Neige woke up alone, away from his friend. It was a snowy town, way more lively than the world where he saw the anomaly for the first time. Neige was barely bearing the cold and searched around for a warm place. It didn't take long for him to find a church, not any church, but the one he lost his friend in. He couldn't control himself, it was like an irresistible force was attracting him inside.

The interior was empty, aside from a single nun praying. But for Neige, it wasn't any nun, it was a tall nun with long yellow hair, exactly like in the drawing. When he entered, the woman noticed his presence and seemed visibly surprised.

"Neige! You're back already?" She got closer to him but shook her head after further inspection "I'm sorry, I thought you were my friend, you really look similar. What brings you here?"

Neige had in front of him the possible anomaly he was fighting against, even if only another version of her. And yet, he felt like he already saw her before, like they always knew each other.

The man knew that if he said he was called Neige too it would be suspicious, so he had to use the fake name he used sometimes on missions.

"I'm Snow! I was searching for my friend."

"Oh, what a lovely name, maybe I can help, what do they look like?" The kindness of the nun was making Snow comfortable, making him almost forget that this place was also where he lost his friend. He quickly took back control of his thoughts and answered the graceful woman.

"One has long black hair, she always acts like a robot and is kind of a killjoy. And the other is a girl with red hair, she's blind, but somehow she has a better sense of orientation than me and is a bit of a brat."

The woman chuckled as he was describing them, amused by Snow's enthusiasm while talking about his friends.

"It looks like you made quite some friends, my own friend is absent for the day, so why don't we go around the town to see if they are around."

"Thanks, I appreciate it."

The two of them walked around the town, talking like they were friends forever. Snow knew he had seen those violet eyes before, he was used to looking at them in the past, and yet, he also knew it was his first time meeting with the woman.

The duo walked around the town for a while, asking people around if they saw a trace of Snow's friend. After a few hours, they decided to take a break to eat something, a bit disappointed about the lack of progress.

"So, why isn't your friend around?" Asked Snow, curious about the location of his other self.

"It's quite stupid, I said I would want to eat a dragon's egg someday, and he went to search for one."

Snow had suddenly so many questions in his head. A dragon egg? There are dragons? And the other Neige went to risk his life to just make his friend taste one? But despite the many questions, he decided to stay silent about them, letting the nun continue.

"Do you have a friend like that Snow? A friend that you would be ready to do anything for them?"

Snow took a while to think. He barely knew Sepide, so he knew he didn't see her as a friend he would do anything for, he wasn't even sure they were friends. Silva and he are close, but he sees her more like a daughter to take care of than a friend. And then he had Polyetta, his best friend and leader, but she was so secretive about her life, did she even see him as her friend?

"I... Don't have anyone like that."

"Oh, it's quite alright don't worry. I'm very glad I found Neige, he was the one who understood me when no one was there."

The words of the nun reminded him of his own friend, Polyetta. He felt bad that he had been harsh against her, after all, they only had each other for a while too.

"Neige even said we were friends in every universe, isn't he cute?"

"Yeah, I guess." He never met any person like this nun before, so he knew that they weren't friends in every universe technically, but he didn't feel like ruining her mood.

"Are you alright? You seem quite troubled."

"Don't worry about it, I just have some troubles with a friend lately. She hides so many things away from me, I wonder if she sees me as her friend."

"Don't you enjoy her company? Don't you think she feels the same?"

Snow didn't really know how to answer these questions, he did enjoy her company and she was really a great friend he could rely on to listen and help most of the time. The same probably applied to her, since he was always here to help her, but it was hard to know behind her mask. Seeing Snow's hesitation, the woman continued.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"You know, I don't know what I would do if I lost Neige, I think I could end up crazy and destroy the world." The nun laughed at the idea, but for Snow, it just made him even more sure that it's actually what happened in the parallel universe of this world

"We should get going, your friends can't be too far away."

Snow and the nun continued to look around town until the night arrived. They searched everyone in town and around, but still couldn't find anything.

"I'm sorry." Apologized the woman. "I wish we could have found your friends."

"It's okay don't worry. I'm sure nothing bad happened to them, they're tough."

"You really believe in them." The woman smiled softly before looking at the sky "It's late, why don't you spend the night at the church? My friend will probably be there too."

Snow would have accepted, but he didn't want to cause any problems for both the nun and the world. It was probably better that he went away from here after finding his friend, he already saw what he wanted to see here.

"It's fine, I'll go search for them. But before I go, can I know your name?"

"Oh my, I forgot to introduce myself properly. My name is Ada, maybe we'll see each other again. Good luck Snow!"

"Ada... I'm sure we'll meet again."

Ada left Snow alone with his thoughts, not without praying for the best to happen to him. He had trouble imagining that the person he spent the day with was another version of the person who took his friend's life. But all this time spent here also made him realize how harsh he was with his friend, Polyetta. It was time to find Silva and Sepide and go back to where they were from.

"Neige?"

Surprised, Neige turned to the origin of the voice. It was Sepide, accompanied by Silva. It seemed like she was worried for a moment, but it was hard to see through the empty expression on her face. Once Silva

"Do you have any idea what happened to us? I hope you're happy with what you did!" Silva's angry tone suddenly vanished when she noticed Neige's silence and slowly walked toward him "Neige, what happened?"

He stayed silent for a moment, unsure about how he would answer the question.

"It's complicated, let's go back to the ship, I'll explain on the way there."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once on the warm ship, Neige explained everything he found out about the nun, Ada. About how nice and heartwarming she was, and the feeling of familiarity he felt with her.

"So the monster that's causing problems is a nice and cute nun?" Asked Silva, a bit surprised.

"I never said she was cute."

"But you were thinking it!"

Their conversation suddenly got cut short by a message on their phone, it was their leader asking them to come to her office.

"Already? Why did I follow you Neige, now I didn't get my break because of you!" Silva complained loudly while smiling at him.

"Maybe it's not a mission, but she found out we traveled in another world without her permission." Sepide still kept a very calm tone while saying, bringing panic to Silva's heart.

"It's fine, let's just go."

The group went into the leader's office, waiting for the screen to light up like usual. Once it did, the leader was on it, still with her mask. The woman stayed silent for a moment before finally speaking.

"Hello." She said, in a very shy voice, like a kid that did something bad. The room stayed silent for a long moment before she continued speaking.

"I'm sorry Neige, I'm sorry to be such a bad friend."

"Wait, I wanted to apologize!" Said Neige, thinking back at the bad thing he said to his friend. "I said horrible things to you, and I'm sorry for that."

"No, I'm sorry! You wouldn't have said those words if I was a better friend." Retorted Polyetta, but it wasn't enough to make Neige change his mind.

"If I was more patient and understanding, you wouldn't have suffered. I'm the one that should apologize."

"Neige, I'm the one that's apologizing, stop being so stubborn you little femboy!"

"I'm not little, I'm 156 centimeters, it's more than enough. And I'm the one apologizing, because you deserve it you masked giant!"

"I'm not a giant! I'm just 180 centimeters, you're the small one!"

This 'argument' lasted for a while until Silva interrupted both of them, annoyed to lose her time.

"Is it going to last for a while? I have stuff to do."

"Yes, I'm sorry." Said the leader in a more formal tone "Just know that I love you dearly Neige."

"I do too, and I apologize for what I said."

"Don't start again you little... Anyway, if I called you it was for a reason. There had been a problem in the world 11112005. I would have sent someone else, especially considering what it entails, but everyone's busy."

"So we suck for the job?" Asked Silva, hoping her leader would disagree with her.

"Exactly, there's a street race where the winner should be a woman named Eida, but for some reason, the fate changed and another person won. The best course of action would be to help this Eida to win the race."

"But I don't think that either of us knows anything about cars, I'm not even sure one of us knows how to drive." Silva said, a bit worried about their mission.

"It is true, that's why I would have sent someone else, but everyone with a driving license is taken. And by everyone with a driving license, I mean Gwyn. Also, you need to bring me a copy of the new Shadow Arena 4 that came out there"

"Wait," interrupted Neige. "Are you sending us there to get you a new video game?"

"No, I'm sending you there to fix the timeline, but since you're there, you might as well. You can rest for now and go tomorrow and I already prepared your clothes and equipment. Any objections?"

The leader interpreted the silence in the room as a no from them and was satisfied that it was over for today, even if a bit worried about their ability to fix the problem.

"Oh yeah, by the way," Added the leader. "There is another Neige, so be careful."

"Wait, so we all suck with cars, there's another me we have to dodge, and you're still sending us?" Neige was pretty unsure about their ability to manage and fix everything, but in the end, he knew he had no choice.

"Yeah, there's no one available, there are so many inconsistencies in the timeline lately..."

"Fine, we'll go tomorrow as soon as possible."

"That's great, I'm sure you'll do well, I have faith in you. Go and make us all proud!"

"Yes, Chief!" Silva, Neige, and Sepide said in unison.