Chapter 13

Li focuses on the sword with a passive frown retaining all other emotions beyond the brink of unreadable.

He looks around, keeping his eyes below a certain point as he surveys everyone, only to peer back at the dripping source.

My hand instinctively covers my throat to hide the visible protrusion of my Adam's apple sliding down and then back up.

"Does anyone have a cloth?"

I pretend my attention has been glued on the tainted patch of grass, to avoid answering first that I had merely a compass and a set of foreign attire.

My stomach twinges at how he treated it like spilled bread crumbs.

Maybe it came from those things Juno was attacking.

"Nope, Fleur might though."

Or perhaps he accidentally injured himself

"I got nothing."

Though he looks… unscathed.

"What about you?"

I sense that an additional 'no' would entice him to smear it on the person closest to him.

Considering that person is me—I defer from immediately acknowledging him.

"Does the sight of blood revolt you? Or have you suddenly gone deaf?"

If I'm deaf, then clearly you're blind.

I contort my features a bit, perking the edges of my eyebrows further back to fabricate returning from shock.

The instant I saw his own fake grin, my guise felt as though it had been weakened.

All I had done was blink when suddenly he swung his blade over my shoulder, the sensation of being aggressively embraced, led me to stiffen, instead of retreating from its potent edge.

Now, my shock was genuinely displayed.

"Thank you."

Have I spoken out loud again?? What just happened?

"Are you alright?"

"Did he accidentally cut you?"

Both twins spoke at once, one rushing to touch my right arm and the other in front of me, signaling toward someone else.

"Where are your manners, Li? We go over this every time—"

"No, you go over it for useless reasons. Besides, I asked this time what do those manners entail if the other person is acting like a smartass?"

I've never been called that before.

I feel slightly sorry for Fleur after Li shuts her down. Though with the resistance she had displayed earlier, I expected nothing less than for her to hold her ground.

She stepped away from my arm, curling her fingers into her palms.

I have a moment to glance over at what she and Abel were inspecting.

There was a faint red line across my forearm, and part of my sleeve had been shortened.

Rude bastard.

"Have you considered getting your eyes checked by Juno? Why waste time asking if he approached you with nothing in his grasp? I also don't recall being informed that staying silent is a trait of smartasses like yourself."

I feel the corners of my mouth twitch.

Oh no.

I position my shoulder forward and lower my chin toward my collarbone so that I can muffle my unusual desire to laugh.

"Alright, Madam attorney, you were standing behind him so you didn't see his fa—"

"Knock it off, now."

The man garbed in the black robe that was quite uniform to the one I was wearing spoke sternly, declining Li's retort.

Now all eyes are on him.

"Fleur you are not his Mother, and Li—you are not nine years old, either get over this matter or I will treat you both in ways I perceive."

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I bite the inside of my upper lip, sneaking a glance at Li before retracting my head in the opposite direction to peer at Fleur.

Li quietly exhales out of his nose and turns his back toward his audience.

Shortly following, Fleur prances over to her brother and whispers to Abel.

Her words sound like violent hisses making words that I found rather funny.

"He called him nine."

I could hear Abel's staunch chuckle, accompanied by their hands colliding through the crisp air as though they had made some sort of profound achievement.

"Juno should be on her way back, pull yourselves together, she did us all a huge favor today."

I flinch, shuffling over to one side. Mars' presence had somehow slipped who I remember greeting.

If I am ever given a chance to leave… I wonder if I will forget any of them.

Hopefully, I have fewer names that I need to remember, I just want to go back home.

"Does it count if I say speak of the devil?"

I flicker out of my thoughts, and my spine mellows out as I hastily turn to Mars.

"Juno…?"

How is it I already recognize her voice?

"What did you do? Snap it out of existence?? This easily marks a new record!" Abel says.

"I used my resources to smash it into the ground. You should've seen it, the bones practically crumbled like puzzle pieces—but its flesh stayed intact."

"Gross, he didn't ask for detail," Fleur interjects, replacing the spacious patch of green between them with a narrow sliver of grass.

"Haha, I know—just wanted to grab your response too," Juno snickers, reaching for her hair and ruffling it.

A few thick strands get scrunched between her fingers and remain in an arch even after she retracts.

She shoots me a look and smiles.

"I see you found your way. Finally, decide that exploring isn't gonna save your life?"

I look down at my boots, I feel a heavy nuisance pull at certain nerves in my chest. Shame.

"I'm just messing with you, kid, though please take me seriously when I tell you that there are more things that will be better as mysteries than things that are not."

"Sorry."

Juno nods, assuring me then turns her head toward something behind us.

"I must talk to someone else for a bit, but you should probably profess your questions after gathering names if you haven't already. You can start with the one lurking behind us!"

"Oh–I see, but—wait—"

Juno hares on the invisible path, Li had gone forward on.

The twins and Mars had also roved the expanse behind me, their voices had throttled in the process of my faltering movement.

The dry sough of grass coming nearer helped me stumble forward a few steps before the same person who induced Li and Fleur's restraint began talking to me.

"She's right, all of our discoveries came with prices you know? Anything that isn't a mystery to us was never exposed out of intention. You're not supposed to understand this universe, because if you do… you will be reset."

I stop walking and stare in front of me. My eyelids twitch with the contraction of my pupils.

I pondered what his assertion meant, how I was supposed to achieve anything when all of these strangers were possibly as informed as myself.

His hand folds over my shoulder, warming the bitter sensation of cold blood rushing through my veins.

Sweat pelts atop my forehead, and a consistent effect ensues within the lines of my palms and fingers.

"Let's shift the subject for now. Surely, you must be somewhat curious about the guests you've been stranded with. I wield limited knowledge of their backgrounds, but if it has to do with names and habits then my expanse of understanding will go beyond the very minimum."

I swallow, brushing clammy fingertips over the length of my robe.

"What is your name?"

Miraculously, my voice doesn't waver upon forcing words to exit my throat.

"Yu-ze Yong," he replies, vaguely peering over before motioning his hand in front of him to continue walking.

I comply, cringing beneath my regained composure.

These embarrassing habits might end up being the cause of my death.

He doesn't talk.

I start looking around, clueless of what I was hoping to see until Li severs my diversion from the silence.

He is focused on the sword, gently polishing the green blade with the brown fabric he cut from my arm.

My uncle would likely consider it a childish gesture, because I've only just met him, but I didn't like him.

The others were like moths near a flame, longing for a tale from Juno's solo departure.

However, even from afar, I could sense that her demeanor had completely changed.

She looks bored again. Like when I first met her.

Li appeared to assume the least interest. Juno Mirai stood closely by his side, it wasn't difficult to derive why she would suddenly perform passively despite exhibiting a friendly relationship with the agile twins.

"Does Juno usually stick so close to him?"

Yu-ze remains silent for longer, surely pondering Juno's personal aspects.

"Li is essentially her family."

Naturally, it was not what I was expecting.

"Are they distant relatives?"

"They aren't related. It's more like a mentor and scholar alliance. She confides in his voice and instructions but has said he's her family, they have roots that no one present at least knows the story behind."

I don't assume any stranger could mistake their relationship with an absent past.

I only hold knowledge of their names. Although origins should have weaker pertainment, based on the trouble that ensued—if I value this life, I must establish an impartial trust system.

"Honestly, I thought there was a small chance no one liked him."

Yu-ze chuckles, slowing his pace in front of another tree stump with striking white bark.

"What about yourself?" I ask, looking toward him to make eye contact, but he is fixed on the setting across from us.

"What about myself?"

"You mentioned having little information about their pasts, but does that remark also encompass yourself?"

Yu-ze bends his knees and slowly lowers himself next to the tree stump.

He pulls at something stiff under his robe.

I intently avoid looking at it for too long.

No… it appears too slender to be a sword.

Yu-ze pats the smooth and ghostly pale surface of the stump.

I am far removed from relenting—I accept it, generously bowing my head.

"Tell me Hoku, what specifically are you asking me about?"

My brows furrow.

Did he misunderstand my phrasing?

Before I can attempt to re-word my inquiry, his resonant tone is already humming into the entrance of my ears.

"My first and only memories of life outside this sequel are in a white room, with other children. I may be wrong, or confused with an alternate event, but, I hold a notion that my final retention in your world ended with the sound of heavy rain and gunfire."

The Memoir Chapter 9

This section's objective is the same as the last.

Rule 14

Memories are a concept derived from creation. It is impossible to forge memories in the sequel and equally impossible to reserve them from another universe. Any living being with such ability will be targeted by the designated monstrous lifeforms inhabiting the timestream.

Do not speak of a past that has never existed. There is only what remains in your presence.

-The Memoir Chapter 9 end-