“So Day, what timeline do you come from?”

It was only minutes after we set off on the road, and Ari was already asking me questions. Do I really have to converse with these people? How long would I have to endure this?

“E—Earth,” I replied quickly.

“Earth? Like, as in the ground? Your world has an actual name, right?”

“T—Then… Terra?”

“That basically means earth, right? But I don’t think I’ve heard of a world people call Terra before…” He looked at Abby expectantly.

“What’s with you always coming to me asking for help?” She turned back to me and frowned. “…but to be honest, I’m not remembering that world from the top of my head either.”

“Wait… even Abby doesn’t know something?” Em spoke up.

Abby thought for a while. “Well… it’s not in the database either…”

“Then what’s your world like, man?” Ari asked me. “This is getting me even more interested.”

“I—umm…it’s not really a special place…”

“Oh, come on, man.” He smacked my back. “That’s what we all said before meeting each other. Trust me. I promise you we’ll find it interesting. I mean, look at Em there!”

Em was still looking up at me curiously, waiting for me to say something.

“W—well…” I cleared my throat. “You people know time walking… right?” They nodded. “Well… I guess the main thing about Earth is that we don’t do that…”

“Woah, there are timelines like that?” Ari gazed at me in amazement.

“Yes, those places do exist. Time-travel free zones are what they’re called. This place you’re from is one of them?” Abby was studying me, thinking.

“I…guess?”

“Then what are you doing here? You would have needed some way to get here, right?”

“It’s… kind of a long story…” I trailed off, thinking about the school shooting, Arthur’s cellar, the underground prison, and Irnoma’s forest.

“Well, we got the time now. I’m interested in your story, too.”

“I’m curious too!” Em seconded Ari’s statement. Indeed, her face had curiosity written all over it.

“Oho. Em, so this is what gets you excited?” Abby looked at Em with an amused expression.

“No, that’s not it!” She turned back to me. “I just love a nice story! If you really are from a time-travel free zone, then does that mean you can’t time walk?”

I couldn’t ignore Em’s puppy eyes at that moment, so I answered instinctively. “I—I guess that’s kind of true… But I did learn a bit from Irnoma.”

“Irnoma?” Ari had the same expression as when I mentioned Earth. He turned to Abby again for help. She shrugged. “Don’t know who that is, either.”

“Oh—um, she’s just a nice teacher…” Then I remembered the pendant she gave me and took it out. “She gave me this.”

Abby examined it. “Is that…a rat? With horns? I thought I had a pretty good grasp of multiversal zoology class. What is it?”

“It’s a kirrel. There were a lot of them in my master’s world.”

Abby was deep in thought when Em cut in. “Either way, that fancy pendant is very cool!” Her eyes shined with excitement.

“Yeah. Looks like a pretty expensive piece of jewelry. That violet knife you got by your side too. But what’s with your outfit, man? You look like you’ve been living in that forest for months!”

I looked down at what I was wearing, and my face immediately turned red. Compared to Ari’s shining armor, Abby’s sleek suit, and Em’s fancy robe, I was wearing a tattered piece of cloth and a ripped pair of pants. I had been wearing this same piece of clothing for a year now, though I did rewind its state every once in a while if it got too battered.

“Shoot, sorry… I didn’t think I’d be meeting people this early on…” Quickly, I closed my eyes and concentrated, looking through different timelines. Then, a faint aura surrounded me, and my clothing morphed into an elegant attire. Now I was wearing a black vest over a pale tunic along with a short golden cape. It had taken me a while to find a set of clothes that fit in with my companions, but I was satisfied with my new outfit.

When I looked back up at my new travel mates, though, all three were shocked, as if they had seen one of Irnoma’s magic tricks.

“Y—you did say you were from a time-travel free zone… right?” Abby asked me. I nodded.

Ari broke out of his surprise and patted me on the back, then put his arm around my shoulder. “Wow… I didn’t expect you to be so skilled with time manipulation. All I can do is touch up some of the wrinkles in my clothes.” He turned back to the girls. “I guess we’ve found ourselves a pretty capable companion.”

I nudged myself out of Ari’s arm. This was too much physical contact. “I told you guys, didn’t I? I had a pretty good teacher.”

“Then would you teach us?” Em asked me, then added quickly, “that is… if you’d like to…” Her eagerness to learn was showing again.

“Sure, when I have the time,” I replied. For some reason, I found it hard to ever say no to her.

Em smiled and shook my hands. “Thanks!”

Nobody said anything for a few moments, so I gazed around at my surroundings, happy to finally be free from the conversation. We had just climbed a tall but gradually sloped hill. From this new vantage point, I could see far into the distance where the path disappeared into the horizon. As we walked down, the forest I started in vanished behind the hill. Now we were in a large patch of blue flowers that mirrored the sky.

When Em saw the new scene around us, she quickly turned away and walked to the side to pick a few flowers. Then she looked back to Abby. “Hey, what are these flowers called?”

Abby ran up to Em’s side. “Oooh. Those are Hydra Lilies! See how the eight stamens and the stigma coming out from the blue petals look like a nine-headed water serpent springing from the ocean?”

Ari jogged up beside the two, but he looked more interested in Abby than the actual conversation. “Wow. You sure know a lot about flowers, Abby.”

“Of course I do,” she replied, flipping her ponytail back with her hand. But she didn’t even look in Ari’s direction before turning back to Em.

“Officially, they’re called Novilium. They mutated from lilies to have two sets of four petals. But Seriously, why the ‘nov’ when there are eight petals and not nine? Those stupid biologists naming stuff however they want…” She shook her head in disappointment.

I kept myself walking behind the others as they continued to talk about flowers. It seemed like those three had known each other for years, while I had only met them less than an hour ago. Was I really part of their team now? It felt more like I was hitching a ride with them.

For hours we traveled like that on the path. The forest I started in had vanished behind us in the distance long ago. Still, we were in the vast, flat field with occasional rolling hills.

I had trained my endurance a lot back in Irnoma’s world, so I was doing fine, but I wondered how the other three were still walking normally without any sign of tiredness. We did take a few resting stops, but the average person would have collapsed from the walking by now.

When I first joined the journey, it was still the morning, but now the sun was high in the sky, signaling noontime. My stomach growled, and my three companions in front turned around to face me. I looked away in embarrassment. Was that growl really that loud?

“D—Don’t worry,” I told them and tried to smile, “I have some food.”

I took out my bag of berries from Lazarus, my tree back in Irnoma’s forest, and threw a few into my mouth.

Abby gasped at my motion and ran up to me, holding me firmly by my shoulders and shaking me violently. “What the hell are you doing?? Spit that out now! Don’t swallow it!”

I shrugged myself away from her grip and swallowed. “Um… is there something wrong? Do you want some?” I held the bag open for her to take from. The berries were delicious, and it’d be sad not to be able to try some.

“Th–th–th–those are freaking Abyss Cherries! They’re poisonous! I–if you aren’t dead in a few seconds then you will be in less than a minute! Come on, choke it out now!”

She walked up to me, but I backed away instinctively. Was I really about to die now? By berries? I panicked for a moment before realizing that it shouldn’t be dangerous. “I’ve eaten these before,” I said confidently, “and I’m pretty sure I haven’t died yet.”

Ari put a hand on Abby’s shoulder, but she swatted it away. “Relax, Abby,” he told her, “it’s been a while, and it doesn’t look like anything’s wrong with Day. Maybe he’s immune?”

Abby studied me as I threw some more berries into my mouth. “Seriously, you should’ve told me you had poison immunity. It’s a pretty big deal. You almost made me die from a heart attack there.”

Em had just broken out of her shock and realized the situation. She turned to me and her eyes shined. “You have immunity to poison? How did you get that?”

I scratched my head. “I…uh…I’m not too sure myself,” I said, letting out a nervous chuckle.

“Anyway, what do those cherries taste like? If they’re so deadly, I can’t imagine them tasting well,” Abby said, scrunching her face as if she bit a lemon.

“Actually… they aren’t really that sour. These berries are pretty sweet, but not so sweet to make your tongue burn.”

“Interesting…” Abby said. She was deep in thought again.

“Speaking of this, say, what’s your favorite food, Abby? Back on Ashen, ramen was the thing, man!”

Abby glared at Ari, making him step back in surprise. “Mind your own business, brute.” She turned around swiftly, starting to walk again. Her long ponytail smacked Ari right in the face.

Ari held his face from the smack and looked at Abby angrily. “You… I’m going to kill you and cut off that excess hair of yours!” He started chasing after Abby through the tall grass again.

“U—um… Now that we’ve stopped here, how about we take a rest to eat lunch?” Em called out after watching the two for a minute, sensing how tensions have risen.

Ari and Abby stopped in their tracks and looked back at us. Their faces lit up, and their stomachs growled at the same time.

“That was him,” Abby said quickly, pointing at Ari.

“What are you saying? It’s clear it was your stomach!”

Abby sent another deadly glare at Ari. “Now, do you want lunch or not?”

Ari suddenly turned to a puppy begging his master. “U—um… yes I do, Milady.”

She punched his shoulder. “Don’t call me ‘Milady,’ freak!”

“What’s on the menu today?” Em asked eagerly as Abby stomped back to the path where we were standing.

Abby smiled at Em. “Well, I was thinking simple burgers. I can make a crab burger if you’d like.” Em nodded quickly, smiling back at Abby.

“And to celebrate Day as a new member of our team, how about a seafood feast for dinner!?” She winked at Em, whose smile grew even wider.

“Yes yes! I can’t wait for dinner now!”

“Come on… when are we gonna have some ramen?” Ari asked, finally coming out of the field.

Abby ignored him and stepped back, her eyes now closed in concentration. Ari and Em gave her space as she raised her arms. Slowly, the same odd aura I had seen earlier appeared, and all of a sudden, a polished grill, a sink, and a large counter appeared out of thin air. On the counter sat buns, meat, and pretty much all the ingredients to make a fully stacked burger. An apron materialized in Abby’s hand and she put it on, tying her hair into a bun as well. She lit the grill and washed her hands.

Was this the same thing Irnoma used to do to give me all that training equipment? After the entire year, she still hadn’t taught me that.

But before I could think any more, a savory smell filled the air. Abby was dancing around the new setup, preparing our meal. With the aroma came nostalgia of the few times my family had barbecues. When was the last time I had a burger? When was the last time I even had a properly cooked meal? It seemed like forever.