A week went by, and Hizen continued to make odd statements, statements that seemed to suggest he was familiar with me. And, being unfamiliar with myself, I wanted very badly to know what he knew. Finally, the day came when he had finished processing the first request...
“...Day 131, in the year of Our Lord 152. A disturbance occurred at the Nebula Access Shrine.”
“Uh, what??”
“Eyewitnesses observed a great flash of light around midday. According to city officials and Proxies of Our Lord, one of the Sanctified Servants experienced a malfunction, resulting in damages to the building interior. This Servant, along with some others damaged beyond repair, have since been discarded from the Ordered World.”
“…?”
“...This is the requested information.”
“...You mean...from way back when you said you recognized me? Wait, is that news story supposed to be about me??”
“That is the logical conclusion. Furthermore, you do bear the markings of a Sanctified Servant.”
“I do?”
“The Holy Seal is emblazoned on your left shoulder, surrounded by seven flowers. Only the fifth one is filled in— that is your designation.”
“Wow...I didn’t know those scribbles meant anything…”
“Few people do.”
“...Why do you know, then?”
“I cannot recall. I will continue to process the request.”
“Great, well...I guess we’ll get some part of the answer to that in another week…”
“Patience is a virtue, Meissen.”
“Okay, but it’s still really inconvenient that you think so slowly! And we don’t have all the time in the world...I mean, when we reach the Worm, you’re still going to throw us in whether you’ve finished remembering or not, aren’t you?”
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Yes.”
“Then I want to know everything you know right away! Maybe I can help you think...”
“As someone unconnected to the Nebula, and an amnesiac besides, I doubt that your help will be very valuable.”
“Well, as someone who doesn’t need multiple days to finish one thought, I think my help will make a big difference!”
“...Alright...”
“We just need to break down the information and figure out what it could mean...like, apparently I had a malfunction and exploded or something, and that’s why I was discarded. And when I woke up, my brain was missing…so maybe that’s what exploded…!”
“...If such a thing had happened to you, I doubt that the rest of your head would remain intact.”
“...Oh, yeah…”
“Furthermore, there are no signs of burn damage on the inside of your head. I believe that your brain was removed deliberately.”
“Then in that case— maybe there was something wrong with it that caused the malfunction, and someone took it out to make sure it would never happen again!”
“...That is a reasonable conclusion.”
“Oh, you think so?? Yay~!”
“It could also imply that the ‘malfunction’ was an undesirable choice that you made. Perhaps in your former life you were...a very different person.”
“...Oh.”
“…”
“...But...not a bad person, right?? That’s what you said: ‘never bad’.”
“I said such a thing?”
“Well, yeah! You’re always giving me strange compliments like that...like I remember when we first met, you said I had a strong will.”
“I cannot recall. I will continue to process—”
“Don’t process that! I already know you said it...I was just thinking, it kind of seems like...we were already friends, before.”
“…”
“I mean, I know I haven’t met that many people yet, but no one else ever said things like that about me. And maybe the Protocol is making it so that you can’t remember, or you don’t really know why you say those things, but I feel like it means...somewhere deep inside, you know who I really am.”
“...And you believe this is important information.”
“Of course! Aren’t you interested in the things you forgot about yourself?”
“Not particularly.”
“Oh, I know that’s just Cordyceps talking...if you really didn’t care about remembering things, why would you bother processing them for days and days??”
“…”
“But it’s okay; I can help you! Because if you were my friend, then I was your friend, so learning things about me means learning things about you. And if by some miracle I could get my memories back in the next 20 days...I’ll be sure to tell you who you were, too.”
“…”