Over the course of the next day, we had gotten to ‘know’ each other, if that’s what you could even call it.

—

Two people journeying together, their paths side by side, their days and nights in each other’s company, yet their selves sheltered beneath facades of preservation. In isolation, they’d claim to know one another, but it couldn’t be said that they had truly once interacted at all.

—

In hindsight, the total amount of time we actually spent interacting totaled to far less than a day’s worth of hours. It was sometime that afternoon I realized I had quickly grown tired of this sham. Even so, I still felt a responsibility to hold it all together, at least until we reached Synoria Outlook.

Yet, even the sturdiest of masks must one day crumble, for those flames brought back memories I had always tried so hard to forget.

Those flames sent my mind into a dazed trance. I ran as fast as I could without a destination in mind. I acted without a goal before me. 

I moved with the intent of doing something, of saving something, yet I could do nothing but run. I ran past those beasts that I could’ve prevented from entering town. I ran past the burning walls that I could’ve aided in extinguishing. 

Then, someone grabbed onto my wrist from behind. It was Kaito, his face a blend of worry, fear, and something else.

For whatever reason, I felt all my emotions being redirected at him- No, not really at him, but at the facades we had been hiding behind. For the first time since meeting him, I completely dropped all pretenses and tried to speak my mind. I let my emotions get the best of me.

Why was he, someone so desperate to play the hero, now shrinking back like a civilian in need of saving? Why was he, someone with maybe the greatest potential I’ve ever seen, now acting as if he’d never fought an enemy once in his life?

Why was I, someone who at one point could feel confident in their capabilities, now powerless to mere memories and emotions?

I had shouted all these thoughts that were on my mind at him, and I had made a mistake.

“Do you know what it feels like?! What it feels like to watch the world that saved you burn away to ashes around you?! To watch everything you’ve loved be ripped from your arms?!”

I was angry, I was upset, I was disheartened, and through this tempest of emotions, that was what I wanted to say. I realized what it meant to say these things to him a second too late.

His eyes grew hazy as he mumbled something I could barely hear.

“…I know what it’s like to be the reason everything I’ve loved was ripped from the world I wanted to save-”

I couldn’t really describe what happened next to anybody who hasn’t experienced it, but if I were to try my best, I’d say it was like watching all of Kaito’s past through his own memories. Only, there was some heightened sense of connection and understanding, unlike the feeling of watching a movie or reading a book where you were told the characters’ emotions second-hand. 

I felt his joy, his grief, I felt all of these emotions flashing by as if they were my own.

Truly, Hanakawa had been a beautiful village with lives that didn’t deserve their ending.

For the first and last time, I witnessed the true end to his village, the so-called Calamity Event of the 7th cycle. 

So that’s why he said what he said… I had never seen such an occurrence before. I knew there were instances of people becoming corrupted before, but this very instance with the lone core that targeted Kaito… It felt almost too deliberate.

The scene continued playing out before ‘my’ eyes. I watched his own hands being used to take the lives of the ones he held closest to his heart before all went dark. 

Unbearable guilt washed over me. Guilt that was both my own and his. I didn’t know how these memories were being shown to me, but regardless of their cause, I was the one responsible for bringing them back to his conscience with just a single question.

But why had he hidden all this from me? The topic had come up several times, but not once did he go into detail on his backstory… not that I could blame him for avoiding such a topic.

As my thoughts began to spiral, the setting around me suddenly changed. 

This was my own memory, one that took place in an alleyway I had frequently visited in my worst dreams.

Was my price for triggering Kaito’s memory the reconstruction of my own?

Even now, ‘reliving’ this memory, I tried my best to keep my mind as distant as possible.

It wasn’t working.

My breaths became quicker. My tears began flowing once more. It wasn’t a mere feeling. Something about these memories was way too vivid. Right now, I was back in my 9 year old body, feeling those same emotions I felt on that same day.

That was when I saw him again, standing there, watching me from the light beyond the alley. He was the same person I’d been traveling with, but now, something about him had changed, as if a veil obscuring his face had finally been lifted.

His face looked different from what I remembered. Had his features always been defined?

Wait, what was he doing in my memory, anyways? Was it the same reason as to why and how I witnessed his past?

My thoughts were now growing more sparse, as if I truly was returning to the very state of mind I had back then.

There was no room left for acting. I wanted help. I wanted to break free from these memories. I wanted someone to understand me. Yet, those clear eyes still seemed ever so distant.

Kaito’s POV

For some reason, these buildings reconstructed in this memory reminded me of my own hometown. 

Battered walls, ravaged streets, fading embers, all of it looked like the Hanakawa I had emerged from. Only, this past I was viewing still had a present to come back to. 

My conscience was weighed down by this acknowledgement, but I had to admit that standing here in this memory, my mind became ever more clear. 

I returned my attention to Yukiko. The walls that bordered the alleyway she was hiding in were the only ones left standing from their original buildings. A bastion of desperate hope. Was this how I had been clinging onto those childish dreams?

I took a step towards her and she immediately flinched backwards.

Was this Yukiko the one of her memories or the one of the present? 

I took another step as her eyes suddenly relaxed in an expression of recognition.

Of course she wasn’t one or the other. She was both. Just as I had been living as a blend of my childhood aspirations and my present delusions. 

As I continued to approach her, I began hearing some of her thoughts. Not present thoughts, but ones that seemed to be directed towards me. She was afraid, hesitant, apologetic. 

I heard that she had seen my past and now I had seen her’s. I didn’t understand the circumstances surrounding this memory, but she likely didn’t understand mine either. None of that mattered. 

We had seen each other’s true selves now. She was right that we had been doing nothing but acting pretenses along the journey so far. 

I flipped back through my memories. From the moment after that screen went dark in that cavern underneath Hanakawa to just moments ago, those memories appeared blurry compared to the vividness with which I now saw my reality. 

More than anything else, my interactions with Aeolus and my usage of the system had been blurred to the point of being unrecognizable. Those memories especially felt distant. 

A brief subconscious thought suggested that I had hallucinated such occurrences to cope, but I pushed those away before they surfaced to my attention.

I was clinging too tight to the past. It was time to let go.

I reached out towards Yukiko, motioning for her to take my hand.

Our facades couldn’t have been any more different, yet our true selves were more similar than we could have ever imagined.

As she grabbed my hand and I pulled her onto her feet, I was transported back to that black void.

Ahead of me, illuminating the darkness, was a single campfire. 

Behind the campfire was our house, pieces of wood missing from being torn off to fuel this campfire. The flames looked rather cozy and inviting.

I looked down and noticed I held a torn page in my hand, likely ripped out of some book. The paper had considerably yellowed.

I lifted the page towards my eyes. This was the final page that ended my favorite story my father used to tell me. The story of the hero of legend that saved humanity and created World Zero. 

However, at the bottom of this page, there was an illustration of myself rather than the main character. Next to it, a note in my father’s handwriting was scribbled, but for some reason, I couldn’t read the familiar print. Was such a thing even from my memories? I was certain nobody in my family could draw this well.

I looked up again to see my family sitting, smiling, huddled together on the other side of the campfire. They expectantly returned my gaze.

“No… my story isn’t over yet”

My mom smiled at me and nodded. She, who taught me to dream beyond the horizon.

My father confidently held my gaze and thumped his chest. He, who taught me to fight for what I held dear. 

My brother looked away.

“Let’s meet again someday”

I turned away from the campfire and let the page go. Glancing back, I could see that it had landed in the campfire, its worn edges now crumbling to an irreversible ash.

Oof!

Something had hit my chest in the real world, immediately snapping me back to reality.

“I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry…”

Yukiko had basically tackled me and her face was buried in my shirt, her tears still flowing as if back in that memory from before. She kept mumbling her apologies that grew quieter and quieter.

The destruction still raged around us. For how long had we been grappling with our pasts?

I gently lay my hand on her head to comfort her.

“So I take it this is the real you?”

She looked at me defiantly, eyes still glistening.

“So much for a heartfelt introduction… I’m expecting big things from this side of you, you know”

She rolled her eyes and forced a small laugh.

“Save those expectations for after we’re finished here. I’ve still gotta play the hero for a bit longer”

“Hmph”

I held her by the shoulders and propped her upright. We’d start over our stories confined by our pasts right here. She nodded in understanding.

Maybe after it was all over we’d finally get to have our first true heart to heart. 

The noise along the streets and between the buildings grew into an uproar as corrupted beasts now breached the borders of Synoria Outlook. Rather, they had been waiting outside for something, and now clearly targeted myself and Yukiko.

Pure white energy swirled around both our bodies as we channeled our auras, the system still remaining completely silent.

“So I can now mimic her attribute… What a fickle thing the spirit attribute is,” I thought to myself.

***

Fill the empty frame with puzzle pieces anew. Turn the page to stories anew. Rebuild those memories with fragments anew, and the whole shall one day satisfy old fruitless desires.

***