It was evening when Gaius finally woke up, only to see that his head was being cradled by Isabelle while she talked to Nakama. Gaius stared at his little sister blankly, and then remembered his promise to Isabelle a few hours ago.

“You’re up.” Isabelle’s cool fingers rubbed the temples of his head, before pushing him up slowly. “I suppose now’s a good a time as ever.”

“Shouldn’t there be… a more appropriate time for earth-shattering revelations like this?” Gaius complained.

“We’re leaving tomorrow,” Isabelle replied, a hint of severity in her voice. “There’s no appropriate time for this.”

“Alright.” He turned to Nakama, who was sitting in a very neat posture, and took a deep breath.

Nakama flinched. “Is it about me? Do you not want me as a sister anymore? Did I do something to make you sad? Are you going to send me away?”

“No, it’s not about you. You’re my sister, and nothing’s going to change.” Gaius rubbed his head. Such a reaction was probably due to a fear of being abandoned, and he took another deep breath. It would not do her any favours if he tried beating about the bush.

“It’s about the future,” Isabelle added, patting Nakama on the head gently. “Stay calm and listen to Gaius.”

“Okay.”

After spending three seconds on wondering how to broach the topic, Gaius finally decided to start from the very beginning.

“Around three years ago,” said Gaius, “we were on the Unity and heading home, correct? Halfway through the trip, we were intercepted by some baddies. These baddies, however, were too strong, and I needed more power. In exchange for greater strength, I traded away my future.”

“Traded away your future?” Nakama asked, her eyes beginning to water up. “Are you…going to die?”

“Not that, silly.” Gaius wiped off the few tears that had abruptly appeared. “I…well, I’m going to disappear within the next few years. I’ll disappear from Orb. Probably never to return.”

“Isn’t that dying?”

“No,” Gaius replied. “Grandpa Weiwu would probably explain this better than me, but this is…a personal thing. So, in Orb, there’s this really bad thing that makes people go mad. Like the Human God. In exchange for power, I will, uh, protect the world from this thing for the rest of my life, an eternal life.”

“Gaius isn’t going to die anymore,” Isabelle added. “But he’ll need to protect Orb, which he doesn’t mind because it also means that he’ll protect you forever.”

Nakama made a little odd sound, her brows furrowed with it. “So…you’re not going to die?”

“Far from it,” Gaius replied. “Of course, the Demon God might still win, and we’ll all die. What I’m saying is that if we somehow survive the invasion, I’ll have to leave this world.”

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“Can…I come along?”

“You…” Gaius glanced at Isabelle, unsure of what to say next.

“After all,” Nakama continued, “she’s going with you, right?”

Gaius exchanged a helpless glance with Isabelle, stymied by Nakama’s perceptiveness. Granted, Isabelle was also going to tell her about her choice, but he didn’t intend for that point to be used against him. “Look, Nakama. If you want to go with me, you’ll have to leave Orb forever. That’s not something I wanted anyone else to do. Especially you. You have friends now, right? Do you want to leave them alone?”

“But Isabelle’s going with you!”

“Yes, but…but you don’t need to!” Gaius nodded his head rapidly, having thought of a solution. “You can visit me when you’re sleeping, right? Have you forgotten how you entered Cybral?”

Her little mouth turned into a perfect O, and Gaius heaved a sigh of relief before pressing the attack. “Besides, you’re not an adult yet. I cannot, in good conscience, allow you to sign away your future before you thought it through for yourself!”

He nudged Isabelle, urging her to back him up.

“You should take more time to think about your next actions, Nakama,” said Isabelle. “After all, there’s no going back. You have a few years to think about it, and if you think that you really want to follow Gaius…I won’t stop you.”

Gaius’ heart skipped a beat. “Isabelle?!”

“That’s how it should be,” she replied. “You know that as well as I do. Your offered solution is not a certain one; you’re basing it off on a conjecture. One that might not be true at all. We’re together, true, but she is also my little sister. Not just yours. She deserves to make a choice.”

“You’re just going against me at this point,” Gaius replied.

“For your own good,” Isabelle replied, her usually-warm eyes filled with a stern light. “And for hers too. I will not let her live in a regret caused by wrong assumptions.”

Gaius breathed out. “Fine. I still have something else I need to tell you, though.”

“Me?” Nakama asked.

“Yes. It’s…” The weight that he had thrown off earlier had now returned with a vengeance. “It’s…”

“It’s about the truth. The truth about me.” Gaius closed his eyes. “Nakama, I am not the Gaius you remembered when you were younger. The Gaius you knew, the one that protected you during while the Second Extermination happened, died long ago.”

“Or has become a part of our Gaius now,” Isabelle supplied.

“Stop trying to make it hard for me!”

“I can read your mind, so I’m not going to let you play that card easily,” Isabelle replied. “You’re just trying to make her give up.”

“Argh.” He couldn’t bring himself to scold Isabelle — she had a point — so he made do by continuing his slow, drawn-out confession. “That part about me remembering my past life was a lie.”

“A lie?” Nakama asked.

“Yes. In truth, my soul was summoned here, and occupied this body,” said Gaius. “The original Gaius had died during… a stampede, I believe. And then I happened to occupy it.”

Nakama paused for a moment. “That explains why you were so different after you woke up. But I believe he’s not gone.”

“Huh?”

“He’s you, right? Why else would you treat me the way he did? If you weren’t him, you wouldn’t treat me like family!” Nakama pouted. “You must have saved him! Maybe he merged with you too! So you’re Gaius, and that’s final!”

Faced with her wilfulness, and an argument that didn’t seem that off, Gaius flopped onto his back and looked up at the parasol. “I give up. You have a very…”

“Active imagination, yes.” Isabelle rubbed his head. “But she has a point. Why would you treat her as family, if you weren’t Gaius?”

“Some ingrained instinct?” Gaius let out a slow, tired sigh. “Whatever. I can’t win against either of you. Do whatever you like.”

“Yay!”

“But you must be mature enough first.”

“And how do I do that?”

Gaius looked up at Isabelle, and smiled tiredly.

“Who knows?” the two of them replied.

Gaius rubbed Nakama’s head. There were worries that seemed big at first glance, but when addressed appropriately, to the people concerned…they might not actually be that big.

This was clearly one of them.

A stray thought entered his mind, and Gaius got up. “Right, what souvenirs should I get for your family?”

“You’re my husband. Think of a gift yourself.”

“Are we going shopping later? I want some ice-cream!”

Gaius eyed the two of them, and then wondered why he was so anxious about the whole soul-possession thing to begin with.