"Rrragh!" A random civilian tackled the golden armed assailant, pleading me to run, "Go on! I'll try and hold him back!"
"Mgh! Lemme go!" The brutal opponent whaled on the poor guy as a dozen or so onlookers joined in to help subjugate him, "Crap, back away...!"
Stumbling away from the crowd that formed, I had anxiously ran to the building where Gale was. I wasn't about to leave him behind, no way no how.
"M-Mmf! Magnesh!"
A shaken voice called out to me from the ground. It belonged to the shopkeeper, still tied to the chair despite being turned sideways.
"Wait, come back!" He begged, "He's fine! We can't die or feel pain in Heaven 2.0, so untie me already! Hey!"
I can't! If I untie him now, he'll be furious with us for putting him in this situation in the first place! If it was just that, then I wouldn't even mind losing him given he wasn't exactly willing to lend a hand in the first place, but if he somehow reported what we did to the Gods, there's no telling what kind of trouble we'd be in... I gotta find Gale and find a chance to make our exit through the chaos.
"Mn...!" I darted my Eyes inside the building he was supposed to be in, calling out to him in a shaken whisper, "Gale! Gale!?"
"What?" He made me jump as he appeared from behind me unscathed.
"Gyaaahhhh!!!" I screamed my heart out, "Dammit, don't sneak up on me! Ugh, are you hurt?"
"I'm fine."
"Lemme see-"
"No, lady." He explained to me, "I'm fine. Look, no wounds, no scratches, and I don't feel even the tiniest bit of pain."
No pain...? Really, so what that guy said earlier was true. We don't feel any pain in the afterlife. That's... crazy. I'm thankful, but I still feel scared despite that. We should probably get going as soon as possible.
"Wait." He grabbed my wrist, "Aren't you forgetting someone?"
"We gotta leave him, Gale!" I shook his hand off, "He doesn't wanna help us, he'll just report us the first chance he gets."
His face contorted into a difficult grimace. He really didn't believe my words, but I'm not dumb. Besides, the longer we keep him around, the higher chance he has of finding out we were lying the entire time about me keeping my memories or whatever. I can't rest easy knowing I'm with someone as dangerous as that shopkeeper.
"...You're horrie." Gale furrowed his brows at me before running off to get him, "Tch, hang in there bud! Imma get you out of here!"
"GaLi!" He shouted, "Untie me, c'mon man!"
"Tch, that idiot...!" I mustered up the courage to help as well, "Does he want to keep his memories or not?"
"Hey, easy now, easy!" Gale undid the tape, freeing him from the chair, "Sorry about this, let's get away from here."
"Let's go!" I nodded.
We ran and ran until we could run no more. Gale was leading the three person caravan as he made headway for us. The shopkeeper was trailing closely behind him, and I made sure to lag behind him a bit to make sure the bastard didn't try to make a break for it. That being said, he had plenty of chances to, yet this shopkeep didn't even look back at me once. He just kept running, following Gale almost to the exact footsteps he made. Eventually, we settled down in front of a run down shed.
"Phew... Phew!" Gale sighed in relief.
"Ghack." The shopkeep cleared his throat, "Oh man..."
"...We made it." I gulped.
"No thanks to you..." The shopkeeper muttered under his breath.
"Oh come on-"
"The hell do you mean come on!?" He lashed out at me, "You drag me away from my post, get me into trouble and when shit hits the fan, you don't even stop to untie me!?"
"Hey man, it's alright-" Gale tried intervening.
"GaLi, stay out of it." The shopkeeper kept going, however, "...You lied about remembering the previous cycle, didn't you?"
He figured it out. Guess I wasn't expecting anything else after dumbass Gale kept him around. Tch, I better hope he's no snitch. For now though, I gotta stand firm.
"Sigh, you got me." I raised my hands with a lighthearted shrug.
"Are you giving me an attitude?" He kept frowning, "The Magnes I know...!"
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"I'm not Magnes." I interrupted him, "...Maggie. That's the name I wanna have."
"...Tch." He clicked his tongue as he continued his earlier thought, "The Magnes I know was kind and sweet. She did some things that annoyed me, but underneath all that she truly did just want to help out."
"..."
"You're right, you're not Magnes." He groaned, "You're her opposite—Act all nice and polite, then show your fangs when the going gets tough. Honestly, I gotta hand it to you. I never thought a person's personality could change so drastically between cycles."
The shopkeeper then proceeded to angrily pace around in circles, trying desperately to understand the situation at hand, and what his next choice of action was. Gale disliked what I did, and it showed on his face very much, but he wasn't angry like the shopkeeper. He was just... disappointed. It hurt, moreso than the shopkeeper's words ever could. It's true that I've known Gale for a longer time, sure, but the difference between those two is marginal. Why do I feel this emptiness in my chest when I look into his cold, lifeless Eyes?
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"...I'm going back." The shopkeeper ultimately made his choice.
"No!" Gale stopped him.
"Don't worry, I'm not gonna say anything." He shrugged, "Not like I have anyone to report you to."
"You don't?" I tilted my head.
"What's there to report? We can't get hurt, so it's not like you almost killed me back there." He rolled his Eyes at me, "Besides, no police force in Heaven. The only semblances of authority are wannabe vigilantes like the ones that distracted that brute so we could escape and the two Gods currently overseeing Heaven 2.0."
"Just two?" Gale asked, "Which ones?"
"Prylos and Selzion. They actually have a shared house together not too far from here, but the gate they installed recently kinda makes it hard to approach them."
Gods living among angels? In hindsight, it more than makes sense, actually. But I dunno, I always just kind of assumed they lived in an even higher plane of existence. Still, if there's only two, then the rest are down in the Living World. I guess they figured two is more than enough, but I have to wonder if they take turns coming here or something.
"Sheep, can I call you Sheep?" Gale abbreviated the title of shopkeep to something stupid, "I want you to come with us."
"No."
"Please!" He begged, "We need someone knowledgeable, we need you! If we manage to find a way to keep mine and Maggie's memories, then the three of us can start over. We can help you with the shop, we can travel around, we can BE someone!"
"Sorry bro, no hard feelings." He still disliked the idea, "I have a job to do, and I'm already behind schedule."
"...Don't you want Magnes back?" Gale asked.
"Rude." I commented.
Despite giving me a brief glare to silence me, the shopkeeper still stopped in his tracks to hear Gale out completely. I assume the absurdity of the question completely defused his earlier jumpy attitude and swapped it out with confusion. Hell, even I wanna know what he meant by this.
"She's not Magnes." He pointed at me.
"But Magnes does exist in her." Gale argued, "Because if that kind girl existed just yestercycle, then she surely exists in this one as well. She just didn't get the chance to show up."
"...What are you on about?" He glared.
"If we forget today, you might meet the Magnes you know in the future. Not guaranteed, but it is possible."
"Then why bother-!?"
"And what then? You're gonna have these brief 36 hours together before you have to say goodbye to her again." Gale explained, "She might not come back the next cycle, or the next ten, and even if she did come back eventually, you might just find yourself stuck with another version of her that isn't kind."
"Ahem." The shopkeeper alluded to me, who was standing right beside them by the way.
"You get it, right?" Gale explained, "You hate this version of her, but in Heaven 2.0 those who keep their memories have more than enough time to grow and mature. If you help us out now, Maggie can and will show the Magnes dwelling inside her. You won't ever have to say goodbye again. Isn't that better than what you had last time?"
Gale's using me as leverage again. He's sly, and good at spinning the story to recruit people on his side, but the shopkeeper's anything but dumb. He'll see right through his schemes.
"...You're right." The shopkeeper surprisingly agreed.
"What!?" I jolted.
"I should definitely help Magnes keep her memories." He continued, "But this isn't Magnes."
"Sheep..."
"Please don't call me that." He sighed, "Look, I'm more than willing to go about it your way, but why keep this horrible version of her that left me for dead when I can just wait until the one I want to keep comes by?"
As much as I hate to admit it, the guy's right. If he really wanted to keep one version of me, there's absolutely no reason for him to choose this one. Why go through the extra trouble of trying to make me become Magnes when he could just get her from the start? Gale's lost this one.
"...And how long are you willing to wait?" Gale asked.
"How long?" The shopkeeper raised an Eyebrow.
"You heard me." He continued, "Do you know the chances of everything that made Magnes into the person you saw back then happening again?"
"It doesn't have to be exact." He crossed his arms, "Even just a fraction of what she was would be enough. Hell, she might even be better than Magnes."
He's obsessed. I have to wonder what kind of perfect woman I showed myself as to him that he got so head over heels. Though I really want to, even I'm not that cruel to tell him I'm not interested in men. I'll let another version of me handle it instead.
"You still haven't answered the original question." Gale was adamant, "How long will that be? Until you reroll the perfect Magnes, that is. Do you seriously trust your luck that much? Besides, with so many moving pieces in Heaven 2.0, the chances of you finding two people extremely willing to extend her memory banks are astronomically low."
"Ohhh, he's got you there!" I teased.
"Let's say you find her, a Magnes that's the same girl you knew her as." Gale finished his case off contently, "You tell her everything, and in the end she says she's uninterested in keeping her memories. What then? You gonna tie her up like we did you this time?"
Again, Gale's negotiation skills are so good that it's actually scary. He can justify most anything, but not only that—He can make things look justified. Still, so long as I can get to retain my memories because of his exploits, then I'm all for it.
"...Tch." The shopkeeper begrudgingly shook his hand, "Betting on safe is a scam, you know."
"And betting with expectations is even worse." Gale said with a wide grin, "Welcome aboard, Sheep."
"I..." Sheep let out an annoyed screech, "I told you not to call me that, dammit!!!"