"Save me."

Hearing a voice, it felt as though the boy had just been woken from a deep state of comatose.

For a moment he thought he might have just been sleeping, but somehow it didn’t feel like that. His senses were dull and muddled, and he was having difficulty processing his thoughts. This was a completely different feeling from waking up after a nap or something. It was almost as if his entire body was shut down, including his brain, and he was only now being reeled back into consciousness.

The first thing he could feel was his body swaying side to side. He was moving. He was sure of it. But...moving? How was he moving? Or perhaps the better questions to ask were: where was he and where was he moving to?

His eyes were still closed, so he had no way of knowing. He was even weary of opening them out of fear of announcing his awakening. He had no idea what was nearby watching him or if he was in some form of danger. Something could have been waiting for him to wake up. Unlikely perhaps, but he had no reason to suspect otherwise.

So he decided to listen first, tentatively, in case there really were perils lurking about.

“...don’t know, either?”

There was a voice. It sounded human, he thought, and it came from right next to him. If there were other humans around, then maybe that was a good sign. There was only one way to be sure.

The boy slowly opened his eyes, and the first thing that came into his sight was a pair of pale legs in front of him. Not only those, but others lined up beside them. They were human legs. He felt slightly relieved at that revelation.

“Hey, are you awake?” he heard somebody ask.

The voice came from a young man seated beside him. He had a fair, lengthy face that was partly framed with brown hair and eyes that were currently regarding him curiously. The boy did not recognise who this person was.

“Y-yeah...,” he replied hesitantly. His vision was still steadily adjusting to his surroundings. He rubbed at his eyes as though that would help speed the process. “Where am I? Who are you?”

“We were just about to ask you that,” another person, this one a boy with wild auburn hair tied into a ponytail, chimed in.

“Me…?”

“You were the only one still passed out.”

When Ponytail said that, the boy glanced at all of the other people around and counted twelve of them. Including himself, there were seven boys and six girls, and they were all seated in what appeared to be a wagon.

A wagon... I don't remember getting on a wagon. When the boy tried to think about it more, a dull throb pounded in his head, rendering him ditzy.

“Ow...” He clutched his head, wincing.

“I take it that means he doesn’t remember anything, either,” said a bespectacled young man. He folded his arms and appeared rather vexed at that.

The stranger next to him gently placed a hand on the boy's back. “Take it easy,” he assured him. “Can you remember anything? Anything at all? What about your name? We can start there. I’m Mahiro.”

A name. His own name. Surely he remembered something as rudimentary as that.

“...I’m Keisuke…I think. Or is it something else…?” No. Somehow, he was sure of it. “It’s Keisuke. My name is Keisuke.”

“Nice to meet you, Keisuke-kun.” Mahiro smiled at him. This person seems like a nice guy, was Keisuke’s first impression of Mahiro.

Keisuke shook his head in an attempt to gather his bearings and wake himself up. “I'm struggling to remember anything. Did something happen? I think I was asleep or something, so I don’t know...”

“We were all passed out,” Glasses replied matter-of-factly. “We found ourselves here just like you. Nobody seems to have any idea where we are, apparently.” When he said that, his eyes slowly hovered over everyone in the wagon, seemingly suspicious of them.

“Yer in Altear, ‘f course! The western kingdom in the nation of Valentia. Seriously, ye young'uns don’t even know that much? This generation is lost. Truly, truly lost, I say.” The reply came from none of the other passengers but a man without the wagon—the teamster, it looked like. He was a short and pudgy old man with magnificent white cheek whiskers and a nose that seemed to cover half of his face. He was shaking his head gravely, apparently disappointed that none of them knew where they were.

But that aside, Altear? Valentia? None of those names rang any bells to Keisuke. He was certain that he’d never heard of them before. They sounded foreign.

“That doesn’t explain much at all, old man,” said a girl dressed in a black high school sailor uniform. She gave the impression of a student council president—someone stern and poised.

Wait.

Keisuke’s brain came to an abrupt halt, as if it had just collided headlong into a brick wall that appeared out of nowhere.

High school? Student council? … What are those?

Strange. He had mentioned those things as if he knew what they were, but all of a sudden he realised that he hadn’t the slightest clue whatsoever.

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He was sure he knew…but apparently, he didn’t after all. It was a disturbing feeling. Deep down, Keisuke felt like they were obvious things to know. At least, he got the feeling that he should’ve known. But no matter how deeply he thought about it, his mind was an empty sheet of paper.

“We have no idea who you are or what you’re talking about,” Student Council President continued. Keisuke decided that he would keep calling the girl by that name for convenience's sake. “How did we end up here? Where did you find us?”

By the sound of it, Keisuke was not the only one who couldn't remember a thing. Everybody else on the wagon appeared to be in the same predicament as him. Weird. The entire situation was weird.

The old man snorted. “Silly question after silly question. I picked ye up, didn't I? Ye all arrived here by ship in Rivington. Wasn't too long ago, so how have ye all gone and forgotten already? But I s’ppose ye were all so puckered out ye passed out right after hopping on! I spent half o’ the ride nattering with m'self before I even realised! Ha-ha-ha!” The man laughed. He was the only one finding all of this amusing, however. “By yer jolly accents, I take it ye come from somewhere beyond the sea? We’re on our way to Fortuna now. That's where I was instructed to take ye.”

“Instructed?” Mahiro raised an eyebrow. “By whom?”

“The pretty woman who hired me, ‘f course.”

The boy with the ponytail mussed up his hair as though desperately trying to stimulate his brain. “Huhhhh? A ship...? What ship? I don’t remember a damn ship! What the hell is going on here?”

“Take it easy, Noburu-kun.” Mahiro tried to calm him down. “Getting riled up won’t help us right now.”

“How could I possibly take it easy?! Am I the only one bothered by all of this? No, no, clearly you’re all just as confused as I am, so why aren’t you panicking right now? Like, seriously!”

The ponytail boy, whose name was Noburu, was being loud and brash. But Keisuke couldn’t fault him for his reaction. He couldn’t remember a ship, either. Everything the teamster had said was news to him.

His own name. That was about all Keisuke could remember. Anything other than that was a complete loss. He had forgotten everything.

No, that didn’t feel quite right. Saying that he had simply forgotten did not accurately explain the tumult that was going on in his mind at all. It was like whenever he tried bringing up a memory or something crossed his mind, it quickly turned to dust before he could get a firm grasp on it. It was as if something in his brain was actively trying to prevent him from remembering anything.

“Keep it down. You’re getting on my nerves,” a low and husky voice intoned. It came from a boy seated nearest the entrance of the wagon. He had wild blonde hair, piercings on his ears and brow, and a broad and bulky build. From Keisuke’s honest perspective, he looked like some sort of delinquent. “If none of us can remember anything, then it’s obvious whoever is behind this doesn’t want us to.”

Whoever is behind this.

How the boy had chosen to word that made Keisuke feel uneasy. Who would be behind this, and for what purpose? And how would they even have the means to rid all of them of their memories? It seemed a bit too far-fetched to be somebody's doing to Keisuke.

“So there’s a smart pup among the litter,” commented a boy with shoulder-length silver hair, his arms crossed and a slight smile playing on his lips. At a glance, he could have easily been mistaken for a girl. He had the soft features and slim physique to pass off as one. However, despite that, he was definitely a boy.

“Still, it's strange that absolutely none of us can remember anything other than our names.” Student Council President placed a finger on her chin and appeared to ponder the situation. “I can’t make sense of any of it. Could this be truly planned in some way?”

“I-I'm scared...” A timid-looking girl shook her head and whispered in a soft, barely perceptible voice. She was relatively small and unremarkable in terms of appearance. At least, Keisuke could tell that was how she wanted to be perceived. From the dull and baggy clothes that concealed her womanly features to the cap and brown bangs that were used to hide her eyes, it was clear that this girl was the bashful type. “D-does anyone know what’s going on?”

Nobody replied. Unless they were all deliberately ignoring Timid, then that meant none of them knew.

By the looks of everyone, Keisuke noticed that they all must have been around the same age. He tried inspecting each of their faces to see if he recognised any of them. But that proved fruitless.

I don’t know anyone here, he thought. They’re all strangers to me.

Or that was what Keisuke initially believed. One of the passengers caught his eye, and he found himself staring at her more than anybody else around.

It was a girl sitting directly in front of him.

Graceful features. Long, flowing dark hair. She was merely sitting there, just like everyone else, but somehow was completely different.

She had sharp, feline-like eyes and skin as white as new-fallen snow. She was captivatingly beautiful. And not just your average, garden-variety beauty, but the type that seemed ethereal and only existed in fantasy stories. Like a flower you were too hesitant to touch out of fear of it crumbling in your hands, vanishing without a trace.

And yet, peculiarly enough, that was not what seemed to allure Keisuke to her. It was something else. Something about the girl tugged at his memories, yet they remained out of reach. He was almost certain he did not know who she was. He had no reason to.

She must have sensed Keisuke ogling her because she turned her head his way and looked him square in the eyes. “Is there something on my face?” she asked him directly, with a brusque tone and a bitingly cold gaze that inspired nothing but apprehension.

That caught Keisuke off guard, and he immediately lowered his eyes and nervously swallowed the rapidly forming spittle in his mouth. “N-no! Uh, sorry...”

What a scary woman... Keisuke had no idea who that girl was. He didn’t know why he thought he might have.

“Ye foreigners be a funny lot,” the teamster’s laugh echoed in the cramped wagon, yet it felt hollow as if concealing some secret. “Always so chatty and confused. It's all the same with ye, I swear. ‘Where am I? How did I get here?’ It never gets old!”

Student Council President asked, “Us foreigners?” and tilted her head quizzically. “What, are there more like us?”

The teamster nodded. “Aye, didn’t ye know? Ye ain’t the first group I picked up today. But I’m sure yer the last. Ehh, ye are, right? Aye, aye, I'm sure."

“Excuse me? We aren't the only ones? Just what exactly do you mean by that?”

That small statement fed on the growing feeling of unrest among the passengers. Some of them exchanged uncertain glances, failing to fully comprehend what the teamster had implied. There were others like them. Were they also in a similar predicament? Keisuke did not know. But one thing was certain to him and everyone else: something was amiss here. It didn't help that they possessed no memories, but they had no idea where they were or how they ended up there, either. All he could remember was his own name.

“Just who am I, exactly...?” Keisuke wondered aloud, staring at his hands as if somehow they held the answers. “And where do I come from?”

It was then when their reality and all they believed or thought they believed were shifted sideways.