valet’s eyes as she quickly exited the room was not something she imagined.

・・・・・

“At any rate, let’s start the briefing. We do not have all the time in the world.” Keijin said standing in front of the central table, clapping twice to get the attention of the whole room. Riki, Tamaki, Kaori, Kirk, and Katou gathered around while Oluka remained by the wheel. “First of all, Riki, would you mind explaining everything that happened to you thus far?”

Naturally, everyone turned their attention to him, making him gulp at the sight. He quickly summarized the time after he separated with Charlotte, through the night, and up to where Mary had retaken the white-haired girl. His summary included the strange conversation they had where she mentioned the ‘truths of the world’ and ‘artifacts’ that made everyone as confused as he was.

“We know that the woman from Alkai is named ‘Mary’ and the name of the man that can erase memories is ‘Takeshi’. However, what we didn’t know was that memories can be recovered like what you had done… That’s valuable information.” Keijin brought a hand to his chin to think. It seemed to Riki that they were in the dark about his memory recovery just as much as he was.

“I can’t really explain it myself. Not every single one came back, just from when I found myself in the middle of Fallway. I was just a sitting duck when I saw Mary take the white-haired girl a second time. If I could guess, it was like a replay of what happened back then when I saw her do the exact same thing.”

“Hmm… There’s definitely a connection, but not enough evidence to go on with that theory if replaying certain events could undo Takeshi’s Aoi. For now though, let’s move on, specifically what the enemy has possession of: the Sword. Katou?”

“Right. Let’s just cut to the chase. The Sword alters an Aoi’s effect.” Katou said, “You just saw, when Mary used it, her perception of time slowed down enough that time itself froze. What’s important to us is that the girl’s Aoi is to freeze things right? Basically the opposite of Mary’s. Combine that with the Sword, and what would happen?”

“Time… speeds up for them? But won’t that be harmless?” Tamaki questioned.

“What I think is that it wouldn’t be that instrumentalist and Takeshi man would be affected, but everything around them.”

“Err, huh…?”

“Basically cryofreezing?” Riki said without thinking about it. For some sort of reason, the idea of freezing yourself came to his mind as soon as he let his imagination run wild.

“Their bodies would freeze, and time would pass like in a blink of the eye for them. Even though this sounds completely insane…”

“What luck, you thought of the same thing as I did. Guess we’re both insane, huh.” Even though it was just one of Katou’s usual remarks, Riki was already thinking he was going insane.

“Other than that though, it all comes down to a theory.” Keijin said, “The only information we have confirmed is the setting in which this raid will take place: Sozuraka. Now I’m aware that information regarding the abandonment of Sozuraka is common knowledge, but I’ll still explain it for those that have yet to know.”

He’s talking about me…

“A couple of hundreds of years ago, the region was hit by multiple natural disasters that caused progress to slow down significantly, but not enough for the people to stop living. Even with frequent earthquakes that occur every year, the people there still lived on. That was until a certain eruption of a mountain that wiped out much of the population. In the history books, it was described as a sea of red, turning tens of thousands into nothing. Everyone sought refuge in its neighboring region, Chordia.”

“After a while, an observatory was built to monitor volcanic activity. But even then, the natural disasters that continued to ensue made it near impossible to continue operations. Even it was abandoned. And that’s where our enemy is located. In that exact observatory.”

Riki pressed his lips together. With that, he had been given the final context to what Charlotte explained that time ago.

“That said, our goal this time does not include engaging them in battle. Our intent is to cease their plans to use the Sword and the girl’s Aoi without them ever knowing we were here. Though, unfortunately for us, that may prove to be impossible. And if that wasn’t enough, take a look at this footage I sourced around the southern regions.”

Above the table was the central monitor which casted a white hue over everything as soon as Keijin switched it on. What was displayed on it was what can be described as static at first glance. But in reality, it displayed Sozuraka, as it currently was.

“What’s going on inside here? What is that? An Aurora… or a storm of some sort?” Kirk questioned, “You can’t really make out anything with just this snapshot.”

“Indeed, it’s a snowstorm. Now, I’m not going to lie when I say it, but this storm covers the entire forgotten region of Sozuraka. While it isn’t powerful, per say, to level entire cities, it is certainly an anomaly such a blizzard would cover a region in the south of all places.” Keijin said.

“Chordia is an entire region on the map. Luckily, Kirk’s residency is located in a town on the edge of the region and, itself, is adjacent to Sozuraka which makes it double convenient. From there, we would search for a point to rendezvous—”

“We’re coming to a stooop~!” Oluka shouted in a muffled manner which brought the attention of everyone. She chomped on the granola bar between her teeth and slammed on the breaks. With hardly any time from the warning, everyone held onto whatever was closest to them and braced themselves as the force pulled them all forward.

“—Tch! Cavall!”

-Woof!

Before Cavall could get flung out of the windshield, Katou managed to grab its paw as the vehicle screeched to a halt.

-Woof Woof!

Sighing, Katou rubbed its head while it licked his cheek as if unaware of the concept of safety. It was a moment where Oluka should be laughing at the sight, but she had bigger concerns.

“Your destination is on your right. Though… we have just a little problem—”

“We’re here?!” Riki shouted.

“C’mon, open the door! I wanna see what Chordia is like!” Tamaki said.

“Stop shoving, I know how you two feel, but I can’t unlock the door until you settle down!” Kaori said.

“I suppose I shoulda expected this. But it feels weird to have people excited to see your own home basically.” Kirk said.

The light peered through the sliver of the door as the three held their breaths. The light grew more and more until it was apparent that it wasn’t just light that enveloped the interior. There were particles of white that had also wound its way inside.

“It’s…”

“It’s…”

“It’s…”

“FREEZING!”

In that brief moment where the door was fully open, everyone was able to see a blank canvas of whiteness spread all throughout the land. Instinctually, Kaori shut the door as fast as she had opened it.

“Man, close one. Good thing I cranked up the heat!” Oluka shouted, “You should know better than to just open doors.”

“Do you guys have no balls? Weren’t some of you complaining that it was too hot just a moment ago?” Katou asked.

“Then why are you standing in the far corner like that?” Oluka returned.

“...My haori would get damaged if snow gets on it.”

Seriously. Riki thought. It was just twenty minutes ago where I literally was about to die from hyperthermia, and now there’s a blizzard?

“These are interesting developments we have on our hands.” Keijin said, “I should have known better than to just tunnel-vision on Sozuraka only. This blizzard just isn’t a normal occurrence, especially to affect two southern regions like this. It only proves the urgency of stopping the enemy from using the Sword and the girl’s Aoi. I would like to commence the operation now, but we still need a place to rendezvous, however.”

“I’ll go alone.” Kirk said as he walked to the exit.

“Oh?”

“You guys can save your energy for later. I’m not part of the battle myself. Though I could say this is my part of the battle. I’ll get you guys a good rendezvous point in less than half an hour.”

“I can respect that. Go right ahead.”

Riki was disappointed from not being able to see his ‘home region’ at first, but then quickly realized it was better this way. It would have been a better use of his time to focus on the girl rather than himself at the moment. After all, he had no time constraint. There was always time to visit later, but he couldn’t say the same with the white-haired girl. As Kirk opened the hatch and ran into the whiteness, Riki could only test his patience.