Arc 1, Chapter 6: A Certain Someone’s Memories

The next morning was eventful, to say the least. Dumas’ rather sudden proposition the previous night had sent Haruhi into a flurry of excitement, so much so that Amadeus doubted she’d slept at all. She even tried to run out of the door the second she had the chance, which Haya quickly put a stop to by grabbing her with Psychic.

 

“Bye, Mom!”

 

“Oh no you don’t, young lady!”

 

“Damnit…” Haruhi sighed. It was certainly the childish thing to do, running out like that, even if she’d already scarfed down her breakfast and given an afterthought of a goodbye. She hadn’t even taken the bag she and Amadeus had packed last night.

 

“Haruhi,” Haya said, her voice a little softer now. “The least you could do is give me a proper goodbye.”

 

“I… sorry, it’s just—”

 

“I’m well aware this is everything you’ve ever wanted, and I know how excited you are. I just want you to say goodbye, my child.” Haya floated Haruhi closer in for an embrace. “Stay safe out there, okay?”

 

Amadeus finished up his own breakfast, and then grabbed the bag, still near the table. I bet she was counting on me not to forget the thing. Or maybe she wasn’t thinking at all. Seriously, say goodbye to your mother.

 

Haruhi sighed. “…I’ll be okay, Mom. Really.”

 

Haya gingerly placed Haruhi down. “I wish you the best of luck in the world of adults, kid. Be careful, now…” She turned to Amadeus. “I trust you won’t go putting her into danger, Amadeus?”

 

Amadeus nodded. “I’ll do my best.” He paused for a moment. “Thank you for everything, by the way. I think I’d be dead without you guys taking me in.”

 

Haya smiled. “You’re welcome.” She breathed a heavy sigh. “You two sure you packed everything?”

 

“I’m pretty sure we quadruple-checked that we had everything we needed…” Amadeus said, mentally running down the list. The personal belongings, the extra clothes, the berries, the stuff Haruhi found over the years from exploring the dungeons near town, the tent, the map, some money… we aren’t missing anything, are we?

 

“Teacher’s probably gonna pack a bit of her own stuff, too…” Haruhi commented. “I think we packed enough.”

 

“You can never be too sure,” Amadeus pointed out. “Especially with how much we can fit inside of that thing.” Amadeus wasn’t entirely sure how it worked, but the bag Haya had loaned them for the trip had seemingly infinite space. What is this, a bag of holding? Amadeus wasn’t really interested in questioning it at this point. It was starting to feel less and less like he was simply in the past every day.

 

“C’mon, let’s go…” Haruhi urged Amadeus.

 

“Haruhi?” Haya asked.

 

“Yeah, Mom?”

 

“Visit me from time to time, alright? I’m terribly worried about you, you know that?”

 

“I will,” Haruhi promised with a nod.

 

“…Goodbye, my daughter.” Somehow, her voice sounded incredibly pained. Perhaps she still didn’t want Haruhi to leave.

 

The walk to Mayumi’s house was an unusually quick one. Amadeus and Haruhi were nearly running on the way there, owing to Haruhi’s general excitement. Haruhi marched right up to the door and gave a loud knock.

 

“Teacher! You there?”

 

“Coming, coming…” Mayumi opened the door, looking a little bit frazzled. Perhaps it was bedhead. “I trust the two of you actually packed last night?”

 

“I don’t think we missed anything…” Amadeus said, still a little unsure.

 

“Good,” Mayumi responded. “I hope that includes a map?”

 

“Sure does…” Amadeus pulled out the rolled-up map from the bag.

 

“Great. Pass me that for a second…” Mayumi un-rolled the map, which was a map of just the teardrop island. “We’ll be taking a route that I’ve taken a few times in the past to get to and from Hakken no Machi. Since we’re pretty close to the center of teardrop island, it isn’t very efficient or safe to try and walk the entire distance. Instead, we’ll head to a small town along the river called Kawa no Machi, and then ride the boat there to the port city of Bōeki no Machi. Then we can just either take another boat to Hakken no Machi on the northern tip of the island, or just walk if time permits. This way, we’ll avoid a lot of the nastier Mystery dungeons on the island, and we should arrive with time to spare.”

 

“It won’t be much of an adventure if we’re in a boat most of the way…” Haruhi said, a little miffed.

 

“Haruhi, if you got seriously injured because I threw you into harm’s way, I don’t think your mother would ever speak to me again. I’d like to cut down on the number of dungeons we have to traverse, if at all possible.” Mayumi, by the looks of it, was not in any mood to be taking unnecessary risks.

 

“Riding a boat sounds fun, no?” Amadeus asked, supporting Mayumi’s decision.

 

“Have you traveled by boat before, Amadeus?” Haruhi asked, her voice a little apprehensive.

 

“Well, no…”

 

Haruhi pouted “I just don’t wanna get soaked. I’m a fire type, it’s bad for me to get doused in cold water.”

 

“Relax, you’re not gonna get wet,” Mayumi reassured her. “It’s not like we’ll be riding a raft the whole time.” She chuckled. “You crazy kids are gonna love it in the city, just wait.”

 

“You barely know me,” Amadeus pointed out.

 

“I’m a good judge of character,” Mayumi countered.

 

“Fair enough.” Amadeus looked around. “So, we ready to go, or…?”

 

“I see no reason to dilly-dally further,” Mayumi agreed. “Let’s head off, shall we?”

 

The path out of town was an uneventful one. Haruhi tried asking questions about what the town they were heading to was like, only for Mayumi to playfully give non-answers to all of her questions. Evidently, the details of the city were meant to be a surprise. That didn’t stop Amadeus from doing a bit of speculating on it, though. I’ve already confirmed the existence of radio. If we can have stuff like that, then surely, we must’ve found some way of storing electricity. If that’s the case, then in the city… maybe that’s wishful thinking, but I would very much like it to be true. Eventually, Haruhi settled on asking Mayumi about her history with Haken no Machi. This, at least, Mayumi seemed open to talking about.

 

“Well, I was born in Hakken no Machi myself,” Mayumi said in response to one of Haruhi’s inquiries. “I was a lot like you back then. I wanted to join the guild. It’s a glamorous job, no? However, right when I was about to be old enough to join at age sixteen, my family got whisked away to Háo de Xiǎo for something work-related. If memory serves, my father managed to secure a deal with some member of the mainland aristocracy who lived in the city. Háo de Xiǎo was their seat of power, apparently. Must’ve been someone important, given that Háo de Xiǎo used to be the single largest city on the continent. Of course, that came crashing down barely a year later. That didn’t stop my ambitions, though. There was a competing guild based out of the city that I trained under for most of that time with… my ex.”

 

“I’m guessing that also came crashing down the second the second the big incident happened?” Amadeus asked.

 

“…Indeed. Barely a week beforehand, I’d moved back to Hakken no Machi to join the Guild of Honor and work there. Then the Light that Burned the Sky shone, and boy did things get messy fast. It was a hell of a time to be a new recruit, I’ll tell you that. We couldn’t go a day without many a poor ‘mon begging for us to go back into the wreckage to investigate if their precious item, or worse, their special someone was okay.” Mayumi paused. “The Guildmaster eventually gave the order to cease looking into requests like that because it was clear there was nothing left of the city. I think a lot about what could’ve caused it…” Mayumi paused again. “You know, it’s ironic. If not for that tragedy, the Guild of Honor wouldn’t be nearly as powerful as it is today.”

 

“…Because it took out their competition?” Amadeus asked.

 

“Not only that,” Mayumi responded. “The Guild, to its credit, went out of its way to promote relief efforts to the surrounding areas. Because of that, the mainland has increasingly relied on the Guild, which has been huge in allowing it to spread it’s influence across the continent. These days, I don’t think it’s a stretch to call the Guildmaster the most powerful man on the whole continent. He’s even been able to exert his leverage in the western kingdoms without issue.”

 

“That’s crazy…” Haruhi said, sounding more impressed than anything. “So, what did you do for most of that time?”

 

“Right, that’s what we were talking about…” Mayumi thought aloud. “As for myself, I was recently evolved, so they wanted me to do a little more heavy lifting. I wasn’t exactly feeling jazzed about properly exploring because I was grieving over my ex, so they stuck me on combat training, which I did for another year… or was it two? In any case, I started thinking about opening my own dojo somewhere quieter, eventually met Sakura my chance around that time. I followed her to Nōgyō no Machi, and the rest is history, I suppose.”

 

 “…Huh.” Haruhi stared off into the distance. “Say, whatever happened to that one Northerner Sylveon that stayed with out guys for… What? A year?” Mentally, Amadeus reminded himself that ‘Northerner’ meant Shiny.

 

“I don’t know,” Mayumi said with a wave of her paw. “Just up and left one day, never to return. You were still going though school at the time, weren’t you? You were ten or eleven at the time, weren’t you?” Mayumi shook her head. “I’m getting old, I can’t remember these things anymore.”

 

“…Who are we talking about?” Amadeus asked.

 

“A few years after I opened up my dojo in town, a Northerner Sylveon named Samantha showed up in town one day and decided to stay with Sakura and I for a while. Then she left one day, and told nobody where she was going.”

 

I-it’s probably a coincidence… Don’t lose your cool, Amadeus, there’s bound to be plenty of shiny Eeveelutions out there with that name… “Interesting.”

 

By the time the sun started to dip below the horizon, the trio had arrived at a strange-looking patch of woods. Just standing near the edge of where the woods started, it seemed like they stretched as far as the eye could see in either direction. I guess we’re cutting through, then… Amadeus started to walk forward, with Haruhi following, but Mayumi stopped them both.

 

“Hold it, you two. We’re making camp here for the night.”

 

“Why not camp in the woods? There’s still some time left in the day!” Haruhi pointed out. “Why don’t we make some headway while we still have sunlight?”

 

“Because,” Mayumi said with a stern voice. “This is the entrance to a mystery dungeon called Uragiri no Mori.”

 

“…Oh.” Haruhi looked a little embarrassed. “Yeah, that’s a good reason not to camp out in there.”

 

“…Scary name,” Amadeus observed.

 

“That’s because this place has a reputation for being a bit of a pain to get through. It’s known for potentially shifting upwards of twelve times a day, and boasts ten floors, so getting past this place could eat up the whole day tomorrow. It’s probably going to be the trickiest part of the whole trip.”

 

“Why not just walk around it?” Amadeus asked.

 

“Unfortunately, the forest that houses it is so large that going around it takes days. We’d have to get seriously unlucky for braving the mystery dungeon to take longer. It’s designated a barrier dungeon for a reason.”

 

“Barrier dungeon?” Amadeus asked.

 

“It’s a name for any dungeon considered to be so large that walking around it is slower than traversing it. They’re so difficult to move around safely that they end up dividing up civilization.”

 

“…Haruhi, why are you explaining common knowledge to him?”

 

“He’s got memory issues, so he doesn’t know a lot of things.”

 

“I was under the impression from Hirohito and your mother that it wasn’t that bad.”

 

“Well, uh…”

 

“I have vague memories of hearing something like that before,” Amadeus said, lying through his teeth.

 

Mayumi looked at him with suspicious eyes for a moment, like she was thinking about what question to ask next. Amadeus mentally prepared himself for an interrogation where his only aid also believed something that wasn’t true about him, but it never came. “Nevermind,” Mayumi said, with a casual wave of her paw. “Crack out those tents, let’s start setting up camp.” Did she just buy that? Amadeus wondered.

 

“Tent, actually. We only have one,” Haruhi said, seemingly unphased by the sudden dropping of the subject. “You brought your own, right Teacher?”

 

“I did. You two are sharing a tent?”

 

“Yeah, Haya only had a single tent for us,” Amadeus confirmed.

 

“Figured. Let’s get these set up quickly, now…”

 

Setting up the tents was a bit of a hassle. Seemingly, neither Amadeus nor Haruhi had any idea how to set up a tent, so Mayumi ended up setting up the tent for them, much to Haruhi’s annoyance.

 

“We could’ve done it…” Haruhi pouted.

 

“Any longer, and I think you two would’ve ripped a hole in the thing, or bent the poles into some unworkable shape. Please pay attention to how I’m doing this, unless you want to sleep like our ancestors did.” Mayumi expertly pitched the tent like she’d probably done a thousand times before, trying it to the poles and driving the stakes into the ground expertly. “Alright, get some sleep now, you two. We ride at dawn.”

 

Amadeus and Haruhi entered the cramped tent. Amadeus opened the bag to get the sleepi—

 

“Oh, Arceus.”

 

“What now?”

 

“I knew we forgot something.” Amadeus turned to Haruhi. “We forgot the sleeping bags.”

 

“Oh. Guess we’re sleeping on the ground, then…”

 

“Gah, it’s going to be freezing…” Amadeus pulled out their pillows, which they thankfully did bring, and laid them out on the ground next to each other. He then placed his head down on one of the pillows and tried his best to find a remotely comfortable sleeping position, which was difficult, by all accounts. “Good night, Haruhi.”

 

“Night, Amadeus.”

 

For a while, Amadeus couldn’t get to sleep. Perhaps it was how uncomfortable he was sleeping on the ground, or maybe it was nerves getting to him, or maybe it was the fact that Haruhi was right next to him. He found himself tossing and turning a bit, which apparently was keeping Haruhi awake.

 

“Are you gonna go to sleep, or…?” She whispered.

 

“I’m trying,” Amadeus whispered back.

 

Haruhi took a deep breath, and without warning, curled up against Amadeus.

 

“H-Haruhi?!?” On reflex, Amadeus shoved her off.

 

“…Ow. That hurt.”

 

“Why did you—”

 

“I figured you’d sleep easier with me warming you up, given you were complaining about the cold earlier.” Her face turned red when she seemingly realized what she’d done. “W-wait, I didn’t mean it romantically!” She nervously looked around. “I mean, I was just trying to warm you up! Yeah…”

 

“…” You’re the one who keeps calling me your partner, damnit! Of course that’s what it looked like!

 

“D-do you want to…”

 

“I mean, I guess…”

 

Haruhi inched a little closer once more. She gingerly brushed up against Amadeus, and drew him in for a hug. It was a strange feeling. Amadeus could feel her warm body pressed up against his own, smell her scent vividly. He felt at once uncomfortable and comfortable. Half of him wanted to push her away and get some personal space, and the other half wanted to hold her closer.

 

“…This is nice,” She whispered.

 

“Yeah…”

 

Amadeus didn’t really keep track of the time. All he knew is that he fell asleep not long after that.

 

 

---

 

 

“Up and at ‘em, you two. It’s dungeon time!”

 

Amadeus felt Haruhi stretch next to him, and then immediately recoil.

 

“Ow! Amadeus!”

 

“What?” Amadeus yawned.

 

“Did you have to shock me as soon as you got up?”

 

“…I didn’t shock you.”

 

“But I felt it! It hurt!”

 

“It was probably static electricity,” Amadeus said, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “I just woke up, could you please be a little quieter?”

 

“What’s static buildup?”

 

“If you rub up next to something that conducts electricity well, it can shock you if you move too fast.”

 

Mayumi, apparently, was losing patience with them. “And what were you two doing that cause you to be rubbing up against each other?”

 

Several red-faced denials later, the both of them were right out of bed, as planned. Mayumi laid out breakfast for the both of them. “Eat up, you two. We’re not stopping once we’re inside. This could very well take us all day.”

 

“You think we’ll have to make camp on the other side?” Amadeus asked.

 

“We might. If we get lucky enough, we might still have enough time to make it to Kawa no Machi after come out. That’s a big if, unfortunately.” Mayumi started lowering the tents while the two of them ate. Eventually, Amadeus and Haruhi finished eating and helped pack the rest of their belongings back into the bag.

 

“Alright, you two. Absolutely no drifting away from me. We stick together. If we’re not grouped up when a shift happens, we could easily get separated, and then it could turn dangerous quickly. Do I make myself clear?”

 

“Yes!” Haruhi and Amadeus responded in unison.

 

At the same time, the trio started walking into the woods. It didn’t take long for the path behind them to completely disappear, catching Amadeus off guard.

 

“Crap, I didn’t realize how close we were to the boundary of the mystery dungeon…” He said, a little shaky.

 

“That’s what makes them dangerous,” Mayumi said in the same tone she tended to use when instructing. “In many cases, it’s all but impossible to tell from the outside. Now stay close…”

 

The first two floors happened without much incident. Mayumi had, for the most part, kept them from getting into too much danger. She had used plenty of light screens and reflects to minimize what little harm had come their way, and oftentimes just stood in the way of enemy attacks with protect. The difference in experience between her, Amadeus, and Haruhi was a little striking. The way she’d easily create openings for Haruhi or Amadeus (but usually Haruhi), or how she always gave corners a wide berth to avoid anything jumping in her face, or how she’d carefully listen to her surroundings to anticipate when she they were about to get attacked and almost always be correct were things Amadeus didn’t even pick up on until she pointed out these things to him.

“If you look down a pathway in the dungeon, and see an area with multiple branching pathways, you should always head to that area.” She gestured to one such area they were approaching soon. “The stairs could be anywhere on the floor, and searching the whole floor is slow, so it’s bad to overcommit to any one pathway. Sure, it might be that way, but it’s way more likely to be somewhere on the entire rest of the floor. You want to be as efficient as possible, so seeing as much of the floor as you can quickly is best.”

 

It’s like speedrunning… Amadeus thought to himself. “What if you don’t find it in a quick search of the other pathways?”

 

“Then you have to try and commit to one harder. Sometimes luck does that, I’m afraid. The layout of each floor is random, after all. You really just—” She froze. “Alright, everyone huddle up.”

 

“What is it?” Haruhi asked.

 

“You hear that? That low whistling noise?” She asked. There was a hint of panic in her voice.

 

Amadeus listened a little more closely. Sure enough, there was definitely a faint whistling noise that wasn’t there previously. “…Yeah, I think I hear it.”

 

“Alright, huddle up then.” Mayumi pulled Amadeus and Haruhi closer, and held on to them both tightly. Slowly, the noise got louder and louder, and the reality around them seemed to… deteriorate. Mayumi formed a light screen around them as the noise suddenly jumped to a painfully shrill tone, deafening them all for a moment. And then it happened.

 

H*)R@#PM*C_H$<HMC)(@<JN
C”P(C<!#C<
UM{C
@#C)I<%UJX}
%>C<()<{@
ZCz2,[CUc>?I)

#C>)I@>#V%<CU>C

CI>@#C
#:@P

L

2c4
C>2

C>I05

2cC2_>
cco@#_%O2

%??5@)>

“O-ow…” Haruhi piped up the second they could feel the ground again.

 

“I… I think I heard smells there for a moment…” Amadeus complained, his ears still ringing.

 

“Hahaha, unpleasant, isn’t it?” Mayumi asked, still holding onto them both. “The good news is that we’re not separated.”

 

“THAT was a dungeon shift?” Haruhi asked. “You never told me it was that bad…”

 

“How do you tell were you ended up?” Amadeus asked.

 

“That’s the neat part,” Mayumi sighed.  “You don’t.”

 

“…Oh.”

 

“But, odds are good we went forward multiple floors,” Mayumi added. “So don’t worry, for now. If we shift again in here, that’s when we really start losing track of our progress…”

 

“I’m starting to see what makes dungeons that shift so much dangerous…” Haruhi commented.

 

“Yeah, that’s the gist of the issue. It can get maddening if you don’t find a way out.”

 

A while later, the group was walking through the very next floor, just a little worried. They hadn’t seen any ferals for a while, so they were making some light conversation.

 

“So how does using fire type moves work, anyway?” Amadeus asked.

 

“Well,” Haruhi started. “It’s more or less about controlling your breathing. Every time I want to use a fire type move, I have to inhale to fuel it. It tends to be more powerful when I’m excited or angry, but if I run out of breath, I can’t do anything with fire. I have to be careful to not tire myself out.”

 

“…What’s it feel like?”

 

 “It’s exciting, I guess. Gets my blood pumping, y’know?” Haruhi paused thoughtfully. “What’s it like to use electric moves?”

 

“…I mean, I’m not that good at it, but I’d say it’s not too different. It makes me feel really determined. I mean, it is literally charging me up.”

 

“What do you mean, ‘charging you up’?”

 

Time to recall what I remember from biology class… “All of the electricity stored inside me comes from a sort of internal battery that naturally recharges itself over time. The electricity inside of it is always flowing to different parts of my body and back. I can control how quickly it flows between different parts of my body. If I want to use a move, I have to get it to flow to my ears, or paws, or whatever, and then push it outwards. I think that’s how it works, anyway.”

 

“…It flows? Like water?”

 

“I guess, yeah.”

 

“Does it feel like it’s swirling around in there?”

 

“I can kinda feel it.”

 

“…Huh.” Haruhi looked back towards the path. “I thought it would work similarly to fire, since they’re right next to each other on the chart…”

 

“Haruhi, what did I say about that thing?” Mayumi asked in a stern tone.

 

“Oh, sorry, teacher. Don’t make assumptions about how other move types work based on the chart, right…”

 

“Good. I don’t want you to forget that.”

 

Amadeus spotted something off in the distance. “Hey uh, isn’t that…”

 

Mayumi’s jaw dropped. “…You’re joking.”

 

Sure enough, when they ran towards the brighter patch of woods, they were outside of the mystery dungeon, with a dirt path laid out before them.

 

“What time is it…” Mayumi looked up at the sky. “Arceus, it’s just past noon. That’s got to be some kind of record.” She shook her head in disbelief. “For the record, we were not supposed to get insane luck like that. We probably just saved around eight hours.”

 

“Damn, that much?” Haruhi asked.

 

“Guess we’re gonna make it to that town you mentioned earlier,” Amadeus pointed out. The trio continued onto their journey, their morale high thanks to their lucky break.

 

 

---

 

 

A few hours of walking passed without much of note happening. The trio made small talk on their way to Kawa no Machi, which Mayumi estimated that they’d probably make it to well before nightfall. Amadeus was feeling a little nervous. I can only assume that this place is going to be bigger than Nōgyō no Machi if it’s on a major river, but how big could it really be? Surely it’s much smaller than one of district black’s sub-cities, right? The only things that could possibly compare are the Major cities of the continent, but it’s hard to say… The group found themselves approaching a patch of woods, and Amadeus stopped.

 

“Hey, isn’t this…”

 

“Oh, don’t worry. These woods are normal. The river’s just on the other side,” Mayumi reassured him.

 

“You’re sure about that?”

 

“Trust me, I’ve been down this road before. These woods are safe. In fact, we’ll be through these in just a few minutes…”

 

True to her word, they were at the bank of a massive river not long after. It was truly impressive. The other side seemed like it was miles away. That wasn’t what caught his attention, however. No, what caught his attention was the metal tower he was standing next to. One of many dotting the shoreline on either side. With cords stretching between them.

 

“Are these power lines?” He asked in disbelief. “Out here?”

 

“So you’ve seen things like this before?” Mayumi asked.

 

“I-I mean, Yeah! I just didn’t expect to see these out in the middle of nowhere like this…”

 

“There’s huge hydroelectric dams upstream that provide electricity to the whole river,” Mayumi explained.

 

“…Why not the whole island?” Amadeus asked.

 

“Isn’t that obvious? Mystery dungeons get in the way.”

 

Amadeus looked down awkwardly. “Oh, right. Should’ve realized that.”

 

“Wait, you guys are losing me. You can make electricity? And why do we need massive towers to transport it?”

 

“Ah, right, you grew up without power, didn’t you, Haruhi? Just wait ‘till you see all of the things you can do with electricity…” Mayumi said playfully. “You’re going to be beside yourself with how useful this stuff is. Going from the city to the middle of nowhere is like night and day…”

 

Not long after, they arrived in town. Sure enough, it was much larger than Nōgyō no Machi. The whole town seemed to be built on boardwalks, stretching across the river, and had sections that were clearly meant to raise like a drawbridge. The ‘streets’, so to speak, were far busier, and were lined with streetlamps. Most impressively, almost the whole city seemed to be lit up with electric lighting. Or at least, it would be, had it not still been very much day outside. Mayumi guided them both over to what was presumably the docks, and into a small building. On the counter, a lone Mandibuzz was listening to the radio. Haruhi, meanwhile, seemed to be struggling to locate the source of the weird voice she was hearing.

 

“Where…?”

 

“The radio,” Amadeus said, pointing to the radio.

 

“…What.”

 

“Wonders of technology, kiddo,” Mayumi said, approaching the counter. “Hi, is a Yamashiro liner here today? We’d like a cabin.” She pushed what looked like a license of some kind. “Guild-certified dojo owners still get free rides, right?”

 

The Mandibuzz grumbled to himself, flipped through what looked like official documents, grumbled some more, and then finally responded. “Yeah, that checks out. The Yamashiro VII is docked at dock four.” The Mandibuzz handed Mayumi three tickets. “It departs in an hour or so, just show those to the crew.”

 

“Good, good…” Mayumi stuffed the tickets into a bag and then turned to Amadeus and Haruhi. “Let’s get aboard the ship, now. Don’t want to keep the crew waiting…”

 

Mayumi led the two down the docks, over to what looked like a few relatively large vessels. They had a few rows of windows lining them, and standalone large decks near the front. These definitely aren’t meant to move large numbers of people, but they must have some commercial intent… Mayumi strolled up to what looked like a queue to get on board, which was currently unoccupied. A lone Floatzel sat by the entrance with a bored expression. The Floatzel noticed them and waved.

 

“Tickets?”

 

“Right here.” Mayumi handed the tickets over to the Floatzel, who inspected them thoroughly.

 

“Damn, you run a dojo in… Nōgyō no Machi? I swear that rings a bell…” The Floatzel hummed to himself as he punched the tickets. “Oh, you must be the same Umbreon that sailed with us a while back.”

 

“I’m impressed you remember, given how many faces you must see every year,” Mayumi complimented.

 

“Hah, the rest of the crew doesn’t call me Memory Man for nothin’.” ‘Memory Man’ reached behind a nearby counter, and took out a key that he handed to Mayumi. “You’re cabin seventeen. There’s a mandatory safety presentation before we leave, so be in the hall downstairs with the rest of the passengers in an hour. We’re doing a headcount and we’ll knock on the door if you’re not there.”

 

“Got it…” Mayumi stepped aboard the ship confidently. “Come on, you two.”

 

Probably won’t be too different from boarding a cruiser… Amadeus stepped aboard the ship without difficulty. Haruhi followed, far more nervously than him. Immediately, Amadeus noticed that the ship swayed a little beneath his paws. It made sense, given that it was on water, but it still felt weird. Mayumi led the two of them over to what looked like the place where all of the cabins were, and then, eventually, found the door marked as ‘17’, and opened it using the key. The cabin itself was much better than Amadeus was expecting. It had a kitchenette, a small living area with a table, couch, and radio, a bathroom, and bedroom with two beds and a window to look outside.

 

“This is pretty nice…” Amadeus said, looking around. “It’s got the complete package.”

 

“The Guild runs these smaller ships up and down rivers all across the continent for transporting civilians and cargo. I’m certified as a combat instructor with the Guild, so I get free rides. Nice, right?”

 

“Wow, teacher. Sure do get a lot of perks, huh?”

 

“You should see what the higher-ranking members of the guild get themselves. It’ll make you green with envy.” She threw her own bag on the couch. “Let’s unpack for a bit and then head on down for that safety presentation, shall we?”

 

The safety presentation wasn’t exactly exciting, or at least, it wasn’t for Amadeus. Haruhi, who jumped the second she heard the voice telling them to come down over the intercom, and was still surprised when the voice of the person was way, way louder that it otherwise would be, had a slightly different outlook.

 

“C-can you just… project your voice however you want with this stuff?!?”

 

“It’s called an intercom.” Amadeus explained, fiddling with the radio back at the apartment. “There’s a microphone that you can say things into, which we turn into an electrical signal, which a different microphone somewhere else can then interpret and turn into sound.”

 

“That’s nuts…” Haruhi inspected the lights, and kept flicking them on and off. “Wow, electricity is amazing… Wait, who’s making all of the electricity? Don’t they need someone to do that?”

 

“It’s probably being made by a machine.”

 

“Wow…”

 

Mayumi put a paw over the light switch. “Try not to flick the lights on and off like that, you’re gonna hurt our eyes.”

 

“Oh, uh, sorry.”

 

“It’s fine, it’s fine…”

 

Amadeus continued messing with the radio a bit, and eventually got it to play some kind of jazz station. “Ah, finally, some tunes.”

 

“Actually, could you turn off the radio for a moment? I wanted to have a bit of a serious discussion since we’re not currently pressed for time or anything.” Mayumi’s tone was hesitant.

 

“What did you want to talk about?” Amadeus asked.

 

“You two are joining the Guild as a pair, right? With the expectation you’ll join as a team. That’s what’s informing your decision to join the Guild of Honor.”

 

“Yeah,” Haruhi nodded.

 

“Well, right off the bat, I should tell you that you’re probably not going into the fray right away. You’re probably going to get months of mandatory training before you ever even go on your first mission. New recruits don’t get to explore or do requests. That’s just a given.”

 

“…Oh.” Haruhi looked down to the ground. “So was it just an empty promise?”

 

“Well, it wasn’t a lie, per se. More like you’d be joining in the sense that you’d be put on the list of candidates to be an official team. You’ll have to train and qualify from there, most likely.”

 

“Well, that’s fine,” Amadeus pointed out. “We’ll go there, train, pass whatever requirements they give us, and then climb the ranks from there, right?”

 

“Of course. I just wanted to help you set more serious expectations.”

 

“…That’s not the only thing you wanted to talk about, is it?” Haruhi asked.

 

Mayumi paused. “I wanted to tell you about the person who I worked with at Háo de Xiǎo. It’s a personal story, but I think you two need to hear it for… one reason in particular.”

 

“What’s the reason?” Amadeus asked.

 

“That’ll become obvious soon enough.” Mayumi replied. “Now then, where to start… I first met this guy when I was roaming around the plains nearby town, about a week before I started working at the Guild in that city. He was a Shinx, and he was wandering out of the nearby forest, looking dazed and confused, wearing this suit that looked horrendously unkempt. I tried talking to him, and he babbled something incomprehensible about districts and star systems before just passing out in front of me.”

 

Chills ran down Amadeus’ back.

 

“I took him to one of the healers working in the city after that, and stayed with him until he woke up the following morning. He was fine, for the most part, but he claimed not the remember anything. Looking back, it was obvious he was lying because he didn’t trust the strangers he’d woken up in front of, but the moment I heard that, and thought about the circumstances surrounding his appearance, I decided he was a human, creature of legend, and my personal ticket to fame and fortune.”

 

Amadeus felt an odd sense of déjà vu.

 

“So I acted like a proper partner to the hero, spent hours lecturing him about the history of the world, and declared he had some grand purpose to his arrival. All childish whimsy, of course, but I was young and dumb and it was actually my birthday the day I met him, so it made sense to me. I basically harassed him into joining with me, and for whatever reason, he just rolled with it, and although he went out of his way to put just enough distance between us that he could avoid having to deal with me honestly, I didn’t care. After all, he was helping me pursue my dreams.”

 

There’s no way…

 

“His name was Amadeus.”

 

For a split second, if someone was listening in on the conversation, they might’ve been able to hear a pin drop as the other two occupants of the room tried to process the veritable bombshell Mayumi had just dropped on the two of them. After that brief moment passed, Amadeus started backing away and shaking his head.

 

“That’s not— I don’t remember— I couldn’t have– Lies– it’s impossible—” Amadeus felt a surge of guilt overcome him as tears started to form in his eyes. “I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry—” Amadeus was practically wheezing the words out. He was crouched down low to the floor, trying to make himself look as small as possible.

 

“Amadeus?” Mayumi asked.

 

“Yes?” Amadeus responded weakly.

 

“I’m not here to interrogate you. Just… let me finish first.”

 

“…Okay.” Amadeus stayed rooted to his position on the floor.

 

“Anyway…” Mayumi said with a sigh. “One day, he got this fancy-looking medallion somewhere without telling me, and I started seeing him less and less over a period of… I want to say a few months? I’d see him hanging out with people I didn’t recognize and he refused to tell me who they were, and he even evolved into a Luxio when I wasn’t there to see it. So eventually, I built up the nerve to confront him about it, and he essentially told me to my face that I was an annoyance and a burden to him, and that he hated me, and he’d even been dating someone else. Naturally, this ripped my heart in two, so I stormed off to the Háo de Xiǎo Guild, disbanded the team we had there, and then took what little money I had and moved back to Hakken no Machi with my parents, who had already moved back without me.”

 

Amadeus started breathing funny for a moment. Your fault your fault your fault

 

“…Then The Light that Burned the Sky happened, and I was left to assume he was dead. For nearly fourteen years, that’s what I thought. And then… you showed up. But you didn’t just show up, you showed up in pretty much the same state you were in the day I met you, Amadeus. And… I just don’t understand. I feel like I’m going insane. You don’t remember me at all, do you?”

 

“N-no…”

 

“…It’s like your entire person’s been reset. It’s… freaky.”

 

“I… I don’t know…”

 

“But he’s still a human, right?” Haruhi said, trotting over to Amadeus. “C’mon, I’m not mad.”

 

If one was still listening in at this point, they might be able to hear another pin drop. The silence was painful.

 

“Haruhi, you can’t be serious right now.” Mayumi’s tone was more than a little displeased. “Did you miss half of what I just said?”

 

“What?” Haruhi asked. “You don’t see another explanation for his sudden appearance, do you?”

 

“Haruhi, there are a thousand things that might explain how he could’ve showed up, and why he came back. You’re trying to live a fantasy right now.”

 

“B-but it has to be true! He can’t not be a human! The whole reason the seer let us in is because he might be a human! He’s my only chance!” She hurriedly turned to Amadeus. “Y-you are a human, right? Right?”

 

“H-Haruhi, I…” Amadeus stammered. “Y-you didn’t give me a chance to say no…”

 

Haruhi started backing away, shaking her head. “N-no… It can’t be true… Lies!” She was starting to breathe heavily.

 

Mayumi walked over to her own bag, rummaged through it, pulled out something small, and placed it between Haruhi and Amadeus. It was a pin. Identical to the one Amadeus wore.

 

“Y-you could’ve gotten that from the wreckage…” Haruhi stammered.

 

“I couldn’t have. The Light that Burned the Sky would’ve destroyed it. I have this because a certain someone gave it to me…”

 

“…Samantha,” Amadeus managed, scarcely above a whisper. “T-the person you mentioned yesterday was…”

 

“Indeed.” Mayumi took out something else. A tiny photograph. One Amadeus recognized. Of course he would, he’d had it pinned to the desk in his room in his apartment for years. He could even see the tiny hole where the thing pinning it to the desk was removed. It was a picture of him and Samantha, at his orientation to the private school he went to. They were smiling together.

 

“When your sister arrived in the village,  she claimed to be a wandering chemist. She was relatively unassuming, just looking for a place to stay, so Sakura and I let her stay with us for a bit. I don’t remember how exactly the conversation started, but she just offhandedly mentioned that she was looking for her little brother who had been missing for years, and then I realized she was referring to you, and then I told her, and… well, she left, and we found her passed out drunk at the bar that night.”

 

Amadeus couldn’t respond. He was barely keeping it together.

 

“…Your sister didn’t give up after that, though. She handed me the pin and the photo, and told me and Sakura that if another Shinx that just happens to be in the same attire and make the same set of claims stumbles into town one day, we should treat him well and give him these things. She said that she was holding out hope that you survived somehow, and she’d keep roaming the continent in search of you. I haven’t heard from her since.”

 

“…Mayumi, I—”

 

“Y-you’re not human…” Haruhi interrupted. “You’re not human! I’ve been doing everything so I could get into the guild, and you’re not even human!” Haruhi started nearing closer, with smoke rising from her mouth. “How the hell am I getting in now!?! What the fuck? What the hell are we going to tell—”

 

“THAT’S ENOUGH!” Mayumi lunged between the two of them and used a protect to put a physical barrier between them. “Haruhi, for the love of Arceus, please calm down. I know joining the guild is important to you, and you just found out he was lying to you, but being outraged over this will solve nothing.”

 

“H-He lied to me…” Haruhi still was pretty far from calm and collected, but she seemingly couldn’t bring herself to yell at Mayumi. Amadeus, meanwhile, was mumbling in a vain attempt to calm himself down.

 

“O-one, t-ten, o-one hundred, one thousand, t-ten thousand…”

 

“I know that,” Mayumi started, still talking to Haruhi. “And we’re going to talk about it. Like adults. You’re eighteen now. You need to calm down.” Mayumi looked back and forth between them both. “Come on, now, let’s breathe. In, and out, in, and out…”

 

Mayumi forced the both of them to take deep breaths for several minutes, before they finally both calmed down.

 

“Okay, are you both calm yet? Good, good…” She turned to Amadeus. “Let’s start with you. Why did you feel the need to lie as soon as you woke up?”

 

“I-I was scared. I was worried that someone might think I was insane, so I just tried to get out of it and be left alone. I didn’t want any trouble…”

 

“Why would anyone think you were insane?”

 

Amadeus felt a pit in is stomach. I… That’s the end of the rope. I have to tell them. “…Because I’m pretty sure I came from the future. As in, far into the future. Thousands of years. To the point where I really would know nothing about this world.”

 

There was a brief silence as the other two occupants of the room processed what they’d been told.

 

“…Do you want to go back?” Mayumi asked. Her tone was noticeably softer now.

 

“I-I don’t know…”

 

“Do you miss your family?”

 

Amadeus was silent for a full minute. “…I guess the only person I really missed was Samantha.”

 

“Were you not close to the rest of your family, or…”

 

“My Dad tried to make me the heir to the family business, since I was the first male born who was also a Shinx, so he basically isolated me from the rest of the family. My Mother and my only other sibling barely interacted with me. I think he kept pushing mom to raise Samantha as a man for a while for some reason, I don’t know. Samantha was the only other part of my family to really be present in my life.”

 

“…I’m sorry to hear that.” Mayumi turned to Haruhi. “Back to the unpleasant questions. Haruhi, why did you think that Amadeus was a human?”

 

“Well, I saw him say that he didn’t remember anything, remembered what the scene where it looked like he fell from the sky, and just drew conclusions from there. I figured it was my ticket to fame and fortune, and I’ve always loved the stories about the heroes of legend, and I really, really badly wanted to be a part of the guild, so…” Haruhi trailed off. “I just told him he was one.”

 

“And did he say that he was one right away?”

 

Haruhi paused for a long time. “Come to think of it, the first thing he did after that was call me crazy, or stupid, or something to that effect…”

 

“…Why did you want to be a part of the Guild so badly?”

 

Haruhi paused again. “…Because everyone in town hates me and I want to get away from it all.”

 

“Haruhi…”

 

“You know everyone but you feels the need to give me some kind of fire-based insult ever since that day, right teacher? I know you know, because you’re the only one who doesn’t do that! Even Mom did that for a while! I… I just… can’t stand living in that town anymore. My own Mom thinks I’m a monster! She tells me I’m going to get someone hurt! I—”

 

Mayumi cut her off with a hug. “You poor kid… I know you’ve had it rough. I really do. Your Mom’s worried sick about you, she just wants to protect you. I do too, in truth… You’re not a monster, you hear me?”

 

“Teacher…” Haruhi was sobbing.

 

“Easy now, easy now…” Mayumi drew away from Haruhi. “Now then, do we all feel a little better now?”

 

“…A little, yeah…” Amadeus replied.

 

“Y-yeah…” Haruhi replied in turn.

 

“Okay. You two. Do you both still want to make this trip, knowing that we’re past the dangerous part?”

 

Both nodded.

 

“And do you still both want to join the guild?”

 

Haruhi nodded immediately, but Amadeus was hesitant.

 

“Amadeus, are you having second thoughts?”

“…I haven’t really thought about what I wanted since I got here. Short term, I guess all I want is to figure out what happened to Samantha, if going back is something that could even happen, and… well, I’ve come too far to not at least try and help Haruhi. I don’t really know what happens after all of that, though…”

 

“…What are we going to say to the Seer, Amadeus? We already told him you’re a human.” Haruhi questioned. “That’s the whole reason he let us join, yeah?”

 

“…We have to just say the same thing, right?”

 

“We’re going to lie to him?” Haruhi asked. “Lie to the Seer, the greatest detective on the continent?”

 

“…Well, I don’t think he believed you to begin with.”

 

There was a brief silence.

 

“If the other version of you was still alive today,” Mayumi started, finally breaking the silence. “…You’re how old, having just arrived?”

 

“…Seventeen.” Amadeus figured she was just trying to speculate about things that didn’t matter to help keep everyone calm.

 

“Right, so the other version of you would be in his early thirties now.”

 

“Why do you ask?” Amadeus responded.

 

“This might seem unrelated, but Amadeus, did you have a medallion that you liked to wear with you when you arrived that maybe got lost?”

 

“Oh, right. We did think that maybe a lot of your personal belongings got lost to dungeon shifts, right?” Haruhi asked.

“…I doubt I was carrying around something like that,” Amadeus responded. “I’m not exactly fond of jewelry or fashion.” Amadeus absentmindedly played with his version of the pin, still pinned to his shirt, and pushed up his glasses. “I would’ve gotten contact lenses if I was.”

 

“…I see.” Mayumi replied. “I’m sure you were a little shaken when you were first hearing my story earlier, but you might remember that I said your behavior changed and you started going around behind my back after you got a medallion. You practically had it on permanently, and didn’t take it off for anything.”

 

“What about it?” Amadeus asked. He, wrongly, didn’t suspect Mayumi had another bombshell to drop on him.

 

He was sorely mistaken.

---

---

 

“Well, you know Dumas? The guy who claims he’s the Seer, and is a Luxray in what looks like his early thirties? The medallion he was wearing the other night was identical to the one you had back then.”