Mikomi’s head continued to be stricken by blinding pain, yet, through it all, a vision appeared in front of him. Despite the immense pain, he could clearly hone in on this vision and see things rather clearly.

Indeed, the Serah he saw in front of him wasn’t the same Serah that invited him over to her house. He was envisioning her in front of his high school. Standing next to him was his best friend, Ryan. Through the pain, Mikomi could hear voices inside his head.

“You’re seriously going to do that, Mikomi!? Why would you ask Serah out!? Nobody likes her! She’s such an outcast! If you do that, everyone at school is going to treat you the same exact way! If you do that… then I don’t think you and I could be friends anymore.”

Mikomi turned and looked at Ryan. He grabbed him by the shirt and punched him right in the face! Ryan fell to the ground, his nose completely bloodied from the impact. Mikomi stood over Ryan, looking down on him.”

“I love Serah. If it means losing someone spineless like you as my friend, then that’s a small price I’m willing to pay. People like you make me sick, anyway.”

Mikomi walked away and his vision began to get cloudy once again. When it refocused, it was after school. Mikomi and Serah were behind the school building.

“Serah… I know this is really sudden but… I was wondering if you would like to go out with me?”

Serah was taken aback by Mikomi’s words. Soon, the look of shock faded from her face and was replaced by one of slight annoyance.

“Is this some kind of sick joke? This isn’t very funny.”

Mikomi grabbed Serah by the hand.

“It’s no joke… I’m being dead serious here. I think you’re cute and yes… I’ve seen the way other kids treat you and I don’t think that’s fair. I find you interesting and I want to know more about you. I know this is skipping the whole friendship phase but I just feel something inside of me whenever I look at you. I want to be the one who protects you.”

Serah looked up at Mikomi.

“I’ll think about it.”

Serah walked away and Mikomi’s vision began to blur once again. When it refocused, there was a knock on his front door at home. He opened it and Serah was standing there on the other side. She handed Mikomi a letter.

“Your answer is in there.”

Serah walked away as Mikomi opened the letter, reading it out loud.

“I thought about it and I have decided that if you can answer one simple question, I will say yes. I will ask you the question in person outside of your house tomorrow morning before school.”

Mikomi’s vision clouded once again. When it cleared, he saw a bird’s eye view of himself and Serah talking in front of his house. He couldn’t hear any of the words which made him wonder just what that question was. He must have given the right answer because Serah gave Mikomi a hug and a kiss. The two of them then walked away together. After that, Mikomi’s vision became blurred one final time and then everything faded to black.”

Back in reality, Mikomi went silent and flopped over onto Serah’s floor. Serah began shaking him, trying to get a response out of him but he was completely still. Serah checked his pulse and noticed his heart was still beating and he was breathing on his own; he was simply unconscious. It was apparent that he had passed out from the pain. Serah grabbed Mikomi and propped him against the couch. Mikomi didn’t weigh much but Serah wasn’t the athletic type. It took quite a lot of effort to get his 125-pound frame of dead weight into a seated position.

Serah ran and grabbed a blanket from her bedroom. She came back and covered Mikomi with it. She noticed that his face was a bit flushed and put her hand on his head. Her eyes widened when she could feel the heat against her hand.

“He’s burning up!”

She quickly ran and grabbed a washcloth and soaked it in cold water. She returned and folded it up before placing it on top of his head. All she could do now was wait and wonder what had happened. Everything seemed just fine until she hugged him. Her face was filled with worry as she thought that maybe she had done this to him. She continued to keep a close watch, hoping that he would wake up.

An hour had passed. Serah placed a thermometer in Mikomi’s mouth. The temperature read 98.1 degrees. It appeared as if Mikomi’s fever had broken. Serah let out a sigh of relief before taking the washcloth off of his head but kept it nearby just in case his fever returned. Mikomi was still fast asleep at this point. All Serah could do was kneel there beside him and wait.

Another two hours passed. Mikomi’s fever still hadn’t returned, which was a good sign. Serah, herself, had fallen asleep on the floor with her head resting on Mikomi’s lap. Suddenly, a low grumble came from him as he struggled to open his eyes.

“What the… where am I?”

Mikomi went to move but noticed that Serah was asleep on his legs. The movement woke her up and she groggily lifted her head and looked at Mikomi.

“Serah? Right… I was at her house but… weren’t we just at school? What’s going on here?”

Serah’s face lit up with both joy and relief. She went to hug Mikomi but she instantly remembered what happened the last time she did so and stopped dead in her tracks. She backed off and with a quiver in her voice, said…

“Mikomi! Thank God you’re okay!”

“What happened?”

“I… I… hugged you… and then you started screaming and holding your head. You stood up but then you fell to the floor. You were in such agony but then you went silent. I didn’t know what to do so I moved you against the couch. I would have put you on one of the cushions but… but… I’m, um, weak…”

“It’s coming back to me now. She hugged me… so we weren’t at school? No… if we were and this had happened, I would have woken up in a hospital bed rather than at her house. That’s right… she invited me over here to thank me and then I blacked out. My head still hurts so I guess she’s telling the truth about the pain. What was all of that, anyway?”

“Serah… What was the question you wanted to ask me?”

“What question?” asked Serah with confusion in her voice.

“You know. The one from the letter you gave me. You said you would meet me in front of my house and ask me a question and if I could answer it, then... well... you would have said yes.”

“Are you sure you’re feeling okay, Mikomi? I didn’t say anything about asking you a question in the letter I gave you. I only asked if you could meet me at my house today.”

“That settles it. What I saw in my head didn’t happen. At least not in this timeline. I knew I had a funny feeling about all of this. Why I couldn’t remember Serah’s details. When I was given a second chance, some of my memories were erased! But why!? Why would Sebastion not tell me about this? More importantly, why were any of my memories erased, to begin with? Was this the other piece of information Sebastion wanted to tell me but said he wouldn’t until the time was right? What other memories of mine are missing? Argh… I have so many questions but I can’t just ask Sebastian to show up. Until I can get somewhere private, I’m going to have to roll with this.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Sorry… My memory is a bit foggy. I must still be coming out of whatever happened to me.”

Mikomi tried to stand but he felt a bit dizzy. Serah stood and offered him a helping hand. Mikomi thanked her and pulled himself back up to his feet. His head began to spin but he endured it and soon enough, everything returned to normal.

“You don’t need to be sorry. It was my fault. I think I hugged you too tight.”

“Wait… that’s right! I experienced that after she hugged me. Is physical contact the trigger here? I’m not going to lie… that hurt worse than anything I had ever experienced before in my life. It hurt worse than when I got shot but I need to find out. If I have to put myself through blinding pain again to understand how this works then so be it. Serah… I’m sorry. Forgive me for this.”

Mikomi turned and embraced Serah in another hug. Serah began to panic because she thought that Mikomi would start to experience the pain in his head once again. After a few seconds of nothing, Mikomi hugged her even more tightly.

“It’s okay. You can hug me back.”

She was visibly trembling when she raised her arms and embraced Mikomi. She hugged him rather tightly as well, causing Mikomi to close his eyes as if he were bracing for the worse. After a moment or two, nothing happened. Mikomi let out an internal sigh and smiled. He let Serah go and backed away, placing his hands on her shoulders.

“See? I’m all better now!”

Mikomi shot her a smile as Serah, filled with happiness and relief, smiled back at him.

“I’m happy that you’re okay!”

“Is it a one-time thing? Are these all the memories I’m going to get back from Serah? There are just too many questions and only one person has the answers. I had to get home and call out Sebastian. I needed to get to the bottom of this.”

“Thanks. What time is it, by the way?”

“About 4 PM.”

“I should probably get going. I hope I’m not being rude by saying that but I think it’s best if I go home and rest.”

“Not at all! Are you going to be okay getting home?”

Mikomi took a couple of test steps around her living room just to make sure he wasn’t dizzy anymore. Chances were he was going to be fine.

“Yeah, I’m feeling like myself again. I’ll be fine going home. Serah… Thank you. Thank you for everything. I’m sure that this wasn’t the kind of visit you had in mind but I’m glad you helped me through it. As for thanking me… you’re welcome. I am more than happy to be your friend.”

Serah looked a bit sad at that last statement.

“J-just a friend?” muttered Serah quietly.

“Is it okay to reply to that? If we dated in the other timeline then stating my love for her would be another piece of the puzzle put back together but I think I should consult Sebastian first before I say anything. I need to find out just what in the hell he did to my memories first.”

“One step at a time. I want you to trust me first. Let me prove to you that I’m not going to be someone who forgets you exist out of the blue one day.”

Serah’s eyes widened. She saw Mikomi’s smile and felt like she had finally made a friend she could put her trust into. The fact that Mikomi wanted her to trust him was proof enough that he could be the one to break her cycle of loneliness. At that point, she didn’t care how long she had to wait. She knew that if she just let things happen naturally, then one day, she could fully put her trust in him. She decided to wait for that time and day to come.

“Okay,” she said with a smile.

Mikomi opened the door and left Serah’s house. He made his way down the street and turned the corner. Mikomi walked forward a few steps and looked back to check and see if he was out of sight of her house. Once he knew that he was in the clear, he took off running as he wanted to get back home as quickly as possible. A few moments later, he walked in through the front door. A note was left on the coffee table but Mikomi didn’t read it. Whenever his mother left a note, it was to let him know that she had gone shopping for ingredients that she would use in that night’s dinner. Mikomi immediately checked the house just to make sure he was alone. When the coast was clear…

“Sebastian! Get out here!”

With that, Sebastian appeared on Mikomi’s couch, his legs already crossed. It looked as if he had made himself comfortable rather quickly. Mikomi gritted his teeth and shot his infamous death glare at him. Sebastian looked into Mikomi’s fiery eyes and let out a sigh.

“You don’t have to say a word, my dear Mikomi. Remember, I’m always watching you so I know exactly why you called me here. Indeed, it is time to tell you the missing piece of information. The truth is, I purposely erased some of your memories when you were granted your second chance.”

Mikomi balled his fists and clenched his teeth even harder. He tried to subdue his anger and it showed when he began to speak. You could just hear the frustration in the tone of his voice.

“Why would you do something like that? I thought you said that I would have all of my memories so I could find out who killed me. How am I supposed to reshape my future if I can’t recall all of my past? Do you know how much harder you just made it for me?”

Sebastian sighed once again, pinching the bridge of his nose. He knew that he had some explaining to do so he just came out with it.

“I understand that you’re slightly vexed at this information, Mikomi, but alas, take some solace in knowing that I did this to protect you. You see, some of your memories were rather... unpleasant, to say the least... and if they were left intact, then it might have caused you to try and alter the future too much and that would have jeopardized you finding out who your killer is. Having forgotten some key moments in your history wouldn’t have changed the outcome in the long run but remembering them could have changed things far more than I could allow.”

Mikomi took a step back for a second and unclenched his fists. It made too much sense. Seeing that Mikomi had calmed down slightly, Sebastian decided to give Mikomi a stern reminder.

“I must remind you that I am a Custodian of Time, after all. Not only is it my job to oversee your progress but it’s also my job to protect the world lines as they are. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about this sooner but I’m sure you understand my position. Now… about what happened to you.”

Mikomi looked back up at Sebastian with interest.

“As you can probably guess. There is a slight… “side effect….” when it comes to the erasure of memories. I can only blanket the memories in your mind. I can’t erase them permanently. Think of it as applying white-out to a piece of paper. What you wrote… the original ink is still underneath. If you were to remove the whiteout, you would be able to see what was originally written. When you embraced Serah, it was like removing the whiteout from the paper but you couldn’t quite see what was written clearly. Your memories came back but not all of them. There are still more memories of Serah locked away in your mind. The pain you experienced was your brain being re-written but unlike writing over coated text, you keep both the old and the new memories which can be quite confusing, I’m afraid.”

Mikomi let out a sigh.

“I need to know one thing, Sebastian… even if it causes me great pain. Why did you erase Serah’s important details from my memories?”

Sebastian stood up and walked over to Mikomi and placed his hand on his shoulder. He looked Mikomi in the eyes with the most serious look that he’s given him thus far.

“Are you absolutely sure you want to know?”

Mikomi nodded with a determined look burning in his eyes. The thought of having memories hidden from him didn’t sit too well. Even if it caused him more pain, he needed to know what was missing. Perhaps he felt that it would answer a lot of the nagging questions still circulating in his brain. Perhaps it would be opening up Pandora’s Box. No matter what the case may be, Mikomi knew that these memories belonged to him and he wanted them back, no matter what they were.

“Very well, then. I took enough of your memories of Serah because I had hoped you would just disregard her and move on with your true goal. If I hadn’t, you would have done everything in your power to save the one you loved. You would have tried to stop Serah from dying.”

Mikomi’s eyes widened.

“Serah… died!?”

It was as if time stood still. The world around Mikomi began to dampen once again. Sounds became muffled until all he could hear was the beating of his own heart. Mikomi began to quiver with the realization of what Sebastian had just said. All of a sudden, the blinding pain came back. Mikomi grasped his forehead and fell to his knees once again. He looked up at Sebastian and through his blurred vision, Mikomi saw him standing tall, looking down at him with an emotionless expression on his face as if to say “You knew this would happen.” Sebastian continued to stare down at Mikomi as he writhed in pain. It was the last thing Mikomi saw before passing out once again.