Chapter 1: Intersecting “Stories” (July 20th)

Harissa was surprised to see me back home so soon. She was surprised to see the girl I was carrying on my back, too, but when I explained what had happened, she knew it was more of the usual.

I laid the girl down on Harissa’s bed and left her in Harissa’s care. I then went into my room to get my phone. I would have called Satsuki on the way home, but I’d left my phone on my desk thinking I wouldn’t be gone all that long. I’d have to be more careful about that in the future.

I opened my address book and called Satsuki. It only rang a couple of times before I heard the click of her picking up.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Satsuki, where are you right now?”

“The library. I was going over some material from the first quarter.”

She was studying on the first day of summer vacation? I was honestly shocked. It wasn’t all that important, though, so I shrugged it off and moved on to the heart of the matter.

“I need your help. Can you come by my place?”

“All right,” she said, suddenly sounding serious. She must have been able to tell something was up. “I think I can be there in 20 minutes. Does that work?”

“Yeah.”

“All right, I’m on my way.”

I closed my phone and sighed. Now I’d be able to find Ellicia, the girl who could go through walls. But that wasn’t enough on its own. She was being chased by that man with the scar. If I caught up with her at the wrong time, I might have to fight him. I would need some way to protect her if I did. I hated to say it, but I was weak.

After a few more quick phone calls, there was a knock at my bedroom door. It was Harissa, who’d come to let me know that the girl had woken up. I thanked her and followed her back to her room.

“Can I come in?” I asked when we got to the door.

“Sir Rekka, this is your own home, so you don’t need to be so polite.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

But I still felt like I should ask.

Harissa’s room smelled really good. She wasn’t the type to buy much, so most of the furniture in it was still my parents’, but there were little things here and there that Satsuki and Iris had given her. It was very much a girl’s room now. Even though it used to be my parents’, I felt my heart starting to pound as I approached Harissa’s bed... And yeah, I know how perverted that sounds.

“Oh...”

The girl was already sitting up, and she was clutching the big hat I’d found her with against her chest. She flinched a little when I walked over to her.

“Um, are you okay?”

“Um... yes.” She seemed confused, like she didn’t really know why she was here yet. “What... happened to me?”

“You were passed out in an empty lot. I happened upon you while I was passing through.”

“I see... Thank you.”

The girl smiled slightly, but she still seemed uneasy. I could understand why.

“Can you tell me your name?” I asked.

“...Mio Kotozuka,” she said after a long pause.

“Mio, huh? Do you remember what you were doing in that empty lot?”

“I don’t know...”

“Then I guess you don’t know how you got there, either?”

“I don’t know...”

“Do you know your home address?”

“Um...”

She looked down like she didn’t know what to say. Honestly, I didn’t know what to say, either.

“Is there anything you can tell me?”

“I... don’t know. I can’t remember anything.”

I looked at Harissa, and then R too for good measure.

“Is this... amnesia?”

“Probably...”

The girl put the hat on so I couldn’t see her eyes, and she refused to look at either me or Harissa. Awkward silence filled the room. I couldn’t imagine how scary it must be for a young girl like her to wake up in a strange place with no memories, but... surely there had to be some clue to help us figure out what was going on. Oh, wait... That’s right. There was. The reason I’d thought she was a heroine.

“Do you know the name Rekka Namidare?” I asked.

Her eyes went wide.

“Ah... aah!”

She put her hands to her head like it was about to explode. She looked like she was in terrible pain.

“H-Hey, Mio?”

“The building... The roof... I...”

She was choking out words, but I couldn’t make sense of it. What building? What roof? I was lost, but then she said...

“I was pushed.”

It sounded like she was saying she’d been pushed off the roof of a building.

“Is that what happened?”

Wait, was that...

“If she was pushed, that means someone had to have pushed her,” R interjected.

I knew that, obviously, but the thought made me feel like someone had stuck something unpleasant down my throat. Even if it was only off of a single-story building, that wasn’t the kind of thing you did as a joke. There was only one way to take it. Whoever did it wanted to kill her. Fortunately, she’d survived and didn’t appear to be hurt badly, but still...

We tried waiting for her to calm down before talking to her more.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Yes...”

She actually looked far worse than she had earlier, but she nodded. I could understand why she was feeling down. The first thing she’d remembered was being pushed off a building.

Amnesia, an attempted murder... It seemed her story wouldn’t be an easy one to resolve.

▽

Satsuki arrived about five minutes earlier than she said she would. She must’ve hurried, because there were beads of sweat on her face. I led her into the living room, turned on the air conditioning, and brought her some barley tea.

“Thanks.”

She gulped down the tea. She must’ve been hot. She’d even tied her hair up. I took a sip of my own tea as I looked at her.

“Rekka, are you the kind of guy that gets excited when you smell girls’ sweat?”

“Bwuh?!”

I involuntarily spat out my tea.

“Kyah! H-Hey, what are you doing, Rekka?!”

“S-Sorry...” I apologized to Satsuki and then glared at R.

Begrudgingly, I turned on the TV and turned down the volume to give R something else to do. I was hoping that she’d watch whatever show was on and leave me alone.

“So, what have you been caught up in now?”

“Well, you see...”

I explained the situation so far to Satsuki, then told her there were two things I wanted her to look up. The first was where Ellicia, the girl who’d been chased by the man with the scar, was now. The other was what had happened to Mio, the girl with amnesia.

“Okay, I think I’ve got enough to go on. Where should I start?”

“Ellicia comes first. She might be in danger. Can you see if she’s okay and give me a general location?”

“Yeah, I think I can do it if you give me a few minutes. About what time did you meet her? Also, tell me as much about her as you can.”

“Let’s see. It must have been about...”

I told her everything I could remember. The Akashic Record that she could access with her magic contained the annals of the universe. But for all its vast knowledge, it was essentially just a database. In order to learn anything from it, you needed to narrow down your search as much as possible. It contained so much information that it was literally impossible to look through it all.

“All right, I’m going to consult the Akashic Record now,” she said.

I watched on as she closed her eyes and started to concentrate.

“I ask the records of all things...”

As she whispered an incantation, particles of light appeared and cast a gentle glow throughout the room. I wasn’t a mage, so I didn’t really know the details, but the light was a manifestation of magical power. Apparently everyone’s was a different color, and Satsuki’s happened to be pale blue. The bluish specks of light formed a circle around her, then disappeared up through the ceiling like they were delivering her voice somewhere on high.

“I’ve found her data. Her full name is Ellicia Otto. She’s currently moving west... She doesn’t seem to be under anybody’s control.”

“I see. Good.”

That meant the man with the scar hadn’t found her yet.

“Can you tell how far away the scarred man is from her?”

“Probably, but if all I have to go on is ‘men with scars on their cheek’ and ‘somewhere in this city,’ it’s going to take time to narrow it down and find him.”

“Hmm...”

Maybe it would be better to just go see Ellicia then? The Magic of Omniscience was helpful, but it had another limitation, and that was Satsuki’s magic powers. The more powerful the magic and the longer she used it, the more it drained her power. And if I was going to have her find out what happened to Mio or monitor Ellicia in real time, I’d need Satsuki to conserve her magic.

“Can you look into Mio next?”

“Of course. Just give me a second.” She opened her eyes and wiped the sweat off her brow. “Actually... Can I take a little break? Using the Magic of Omniscience this much makes me lightheaded.”

“Oh, sorry...”

I realized I’d been pushing her to use her magic without really thinking of how she was feeling. She was clearly pretty spent. I went to get the pitcher of barley tea from the fridge. I got some ice from the ice maker, too. I plopped it into the tea, but I could see it start to melt immediately.

“Want me to turn up the air conditioning a bit?”

“I’m fine. I don’t want to get too cold, either.”

She took a deep breath and used her handkerchief to dab the sweat off her collarbone. It was... strangely sexy. I could feel my heart skip a beat, but no! Now wasn’t the time to be thinking about that kind of thing! Was it the heat? Maybe it was the heat getting to me.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“N-Nothing!” I said, louder than I really needed to.

Satsuki seemed confused, but didn’t say anything more... Thank God.

“Okay, moving on,” Satsuki said as she cast a glance toward the stairs leading to the second floor. “You said she had amnesia. Are you sure?”

“Well, she said so, and she didn’t seem to be lying.”

“But she’s not hurt? Like, did she hit her head?”

“I had Harissa check her over for me, and she seems to be fine.”

I lied a little. I’d actually asked R to look, but I couldn’t tell Satsuki that. She couldn’t see R.

“Then it wasn’t an accident... Huh?” Satsuki suddenly seemed to realize something wasn’t right. “Didn’t she say she was pushed off a building?”

“Yeah, but...”

I knew what she was trying to say. If she was pushed off a building, then why wasn’t she hurt? Unfortunately, I didn’t have an answer to that, but...

“It would help if you could find that out for me, too.”

“I see.”

With the Magic of Omniscience, Satsuki had access to the entire history of the universe. She could look up anything that had happened in the past, so it would be a surefire way to find out if what Mio was saying was true or not.

“By the way, I didn’t catch her last name. Does she know it?” Satsuki asked.

“Yeah, it’s Kotozuka.”

“Huh?” Satsuki looked dubious for some reason.

“I said her name’s Mio Kotozuka.”

“I heard you... but are you sure? Is that really what she called herself?”

“Yeah. Why?” I asked, not understanding why she was so skeptical.

“Listen, Rekka. Do you know who Mio Kotozuka is?”

“The girl upstairs...?”

What was she talking about? She was acting like she knew something I didn’t.

“Rekka, that...” she said as she pointed behind me, “is Mio Kotozuka.”

“Huh?”

I turned around and saw a commercial playing on the TV that I’d turned on to get rid of R. An idol with a stuffed heart-lion was talking about her upcoming tour. It was MIO. Hmm... Was that what Satsuki was trying to say?

“Wh-What? Come on, they just happen to have the same first name, I bet.”

“Kotozuka is MIO’s last name. You don’t know anything about idols, do you, Rekka?” she said with a sigh.

“No, I mean, I know MIO. She’s super famous. But it’s not like I know her real name, and besides, the girl upstairs doesn’t look anything like that.”

“She doesn’t?”

“Nope.”

MIO on TV had long, blond pigtails that reached down to her knees, but Mio upstairs had shoulder-length, black hair. Sure, maybe they had about the same height and build, but...

“That hair could just be a wig. What about her face? Did that look the same?”

“I’m not sure...”

The idol on the screen had a bright smile as she winked and energetically talked about making the concert fun. But the girl upstairs was quiet and shy. They had totally different vibes.

“W-Well, can’t your magic tell us?”

“That’s true.”

Satsuki closed her eyes and accessed the Akashic Record again. This time she opened her eyes again before even ten seconds had passed. Maybe it was easier to find information on someone if they were famous?

“Hmm...”

“What is it?” I asked, a little worried when I saw the uneasiness in her expression.

“It’s about halfsies, I guess.”

Halfsies? What was halfsies?

“First, the girl upstairs is indeed the real Mio Kotozuka.”

“Which means...”

She was the idol MIO. But if that part was true, then the other half...

“It’s not a fact per se that she was pushed off a building.”

I should’ve figured.

“You’re sure about that?” I asked without thinking.

“The Magic of Omniscience is never wrong.”

I couldn’t argue with that. I’d seen its power firsthand, and it had saved me more than once. So, if Satsuki said so, then it meant Mio really hadn’t been pushed off a building.

“But why would she lie to me about that?”

“That I don’t know...”

Satsuki’s magic could reveal the secrets of the universe, but it couldn’t reveal the secrets of a person’s heart. The Magic of Omniscience was a record of facts and events, and that didn’t include people’s thoughts and feelings.

“Wait... Mio’s concert tour is today, right?” I suddenly remembered the commercial we’d just seen.

“Oh!” Satsuki gasped, then nodded.

What was she doing out here in the countryside if her concert was today? Something wasn’t adding up.

“Come to think of it, how did Mio know my name?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“When I found her in that empty lot, she was mumbling ‘Rekka.’”

“Hmm, that is unusual, but it must have been on purpose. She probably wasn’t asking for a wrecker.”

We had a few strange clues to go off of now. Mio was totally unharmed, whether or not she’d been pushed from a roof. She was here in a town with no concert hall on a day she should have been performing for her tour. She knew my name even though we’d never met. To top it off, she had amnesia and couldn’t explain any of it. Adding it all up, one thing was pretty clear to me at this point. It wasn’t a coincidence.

“Let’s look into it a little more. I’ll see what she was doing yesterday. Maybe we can find out why she came here or how she lost her memories.”

“Yeah, good idea.” I nodded and watched as Satsuki closed her eyes.

“Yesterday she went to a meeting about the concert, then a rehearsal, then a costume fitting... It seems like she was really busy. That night, she went home to her condo and went straight to sleep.”

There wasn’t anything unusual about that. What happened to her must have come next.

“...Huh?”

“What’s wrong?”

“She got up in the morning, left the condo... and got on a train headed here.”

Satsuki sounded confused, but she wasn’t alone.

“...Did something happen when she was asleep?”

“Nothing. She slept the whole night, then got up and came here.”

So she spent all day yesterday prepping for the concert, and then today she just decided to blow it off and come here? Why? I couldn’t even imagine what might’ve happened to her. Actually, from what Satsuki was saying, nothing at all had happened to her. Even with the Magic of Omniscience, we were stumped. The cause of all this was still one giant question mark. It was a mystery. There was no explaining what she’d said or done.

“Don’t tell me she came here to see me.”

Mio had known my name and where to find me. That was all I could really put together with the information I had. If she had come to see me, that might explain her behavior. But even if that were the case, I was at a loss as to how she knew who I was in the first place.

“Just to make sure, she and I have never met, right?”

Satsuki closed her eyes to consult her magic.

“That’s correct.”

“Thought so.”

Normal people didn’t know pop idol superstars. The plot was only getting thicker at this point, but turning it over in my head, I realized something.

“Let’s say she did come to this town to meet me... That means she had her memories when she got here, right?”

“Well, yes... You’re exactly right.”

Whatever her reason for coming here was, she clearly knew what she was doing at the time. That meant she had to have lost her memories after she’d arrived in town. That was another hint, so we pushed forward to try and find the answers we needed in order to get to the bottom of this. This time I had Satsuki look into what Mio had done once she’d gotten to town.

“By the time she got here, Mio was barely able to stand. She didn’t eat breakfast, it looks like... She was also in a big hurry on the way here, so she may have been exhausted.”

“I see...”

“She staggered into an alley that led to an empty lot. There’s no way she knew that path, so she was probably lost.”

“And she passed out in the lot after that?”

“She may have just wanted to rest a little... but yeah, she passed out in the grass.”

“That’s where I found her.”

So nothing had happened between her getting off the train and passing out, either. It wasn’t long after she collapsed that Ellicia and I and went by, but we certainly hadn’t done anything to her. I had Satsuki keep looking.

“She was unconscious when you showed up, and she was still out cold when... Wait, someone touched her while she was unconscious!”

“Who?!”

“Hang on... It’s a man. His name is Yang Danshey... He’s, um... got a scar on his cheek?”

“A scar on his cheek?”

That sounded familiar.

“Is it the guy chasing Ellicia?”

“I’ll check in a minute, but it seems like it. The timing and the description match.”

“But why would he do that when he was chasing someone else?”

It wasn’t like he’d done it out of concern for her. I gulped as I waited for Satsuki to tell me what Yang had done.

“Yang sees Mio and approaches her...” Satsuki said, trailing off.

“Then what?” I asked eagerly after a long pause.

“Yang used his psychic powers to seal away her memories.”

“Psychic powers?!”

“Yeah...” Satsuki said with a weak nod.

Psychic powers, huh? I hadn’t expected that, but Ellicia had used something similar.

“Then is Ellicia’s wall-walking ability a psychic power, too?”

“Most likely.”

So, one psychic was chasing after another. But why? I had all kinds of questions, but the one thing I was sure of at this point was that these psychic powers probably had something to do with Ellicia’s story. If I was going to help her, I’d have to keep that in mind while forming my team.

“Why would Yang seal Mio’s memories, though? What was the point?”

“I... have no idea. It appears that they were strangers and hadn’t met before.”

“What in the world is going on here?”

How did she know anything about me, a boy she’d never met before? And why would a stranger like Yang want to seal away her memories? Was there some connection between us that would be the key to solving her story? Just as I was starting to worry my head might explode, the doorbell rang.

▽

“...So to be honest, I don’t understand most of what’s going on with these stories. I’d appreciate it if you all could help me figure it out.”

“Before that, may I say something?”

“What is it, Shirley?”

“It’s really cramped in here!”

Well, she was right about that. There were nine of us in total. Harissa was upstairs taking care of Mio, so I was downstairs with Satsuki, Iris, Tsumiki, Tetra, Lea, Hibiki, Rosalind, Suzuran, and Shirley. We weren’t packed in the living room like sardines or anything, but yeah... It was a bit cozy.

“I’m glad I left Fam and Rain with Garnet,” Shirley said with a sigh.

The two of them were supposedly doing summer homework under Garnet’s tutelage right now.

“Why is everybody starting off summer vacation studying?” I couldn’t help asking.

“Part of my job is supervising their education. Of course, I’m not keeping them cooped up the whole day, you know.”

Shirley’s policy was to get them to do a little bit every day, she explained. But since the two younger girls were at home doing schoolwork, Shirley had come to my impromptu meeting on their behalf. They weren’t happy about it, however. Shirley had taken so long to convince them to stay home that, despite living just across the street, she hadn’t arrived until about the time that Rosalind and Lea had.

“Enough talk,” Rosalind declared. She was sitting right in front of the air conditioner. Perhaps she didn’t like the heat. “We have a lot to do. We should divide and conquer on this.”

“I agree,” Hibiki said as she raised a single finger. “We’ll divide the responsibilities between us, but let’s start with going over exactly what needs to be done.”

“Okay, we should tackle Ellicia first. That should be simple enough. All we need to do is make sure she’s safe for now.”

“This Yang guy with psychic powers is after her, right?” Iris asked.

“That’s right, so we need to find her before he does.” Hibiki nodded and turned towards Satsuki. “Yang’s power is what you’d usually call ‘telepathy,’ right?”

“Yes. It’s essentially the power to affect the mind.”

“Is it different than the telepathy I use?” Lea asked.

“Your magic connects people by bringing their thoughts together. Yang’s power is a little different,” Satsuki explained. “He can directly affect someone’s mind, or their soul. In this case, you can think of them as the same thing. Memories and thoughts are recorded in your brain, but also imprinted on your soul. Yang can read people’s memories by accessing those.”

“Huh? I don’t really understand how that’s different,” I said.

“It’s the same in some ways. Think of it like this: magic spells or psychic powers are more or less specialized skills with an explicit function, typically. But Yang’s... His is versatile.”

“Versatile?” I asked.

“Let’s say you have something you need to cut. You could use scissors, or you could use a knife. Either would work, but knives can cut a lot more than scissors can. You can use them on lots of things and in lots of different ways. Yang’s power is a little like that. He can use his telepathy to alter people’s minds and memories, not just read them.”

Huh... So that’s what he’d done to seal Mio’s memories. There was more than one way he could use his power, but the problem was that not even Satsuki knew the extent of what he could do with it.

“This kind of feels like seeing someone walk toward you with a baseball bat in the park. You have no way of knowing if they’re going to hit you or if they just want to play baseball.”

“Sounds like someone who’ll be annoying to fight,” Rosalind said with a sneer.

“Yes, and Yang seems to be the leader of a group of psychics like him and Ellicia. Only a few are chasing after her, but if we screw up, there could be more,” Satsuki added.

“Then we should pick people who are competent in a fight,” Rosalind suggested.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “We’ll need Satsuki on the Ellicia team to keep track of her whereabouts. How about we send Iris and Rosalind, and have Satsuki guide them? Does that work for you guys?”

“Sure.”

“That’s fine with me.”

“Very well. Suzuran, come with me, too.”

“Yes, mistress,” Suzuran complied.

“I’m in, too,” said Hibiki. “But too big of a group will just slow us down, so this is probably enough people.”

So Satsuki, Iris, Rosalind, Hibiki, and Suzuran would be the team that went to save Ellicia.

“Shall I join them as well?”

“You too, Shirley?”

I was a little surprised to hear the space scientist volunteer for what could be a bodyguard mission. She wasn’t much of a fighter.

“I won’t be running and jumping like the others, but if we’re up against a psychic, I may be able to help a little.”

“What do you mean?”

“Planet Estashion did extensive research on psychics, as well.”

Just how far had their research gone?

“There are many different kinds of creatures in the universe, including some species that only communicate with each other via telepathy. If you’re going up against someone who has a power like that, I won’t be much help in a fight, but I can at least share my knowledge on the subject.”

“I see.”

It was a good enough argument, and I had no reason to turn her down. Shirley would join the Ellicia team, then.

“So me, Iris, Rosalind, and Suzuran are the assault force while Shirley and Satsuki are our support. Satsuki can keep tabs on Ellicia and keep us informed over the phone,” Hibiki suggested.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

“By the way, where is she now?” Hibiki asked.

“Hmm... She’s nearing the city limits. We have a little more time,” Satsuki said.

“Can you guys hang back for a bit then? I’ll fill you in on what we’ll be doing, too.”

Of course, by “we,” I meant the rest of us who would be tackling Mio’s story.

“I don’t see why not,” Satsuki said as she sat back down on the couch.

“Now that you mention it, why aren’t you joining the rescue operation? Normally you’d be the first to volunteer for that kind of thing,” Tsumiki, who’d been leaning up against the wall, chimed in.

“That may be true, but let me explain.” I paused and took a breath. “While you guys deal with Ellicia, I’ll be taking care of Mio.”

“What do you mean?”

“Mio said she was pushed off a building. That means somebody pushed her, right?”

“But Otomo said that she wasn’t actually pushed, right?” Tsumiki asked.

Nobody knew the power of Satsuki’s magic better than me, but...

“Mio’s story is a little strange. There’s too much about it that doesn’t make sense. How she knew my name, why Yang sealed her memory...”

Even the Magic of Omniscience couldn’t read people’s thoughts. There was no way of knowing what Yang—a perfect stranger who was literally just passing by—had been thinking when he sealed Mio’s memories.

“Whoever pushed her off that building, if someone really did, is one problem, but Yang and his crew are another issue altogether. He stopped at sealing away Mio’s memories, but that might only have been because he was busy chasing Ellicia. If someone else from his group comes after Mio now, there’s no telling what they might do.”

“I see. You’re saying it’s not safe to leave Mio alone while we focus on Ellicia’s story.”

“If nothing else, there’s a chance that Yang means Mio harm,” Hibiki added.

“Yeah, so I want to make sure we keep her safe, too. She’ll need a guard or something.”

“Is that why you didn’t ask me to go with the Ellicia team?” Lea asked, seemingly somewhat confused. “I am strong, but if these people are really that dangerous, you might need somebody who can do more than fight. And unfortunately, I’m afraid that’s all I can really do. Well, I guess there is my water magic.”

“That’s why I want you to come to Aburaamu with me.”

“Aburaamu?” Lea asked, even more confused.

“Harissa’s home world,” I explained.

“Harissa can go back to her world now?” Satsuki asked, eyes wide.

At that point, I explained to everyone where Harissa had come from and the new magic she’d invented to try and get back.

“So, you’re going to hide Mio in another world, huh? I suppose that’s as safe as you could get, yeah,” Shirley said with an exasperated shrug.

She seemed to feel like I was cheating. And maybe I was. If this were a game of chess, what I was planning on doing was akin to keeping my king safe by taking it off the board and hiding it. But as long as it kept Mio safe, I didn’t care if anyone called me a coward for doing it. It wasn’t like I had a way to fight Yang’s group head-on.

“Shouldn’t you let the two upstairs know what’s going on then?” Tsumiki asked.

“I’ll go get them,” Tetra offered and ran up the stairs.

As she left, Hibiki turned to me.

“I understand where you’re going with this, but what happens after you get to Harissa’s world?”

“The first thing we’ll do is find a safe place for Mio. Then I’ll come back and join your team. That’s the plan, anyway. Speaking of, can I have something personal of yours?”

“Of mine? Why?”

“When I come back, I’m going to use Harissa’s new spell. It’ll be faster that way.”

“I see. In that case...”

She took off one of the fingerless gloves she always wore and handed it to me.

“The more personal, the better, right? This is about as good as you could ask for.”

“Cool, thanks. I’ll come back as soon as I can.”

“Oh, but...” Suddenly Hibiki started to mumble. “D-Don’t do anything weird like smell it, okay?”

“Do you think I’m a pervert?”

“That’s exactly why I’m telling you not to smell it!”

“I wouldn’t!”

“That’s not fair, Hibiki! He should take one of my boots or my hairpiece!” Iris jumped in.

“Wait, I’ll give him my ribbon,” Rosalind offered.

“I’m still not smelling anything!”

Is that what they really thought of me? It was a little unsettling, but I didn’t have time to waste on something so stupid. Instead of arguing, I cleared my throat and got things back on track.

“Anyway, my plan is to keep her in Aburaamu until we figure out how to resolve her story. We can focus on Ellicia’s first, and hopefully catch Yang. If we do that, we might be able to learn how to get Mio’s memories back, and we can go from there.”

“Understood,” Hibiki said with a firm nod and stood up. “If we have a plan in place, I think it’s time for us to get moving.”

With our plans hammered out, everyone got ready to do their part.

“The Ellicia team will be using our house as a base,” said Shirley. “You’ve got plenty of preparations to make before leaving, so there’s no reason for us to crowd you here.”

Shortly after Shirley and her team left, Mio, Harissa, and Tetra came down into a now much emptier living room.

“Rekka...”

As soon as Mio saw me, she dashed across the room.

“Huh? What’s wrong?”

“This just makes me feel better...” she whispered softly as she wrapped her arms around my waist.

She’d practically freaked out when she heard my name the first time, so I was a bit stumped by the apparent one-eighty.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Tsumiki glared at me with narrow eyes.

“She’s just a little girl. Maybe she’s scared?”

“MIO the idol is our age, you know.”

“What?!”

How?! She looked just like an elementary school girl!

“She made her debut three years ago when she was in middle school. You do the math.”

“How does everyone know so much about idols?”

“I’m a fan, duh.”

“Oh, I didn’t know.”

“It’s not a big deal or anything...” Tsumiki turned away, perhaps embarrassed to admit that right in front of an idol.

But Tsumiki wasn’t the only one. With Mio refusing to let go of me, all the girls were giving me dirty looks. I tried to ignore it and fill in Mio and Harissa on the plan.

“Psychic powers? Magic? Other worlds?” Mio looked absolutely baffled.

It’d been a while since I’d encountered a heroine who didn’t know about that kind of stuff, so I had Harissa use her invisibility magic to prove it was all real. Mio still seemed a little confused, but she agreed to my plan nonetheless.

“All right. We’re going to use the Hero’s Sword to get back to Aburaamu Castle. I’m considered a hero there, so the king should give us all a safe place to stay. Then we’ll gather enough Red Threads to allow us to travel between worlds as we please. Then we’ll come back here and meet up with Hibiki’s team.”

Tsumiki, confused, raised her hand and said, “I don’t need to go, do I? I can stay here and help Shirley or something.”

“Well, you see... We don’t know how long Mio’s going to have to stay there, so...”

I actually wanted Tsumiki there so Mio would have someone to talk to. I was hoping she’d be less lonely and scared that way. It could have been anyone, really, but Tsumiki had said she was a fan of MIO’s, so it seemed like a good idea. And Tsumiki seemed to figure it out. She sighed and shrugged.

“All right, I’ll go with you guys.”

“Then I’ll stay here and help Shirley,” Tetra offered.

“Thanks, both of you.”

With that all agreed upon, it was time to work out the rest of our preparations.

▽

Everybody split up to take care of what they needed to before travelling to another world, and we all met back up at my house a little while later. We gathered in the backyard with backpacks of food and clothing, and we waited for Harissa to finish drawing the magic circle that would transport us back to her world.

“Whew, it’s done.”

Harissa took a deep breath when it was finally complete. The magic sending circle was a complicated series of interlocking patterns, and in the middle of it sat the catalyst from a Red Thread and the Hero’s Sword. With that all in place, we were finally ready to go.

“All right, it’s time,” Harissa said.

She began her incantation and touched her staff to the circle. Both of them began to glow with green magic.

“Eclena Cashu!”

With those words, her magic energy began glowing so brightly that it looked like it was on fire. And it only got brighter. White light filled my vision. I then felt myself floating, and for a moment I had no idea where I was. The one thing I felt was Mio’s warmth as she clung to me.

▽

And so we crossed the boundary between worlds. As my senses returned to me, I felt my feet touch the ground.

“...Hmm?”

When I opened my eyes, the first thing I did was make sure everyone was okay. I was glad to see that they were.

Next, I looked around a bit. We’d ended up in a huge room with two doors, one in the back and one in front of where we were. There wasn’t anything else in the room, but the ornately decorated pillars holding up the stone ceiling told me it wasn’t just any old room.

Thinking back on it, Aburaamu Castle was a stone building, so with all I had to go on, it seemed like we’d ended up in the right place. At least, that’s what I thought...

“H-Huh?” Harissa was looking around, apparently confused.

“Harissa, what’s wrong?”

Seeing her like that made me a little nervous, and that feeling only grew worse when she could hardly answer me.

“U-Um, I...”

“Don’t panic. Take your time. Just tell us what’s going on.”

I put my hand on her shoulder and had her take a deep breath to calm herself down.

“I don’t think... this is the room where the Hero’s Sword was kept.”

“What?!” Tsumiki gasped, then put her hand over her mouth when she realized she’d made a mistake.

But it was too late. Harissa was already starting to panic. I could see tears in the corner of her eyes.

“I’m so sorry. I failed...” Harissa hung her head.

I looked around the room again. Come to think of it, this place did seem a lot bigger than the basement I remembered. The chamber with the Hero’s Sword in it was much smaller. More than a basement, this seemed like a proper castle dungeon.

“Well, we’re certainly not in my yard anymore, and it’s not like there are a lot of stone buildings around. Maybe we’re just in a different part of the castle?”

“I thought so too at first... but the air is different here somehow. It doesn’t feel like I’m home.”

“I-I see...”

“I’m sorry...”

So, we were lost in a different other world. It was at that point that a certain thought crossed my mind: Maybe this wasn’t great.