Arc 1, Chapter 7: See You Tomorrow

“…What?” Amadeus asked, completely unable to process what he was hearing.

 

Mayumi sighed. “I’m certain of it. That medallion is the same one.”

 

“…That’s got to be a coincidence,” Amadeus retorted, his voice still a little shaky.

 

“Yeah!” Haruhi agreed. “I saw the seer, that medallion wasn’t all that fancy! There’s no way it’s one-of-a-kind!”

 

“But it was the same,” Mayumi responded. “And more importantly, it explains why he believed Haruhi so easily. He must’ve learned about Amadeus’ sudden appearance due to his position in the Guild, and when he looked into the details, he must’ve come to the same conclusion that I did. He didn’t actually believe that Amadeus was a human. He must’ve been looking for an excuse to bring Amadeus to Hakken no Machi where he could monitor him more closely, and calling him a human was the perfect excuse!”

 

“…But I would’ve had to have survived the Light that Burned the Sky somehow, wouldn’t I?” Amadeus asked.

 

“There was just shy of a week where you could’ve gotten away from Háo de Xiǎo,” Mayumi argued. “Maybe you were out of town on an errand or something.”

 

“Why would I adopt a false name if everyone I would’ve known in the city was probably dead?”

 

“Why lie about your memories the second you were asked?” Mayumi fired back.

 

Amadeus fell silent. He didn’t have a real response to that. Eventually, Haruhi was the one to break the silence.

 

“…Alright, say Dumas is actually Amadeus from the past. What’s his deal? What does he want with us?” Haruhi’s voice was laced with frustration.

 

“Isn’t that obvious?” Mayumi asked. “It’s like I said, he wants to monitor his past self to figure out what happened. He must be shocked by this whole debacle, too.”

 

A troubling thought crossed Amadeus’ mind. “…What if there’s even more of me out there?”

 

“If I had to guess, that’s probably his primary worry,” Mayumi implicitly agreed. “In fact, thinking back, when your sister gave me those things she meant for you, she probably knew that it would happen.” Mayumi paused. “By the way, she was rather evasive about where exactly you two came from. You said the future? How did you come to the past, anyway?”

 

“…It was an accident. Some guy said he invented time travel, and I kind of just wandered too close. I don’t exactly know how it worked.”

 

“…huh.” Mayumi scratched her neck for a moment. “Well, that’s a little disappointing.”

 

“…Yeah, really disappointing.” Haruhi said, annoyed.

 

“What do you want from me?” Amadeus asked.

 

“For you to not make me feel like an idiot, maybe,” Haruhi huffed. “Seriously, what the hell am I gonna do? Have a totally boring career with you, Mr. completely normal ‘mon? Screw that, I’m gonna be one of the greats! I swear to Arceus, you had better give it your all, because I sure as hell—”

 

“Haruhi.” Mayumi was being stern again.

 

“…What?” Haruhi responded.

 

“Ambition is good and all, but please try to remember that the job of an explorer is to help people. That is the cause they expect you to risk your life for. They’re not going to have patience for such a blatant fame-seeking attitude. Besides, that’s not really why you want to join, right? It’s about starting over for you, right?”

 

“I… right.” Haruhi lowered her head in shame.

 

“In fact, let’s talk about the danger for a moment, shall we? That’s the real reason I wanted to have this discussion with you two, anyway.”

 

Haruhi and Amadeus perked up for a moment.

 

“Being an explorer is dangerous work. You have to go places few dare to, and fight all kinds of dangerous foes. And a mystery dungeon is anything but safe most of the time. But you have to do all of that. It’s unfortunately a career path that sees plenty of promising young ‘mons dying young.” She paused. “Frankly, that’s probably why your mother never wanted you doing this, Haruhi. It really is possible that you get yourself badly hurt. It just comes with the territory. And that’s why so few explorers work alone. You need someone else to cover for you if you make a mistake, someone you can depend on, someone you can trust. And that’s the primary issue I see with you two, the reason I wanted Amadeus to tell the truth before you’ve known each other for too long.”

 

She approached them and put paws around both of them. “You two need to trust each other with your lives if you want to even think about working at the Guild. You can’t be going around behind each other’s backs doing whatever you want. You need to be there for each other when it matters and more. And if you can’t, then you really shouldn’t try to force it to work. So just… talk, okay?” She backed away from the two of them. “I’m going to go shower up. It’s been a while since I’ve been in a fancy place like this. In the meantime, you two need to have a bit of a discussion between yourselves.” She promptly closed the bathroom door behind her, and Amadeus heard the sound of running water. He rather absentmindedly started unpacking the bag. They’d probably be here for a few days, after all.

 

“So, uh…” Haruhi started. “You are gonna join the Guild with me, right?”

 

“Yes, I will. I just don’t know if I want to do that long-term. I’m obligated to at least help get your food in the door.”

 

“And then what? Are you just gonna try and hook me up with someone else and dash?”

 

Coward Coward Coward “I don’t know…”

 

“…You’re thinking about telling Dumas everything, aren’t you?”

 

“He seems trustworthy to me…”

 

“Does he? Does he really?”

 

“Now you want me to lie?”

 

“That’s not— damnit, do you just wanna go home? Because if you do then there’s a great chance he would’ve tried that already!”

 

“I just want to figure out what happened, Haruhi. That’s probably what he wants, too.”

 

“…Can you at least stay with me a little while? Joining the guild means a lot to me, you know?”

“Haruhi, I’ll try. I’ll try my best, I swear.”

 

There was a stiff silence between the two of them for a while. Eventually, Haruhi decided to break the silence with a change in subject.

 

“…Were you really not all that close to your family?”

 

“Like I said earlier, my Dad wanted to isolate me from the rest of the family so he could make me the heir to the family business. I barely saw my Mom, and my other sister… Arceus, I’m barely remembering that her name was Audrey. She was a Luxio, my Mom was a Flareon…” Amadeus sighed. “I only ever saw them at family get-togethers. They never even tried to interact with me, that was just Samantha.”

 

“…Was your Dad nice, at least?”

 

Amadeus paused for a long time. “I don’t know, he was… fine? I guess? He always had some kind of business advice to give me, but he rarely made small talk with me. He just always made sure to keep me in line.” Amadeus turned to Haruhi. “What about your Dad? I didn’t see him around…”

 

“…My dad died suddenly not long after I was born, apparently,” Haruhi replied dispassionately.

 

“Oh. I’m sorry to hear that.”

 

“It’s fine, it’s not like I really knew him. All I really know is that he was the original owner of the house and farm, and my grandparents passed away not long after he and Mom first conceived me. Pretty sure the room you were in was originally his…”

 

“That’s… a little sad.”

 

“Yeah…”

 

Amadeus felt a strange sense of duty overcome him. “Haruhi?”

 

“What’s up?”

 

“Do you mind if we make a bit of a deal here?”

 

“…What do you mean?”

 

“I know you’re worried about me leaving suddenly because this is everything you’ve ever wanted, and me leaving might ruin that. And, frankly, I feel obligated to help you. Even so, I still think that I might not be able to stay.”

 

“Amadeus, I—”

 

“Here’s the deal,” Amadeus said, cutting her off. “Once we get to the Guild, and make it through training or whatever they want us to do before we can form a team officially, I solemnly swear that I’ll spend at least a year with you. Does that sound alright to you?” Amadeus extended a paw.

 

Haruhi slowly looked down at Amadeus’ paw, seemingly taking the time to go over everything she’d heard in the past hour or so again in her head. Then she quickly grabbed Amadeus’ paw and shook. “You’ve got a deal.”

 

 

---

 

 

Meanwhile, Mayumi was quietly reviewing what little new information she’d been able to glean from the… difficult discussion she’d just had. It was tricky trying to balance what she wanted with being the adult in the room, but she felt like she’d struck a good balance. Hopefully. The last thing she wanted was to scream at someone who may or may not be the same person he was back then, and as far as she could tell, he wasn’t. How the hell does someone come back twice? Amadeus saying he was from the future was a bit of a hard pill to swallow, and she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was chance it was another layer of lies because he didn’t want to tell the truth. At the same time, she felt like there was never going to be an easy-to-swallow explanation for what happened. His sister would probably know. She knew to give me the gifts meant for him, she must’ve known it could happen. She probably knew how it worked… Her mind began to drift. Samantha, huh…

 

It was an ordinary day in Nōgyō no Machi. Mayumi was practicing alone in her dojo because she had nothing better to do with her time. She couldn’t let herself get rusty, after all. Besides, dark type moves were great stress relief.

 

“Hup!”

 

This one was only a little bit satisfying, though. She’d made a point to learn a wide variety of moves, and Foul Play was her latest experiment. She’d gone over the list of moves Umbreon could learn beforehand, saw that Foul Play was a move that could literally turn your opponent’s power against them, and decided it would be a fun one. But using it against training dummies who literally could not fight back was… underwhelming.

 

Back in the present, Mayumi mentally went over that list in her head again. Hey, wasn’t Zap Cannon a move on that list? That sounds like a fun challenge to learn. I should try that when I get back. …Would that make me the only person in town who knows an electric-type move? Nah, surely there’s someone… She chuckled to herself over the absurdity of learning a move like that before getting back to her musings.

 

Mayumi’s Foul Play felt like it was described in the book, more or less, and it looked right, and she was sure she was performing it correctly, but it rather harmlessly bounced off of the dummy, no stronger than if she’d just slapped it with her unempowered paw. It was a little frustrating to not get results, to say the least. She sighed, and exited the dojo into the house. She’d have to go into that cave dungeon nearby town to try it out properly.

 

“Heya, Mayumi,” Sakura said, greeting her. “You get that move working?”

 

“Uh, kinda?” Mayumi replied. “I don’t know, I need an actual opponent to get it working.”

 

“So you’re headed to a dungeon?”

 

“Maybe later, I’m a little tired today…”

 

Their conversation was interrupted by a knock at the front door. A bubbly, sing-songy voice floated into the house from the other side.

 

“Helloooooo! This the tailor’s? Clothes person? You home?”

 

Sakura grumbled quietly enough that whoever was at the door couldn’t hear. “I don’t know who this is, but they’re getting on my nerves already.” She sighed and walked over to the tailor’s section of the house to open the door. “Coming!” Mayumi followed out of curiosity, since she didn’t recognize the voice either.

 

She watched Sakura open the door for a Sylveon whose blue and pink colors seemed like they’d been swapped around. A northerner, She thought to herself. The Sylveon’s nose was tilted up slightly higher than was strictly necessary. “Hey people, name’s Samantha, wandering Chemist, came from out of town, how y’all doing?”

 

“What can I do for you?” Sakura asked, making no attempt to hide her annoyance.

 

“Just wanted to see if you could help patch up this special band I had…” Samantha took out a rather beaten-up looking special band. The gem was taken out of it’s hold, which was bent a little bit. The normally aquamarine-colored ribbon part of the band had instead been colored to be pink and sky blue, and it was noticeably ripped up, as was the white scarf part. Sakura inspected the garment carefully.

 

“Yeah, I can fix this up. It’ll cost you a fair bit, since it’s an enchanted item, though. I only have so much thread for that. And I’ll need to call in a favor for it, so it might take a day or two. How does ten thousand poké up front sound?”

 

“Ten thousand? Arceus…” Samantha rummaged around the bag on her side. “Man, that’s almost everything I have.”

 

“Eight thousand. Take it or leave it,” Sakura replied.

 

“Okay, deal…” Samantha handed over the money, which was strangely dirty.

 

“Arceus, did you scavenge all of that from a mystery dungeon?” Sakura asked.

 

“Some of it. Gotta make money somehow living as a nomad.”

 

“…Uh-huh.” Sakura scooped up the money into a purse, took out some tape measurer, and walked over to Samantha. “Lemme just get your measurements real quick…” She measured Samantha’s neck around for a bit, then took the special band over to her sewing table and got to work.

 

“A day or two, huh?” Samantha wondered out loud. “Guess I gotta go pitch my tent…”

 

“You’re gonna pitch a tent? In the middle of town?” Mayumi asked.

 

“Hey, if it works, it works.”

 

“Uh, no. It doesn’t work…” Mayumi pointed out.

 

“Okay, fine, I’ll set up outside town.”

 

“All that to avoid staying at the inn?” Sakura asked, never looking up from her work.

 

“I just gave you most of the money I have, I can’t be splurging around here.”

 

Suddenly, Mayumi had a thought. “Say… you don’t happen to be busy other than this, do you, Samantha? That was your name, right?”

 

“That’s meeeeeee.” Samantha sang this for some reason.

 

“Well… if you helped me out with a little favor, I’ll let you sleep on the couch. You’re okay with that, right Sakura?”

 

“Sure, why the hell not? It’s been a while since we’ve had actual guests around here.”

 

“Great, great. Follow me, Samantha…” Mayumi led Samantha into the dojo in the back as Sakura glanced at them. A little over a year and a half later, she’d end up telling Mayumi that it was getting annoying to have all of the trainees walk through the entire house to get to the dojo, and get an outside entrance to the place constructed.

 

“Nice place,” Samantha commented.

 

“Yeah, this used to be three different rooms before we renovated it into a dojo.”

 

“Cool. So, uh, what favor did you need?”

 

“You any good in a fight?”

 

“I’m good enough to roam around the world, so I’d say I’m pretty good.”

 

“So you could take a hit or two?”

 

“Probably, yeah.”

 

“Okay, could you just… take a hit for me for a second?”

 

“Uh… Okay?”

 

“Alright…” Mayumi called upon her anger, regret, sadness. She thought about all of the anguish and stress that the Light that Burned the Sky had caused her for a few months, and channeled that pain into her paw… And, as she’d been trying to do to get Foul Play working, she tried to project some of those emotions onto her target. She lept out, and slammed a paw covered in darkness into Samantha’s side, who reeled back from the force of the impact. For the briefest moment, she saw her screaming in a crowd somewhere. According to the book, this meant she’d actually succeeded.

 

“Ouch, that stung…” Samantha rubbed the spot where she’d been struck with one of her ribbon feelers for a moment. “What was that?”

 

“Foul Play,” Mayumi replied. “You need a heal or something? I know moonlight.”

 

“Nope, I’ll be good…” Samantha shook herself a bit. “I don’t think I’ve heard of that one before. What does it do?”

 

“It’s a move that takes the opponent’s own strength and turns it against them, rather than drawing on your strength. I would normally test out an offensive move on a training dummy, but it wasn’t really working like it was supposed to on them.”

 

“I see. Guess that couch is mine now, yeah?”

 

“All yours.”

 

“Rad.”

 

Mayumi huffed, trying to remember all of the smallest details of that day. Thinking back, she really didn’t seem all that unusual at first. It took a little bit for the first strange thing to happen. She scrubbed her body down with the bar of soap she was using. It wasn’t provided by the ship, she’d brought her own from home, which meant that Misaki had made it.

 

A few hours after dinner, Sakura and Mayumi had allowed Samantha to use their shower before she’d slept on the couch that night. She was, evidently, surprised they had one, despite their lack of heating. She didn’t complain, though. She did have a few weird comments to make, though, poking her head through the bedroom door.

 

“So, about that soap you guys have…”

 

Mayumi and Sakura blinked at the utterly strange way to start a conversation. “…What about it?” Sakura asked.

 

“…Who makes it?”

 

“…An old Bellossom named Misaki who lives in town, why?”

 

“Where’s she live?”

 

“Uh… just down the street?”

 

“Cool. I’ll keep it in mind.” Samantha closed the bedroom door behind her and presumably plopped down on the couch for the rest of the night.

 

Sakura and Mayumi looked at each other.

 

“What the hell was that about?” Sakura asked.

 

“I don’t know, maybe she wanted to give Misaki her patronage?” Mayumi replied, just as confused.

 

“…Why are we letting this weirdo sleep with us again, since it was your idea?”

 

“…She did a favor for me?” Mayumi suggested. “You did agree to it…”

 

“I’m starting to regret that. Shoma had better know the special band enchantment…”

 

Shoma did not, in fact, know the special band enchantment. Mayumi learned this because Sakura had gone to ask the first thing next morning, and was back before she finished her morning coffee.

 

“Maybe Haya knows.”

 

“Haya had to get Shoma to fireproof her house for her, she’s not going to know anything he doesn’t.”

 

“…How about Nobu?”

 

“I don’t think Nobu knows anything but reading minds and staring at the sun.”

 

“That Xatu does like confiscating people’s wills, yes.”

 

Sakura stretched. “…Where did our guest go? We have to tell her it’s going to take longer. I need to get this thing shipped out to the city.”

 

“She went out a little earlier. Said she was going to take a stroll around town.”

 

“…Good for her. I’m gonna have some breakfast, you can chase after her if you like.”

 

“You know what? That sounds like a plan to me.” Mayumi got up. “Wish me luck.”

 

“Have fun, honey…”

 

Samantha took a shockingly long amount of time to find, which annoyed Mayumi a little when she discovered that it was because she was inside of Misaki’s house, mid-conversation with her.

 

“Ah. Mayumi. As you can see, I am being lectured on chemistry.”

 

“I’m helping her.”

 

“I find your wording a little condescending, to say the least.”

 

“Well, I showed you that recipe I knew, didn’t I?”

 

“If it’s actually better than what I use already, that is.”

 

“I’ll bet you 500 poké it is.” A day later, Samantha would be 500 poké richer. “Oh, hi Mayumi.”

 

Mayumi tilted her head. “You’re just now noticing me walk in? After Misaki addressed me directly?”

 

Samantha looked a little embarrassed. “In my defense, I hyper-fixate on things a lot.”

 

“…Right. Anyway, nobody in town knows the special band enchantment, so it’s going to take at least week to get it shipped here and back to someone who can enchant it.”

 

“Oh. Does that mean I’m sleeping on your couch for a little while longer?”

 

“It does if you don’t annoy Sakura too badly.”

 

“Damn, am I getting on her nerves that badly?”

 

“A little bit, yeah.”

 

“Ahaha, sorry about that…”

 

As far as Mayumi could remember, the next few days passed by without incident. She stepped out how the shower, and started drying herself off. Her mind drifted to the gifts meant for Amadeus. She started to remember the conversation a little more clearly.

 

It started as Sakura and Mayumi warmed up to Samantha a little bit more, and started making more small talk with her.

 

“I got into sewing and tailoring from my grandmother,” Sakura said in response to an earlier question. “We’d make these massive quilts together. Apparently she got into it from a friend who later went missing. She never—”

 

“Oh!”

 

“Hm?” Sakura paused her story. “What is it?”

 

“Oh, it’s nothing, you just reminded me of something.”

 

“Really? What is it?”

 

“Oh, you finish your story first. I don’t wanna make the story about me…”

 

“If you have something to share, then share it,” Mayumi said, curious.

 

“Well…” Samantha started nervously. “It’s about my younger brother. He went missing six years back. He was still a Shinx back then, so he might’ve evolved by now, but I’ve been looking for him ever since…”

 

“Oh, really? Sorry to hear that…” Mayumi replied.

 

“He was never one for communicating, and he wasn’t exactly the type to say no very often… I worry about what happened him a lot. I hope he’s out there somewhere.”

 

“Was he the nervous type?” Sakura asked.

 

“He’s great at keeping up appearances in public, but he could be a nervous wreck sometimes. It got so bad sometimes that he’d have to stop and calm himself down. He even had a trick for it. He’d count powers of ten, and that would help calm him down.”

 

A chill ran down Mayumi’s spine.

 

“Can you tell me a little bit more about him?” She asked tentatively.

 

“Well…” Samantha’s tone changed. Seemingly, she was already comprehending where this conversation was headed. “There was this pin I gave him the day he disappeared. It had this rainbow infinity symbol on it, with a white background.”

 

Mayumi felt an odd sense of déjà vu.

 

“…What was his name?” Mayumi asked.

 

“Amadeus,” Samantha replied. “Amadeus Shinx.”

 

The silence was audible.

 

“Arceus…” Was all Mayumi could manage.

 

“Where? Where?” Samantha pleaded.

 

“…You’re not gonna like this.”

 

“Where is he? Just tell me!” Samantha’s eyes were starting to tear up.

 

Mayumi paused for a long time, contemplating what to say to Samantha. Ultimately, she decided to rip off the band-aid. “He died in The Light that Burned the Sky.”

 

Mayumi watched, a bit painfully, as all kinds of emotions visibly swirled though Samantha’s face. Denial, pain, anger, grief, sadness, despair, all of it. She started to cry, just a little bit. Straining to hold back even more.

 

“W-where’s the bar around here…?”

 

“…On the other side of town.”

 

“…Okay.”

 

Samantha was gone the rest of the day. When Mayumi went to the bar to check up on her, she found her passed out drunk.

 

“She, uh, asked for the strongest drink I had,” Masayuki responded when questioned. “She’s no lightweight, that’s for sure. Twelve drinks before she passed out. She kept hammering ‘em down…”

 

“Isn’t that a little dangerous?” Mayumi asked. “She is a fairy type…”

 

“Somehow, I don’t think this is the first time she’s drank this heavily…”

 

“Damnit, I’m gonna call Hirohito…”

 

The following morning, Mayumi watched as a very groggy Samantha groaned awake. Hirohito had concluded she wasn’t in any real danger of alcohol poisoning, just very intoxicated, thankfully.

 

“Wha… what happened last night?” Samantha mumbled, rubbing her eyes with her feelers.

 

“You got very, very drunk.”

 

“Yeah, that checks out…” Samantha said, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Let’s see, uh… oh right.” More tears. Mayumi felt a twinge of regret blossom in her heart.

 

“I’m… sorry.”

 

“You don’t need to apologize, I’m sure it wasn’t your fault…” Samantha reassured her. “What did you say it was again? The… something that burned the sky?”

 

“The Light that Burned the Sky.”

 

“Right…” Samantha paused, as if contemplating for a bit. “…That’s the big ‘ol blast that leveled a whole city a few years back, right? I heard about it before coming here.”

 

“…I remember seeing that beast like it was yesterday all the way from Hakken no Machi.”

 

“Hmm… Did they catch the bastard who did it yet?”

 

“Honestly, the idea that it wasn’t some natural disaster is scary,” Maryumi replied. “But if there is truly someone responsible, I hope they die the worst death imaginable. The kind that would make you wish you were never born.”

 

“Agreed.” Samantha looked around. “…Say, what was he like before he died?”

 

“I dated him for a while, if you can believe that. It didn’t really work out, though. He…” The words got stuck in Mayumi’s throat. How could she possibly tell her that they parted ways on such bad terms?

 

Samantha noticed her hesitation. “You can say he was a bit of a dick. It’s okay.”

 

Immediately, Mayumi got flustered. “I didn’t mean— It’s just…” She sighed.

 

“He was always emotionally stunted. He didn’t have a lot of friends, and Dad always seemed okay with that since it meant fewer people interfering with his ‘teaching’.” Mayumi noted the strange amount of vitriol pumped into that last word.

 

“…What did your father teach, exactly?”

 

“He didn’t teach, he tried to control everything about him. All he cared about was making him the ‘perfect’ heir for the family business, and do you wanna know what he did when Amadeus went poof? He turned around and made Mom pop out three more kids so he could have another male Shinx. The damn show had to go on, and he treated us all like commodities…”

 

“That’s… a bit sad.”

 

Samantha sighed. “Frankly, I never wanna see the piece of shit ever again. Hell if I’m gonna tell him Amadeus is… dead…” The weight of those words seemed to hit her all over again. She broke down a second time, starting to cry.

 

Mayumi walked over and gave her a hug. Samantha jumped a little at the gesture, but slowly relaxed. “Damnit…” After a long while, Samantha walked away just a bit. She was still breathing a little funny, but she seemed to be better. “You ever wonder about what you’re gonna do if your whole purpose in life just… falls apart?”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“I burned every last bridge back home. I threw away my chances of going home, all so I had the chance to see my brother again. And now I have no idea what the hell I’m gonna do. It’s only been a few months, but…”

 

“…You could stay with us for a while.”

 

“…You’d have me?” Samantha asked, a little skeptical.

 

“Of course,” Mayumi nodded.

 

Samantha sighed. “You know… I’ve given a lot of thought to what makes a bad person a bad person, trying to figure out what was wrong with my dad, trying to justify why I didn’t like him. Sure, there are negative character traits, like envy, wrath, greed… But I don’t think any one of those is enough to make someone bad. Nah, we’ve all got them. The problem is that they’re all sick, and I think bad people don’t want to acknowledge that sickness. Because the name of that sickness… is Pride.” Samantha’s sighed. “Pride is the problem, I think.”

 

“That’s an interesting take,” Sakura said, strolling into the room with some breakfast.

 

“How much did you hear?” Samantha asked.

 

“Most of it. Sorry to hear all of that.”

 

“It’s fine. Really…” Samantha said, trying to dispel their worries.

 

“Are you fine, though?” Sakura asked. “It sounds like you need one hell of a break.”

 

Samantha sheepishly chuckled. “Yeah, a little bit.”

 

And so she did, spending the next year of her life in Nōgyō no Machi. Laughing, celebrating, doing whatever it was that Chemists did, and… grieving. Trying to move on. But for some reason… she couldn’t move on. And she left, shortly before another tragedy struck the town.

 

“And now I know why…” Mayumi grumbled to herself, back in the present. Amadeus somehow going back twice stumped her to no end. She just couldn’t fathom it for the life of her. I wish I grilled her on where she came from more… If she had, then maybe she would have been able to figure out what was going on here. She dried herself off, and went back into the living room of their small cabin. There, she found Amadeus and Haruhi sitting in an uncomfortable silence. Haruhi was fumbling through their personal belongings, and Amadeus was staring out of the window.

 

“Well, you two?” Mayumi asked.

 

Haruhi looked up from her things. “We agreed that’d we’d go for a year to see how it works out.”

 

“That’s a start…” Mayumi commented.  “I hope it goes well for you two, in that case.”

 

“Hey, Mayumi?” Amadeus asked, never looking away from the window.

 

“Yes, Amadeus?”

 

“What was my sister like? While she was staying with you, I mean.”

 

“She was…” Mayumi paused. “…an insightful person. She cared a lot about the people around her, and she was always willing to help, even if she could be a little bit… out there.”

 

Amadeus paused for a long time. “That sounds about right.” He turned around. “Do you want me to sleep on the couch?”

 

“It’s fine, I’ll have the whole trip back to sleep on the bed. You guys can sleep in the beds.”

 

“…Okay.”

 

After some light conversation, the trio went to bed. Hopefully, this leg of the journey would be relatively peaceful.