POV: Ikehara Mirai
Date: *ten years ago*
"We'll be going up now, we'll meet in my room afterwards," I told Yasahiro before I grabbed Kenta's shoulder and informed him, "let's go look for a tree that's next to a window to climb it."
Kenta looked puzzled then said, "I have one in mind. I'll lead the way so follow me."
I nodded and quietly moved behind Kenta as he started walking away from our original spot, "see you later," Yasahiro said while waving his hand in air.
"Remember when we were punished to run laps around the workshop before? I hid in one of the trees to slack off, it was close to the second floor," Kenta started explaining.
s-slack off… sometimes I nearly forget that he's famous for the troubles he used to cause…
Kenta stopped and pointed at a tree that had its trunk bended toward the workshop building, "it's that one," he said.
"I thought we would be climbing a tree… but can't we just simply walk on it's trunk!? Is this even a tree anymore!?" I asked speechless by the bended tree that didn't resemble one.
"Don't mind insignificant details, let's go," Kenta said as he started walking on top of it, I responded, "no we should care! At this point, it's weird that no one noticed this tree! They should cut it off, it's like they're inviting us to use it to get inside!!!"
"Oh, lucky!" Kenta exclaimed as he opened the window that was unlocked.
"Just how lacky is their security!?! This is so ridiculous!" I yelled.
Kenta turned around and looked at me and said, "don't mind insignificant details," heat rushed to my head and yelled at him scolding, "no! At this point, you should care! This is just beyond ridiculous!"
Ignoring my remarks, Kenta headed inside through the window.
"I thought taking on adults will be hard, but if it's like this, can't we easily win?" I mumbled to myself as I followed Kenta inside.
The window was leading to the middle of a long hallway, I pointed at one direction and told Kenta, "well then, let's go."
"No," Kenta refused, "what!?" I exclaimed shocked by his rejection.
"It's this way, I'm telling you!" Kenta yelled at me as he pointed at the opposite direction I'm pointing to, "keep your voice down!" I scolded and added, "and it's this way."
"Fine! You go there, then make sure I'm right, then follow me back to this way," Kenta said smirking at me with a confident look implying that he can't be mistaken.
I let out a sigh and headed toward the direction I pointed at without paying attention to him.
"H-Hey, you'll really go alone?" Kenta confirmed, I waved my hand in air and told him, "bye-bye."
Kenta kicked the floor angrily and followed me while scolding me, "as I thought you really do have the worst personality!"
Not paying attention to what Kenta said, I started looking at the numerous doors that are connected to the hallway we were in.
"Yasahiro said It's room number 002, right?" I confirmed with Kenta, but he glared at me and disagreed, "wasn't it 003?"
At this point, I was wondering if Kenta is merely disagreeing with me, because he's pouting I didn't go to the direction he pointed to earlier or because he believes he's right, but I was far too stubborn to cave in to his blabbing, since I clearly remember the room's number thanks to my awesome ability that doesn't let me forget.
"002, it is then," I confirmed then continued to walk ahead of him, "I really hate you," Kenta mumbled as he followed me.
"Why are there so many rooms here though?" Kenta asked while staring at the multiple doors that we passed by.
I had a general idea what the purpose of these rooms might be, and Kenta's gloom look that appeared on his face after his question confirmed that he realized what these rooms are for as well.
They most likely were keeping others like Shinobo inside them…
Kenta extended his hand angrily to one of the doors handles, but I quickly stopped him saying, "you better not open that."
He glared at me and asked, "why not!? There might be others that need our help! It was a coincidence that we didn't forget Shinobo, but inside these rooms there might be others that were forgotten by us! Shouldn't we attempt to help them as well?"
I extended my hand towards his and pulled it away from the door, "stop being so hotheaded and face reality, you should realize it by now, we can barely do anything about Shinobo let alone helping others, weren't you and Yasahiro the ones who told me that the things we are able of doing are limited? My ability surfaced and made me unable of forgetting Shinobo, so I know, Shinobo was my friend." I said as I squeezed Kenta's hand which he struggled to get out of my hold.
"Then you should-" Kenta opposed but I interrupted, "but because I didn't forget him I know, I know fully well that if we discover we had other friends that we forgot about we will want to help them as well. You're smart enough to know our limits, right? For now, let's not increase our load and focus on Shinobo."
Kenta suddenly slapped me and yelled at me, "there is no limit to how low you can get! These people might be precious to others, they got forgotten and are now being stuck here having no other place to go to! Aren't you just being selfish?! I thought you're saving Shinobo to help him, but are you really doing that for Shinobo!? To me you only look like you're saving him to make yourself free of the guilt that caused him to be in this state!"
As my cheek started hurting from the slap, I got mad and yelled, "what's wrong with that!? What's wrong in doing that!? Even you, you are only doing this to have fun! Does saving Shinobo fall into your fun category!? Tell me, how am I any different than you!? Selfish? I don't want to hear that from you! At least I'm being realistic!"
Kenta started laughing loudly without responding to me, I tried to stop his laugh, "what are you doing? You'll get us found out."
Kenta raised his fist as he swayed it towards me and stopped it before it touched me, "you really piss me off," he said before resuming his walk, "let's go," he ordered without looking at me.
What's with this guy…
He really does seem scary at times like these.
Even though I wasn't saying the wrong thing.
Even though what I'm doing is the right thing to do.
Even though I know we can't possibly do anything about others.
Why …
Why do I feel like I'm the one at fault!?
No, I'm right.
Sometimes, you need to put your feelings aside when making a decision.
The more important the decision, the more you should be neutral while making it.
It's better to keep a sense of reality and not do rash dangerous things.
I'm doing the right thing.
"Isn't this it?" Kenta said calmly while pointing at the door with 002 on it.
I reached for the handle and slowly creaked the door open.
First thing to come in our view was an opened window that had the curtain fluttering from the wind rushing in.
We moved inside while checking the room, "w-what's this room?" I asked shocked by the appearance of the room.
The white-walled room had absolutely nothing inside of it, with only the opened window, there wasn't anything in it.
To think they actually kept people in here…
"Rather than a room, it's more like a prison…" Kenta mumbled after pointing at the metal plate on the floor that barely had three spoons of rice in it.
I don't have confident that I'll stay sane if I'm locked in here.
Is Shinobo really alright?
I quickly shifted my eyes inside the room searching for Shinobo who is supposedly here, and I saw someone who is crawled in, in the corner next to the door.
Is that him!?
"Shinobo?" I called out, but the person continued to shiver and didn't respond to my voice.
He's shaking, I don't think he's mentally stable for us to have a conversation.
Kenta started approaching him, and he forced the guy up by pulling his hands that were cowering in fear.
This guy sure doesn't hold back, what is he doing to a person that was locked up?!
After I confirmed his face, I recalled out, "it's Shinobo!"
We did it…
We finally found him!
"What's with him? He's shivering like crazy," Kenta frowned as he continued to pull Shinobo's hands up.
Of course, he is, you're still holding him like that…
I quickly got closer and started reassuring Shinobo, "Shinobo, it's me, Chizuru! Everything is alright now! We came to help you!"
Shinobo's body continued to shiver as he attempted to get out of Kenta's grip,
"uuuoooeee…"
He didn't recognize me? Did they remove his memories as well!?
Kenta let go of Shinobo and asked me with a confused look, "what the hell is he saying? Why isn't he reacting to us at all?"
"I … I don't know… did they do something to him?" I responded unsure of what is going on.
Shinobo quickly crawled himself in the same corner again and continued to shiver while mumbling to himself.
Shinobo… What happened to you?
Kenta looked at me disappointed and reconfirmed, "was he always this much of a scaredy-cat!?"
"Of course not!" I strongly disagreed, "you didn't get your memory of him erased! Why are you acting like you don't know how he was like!!?"
Kenta frowned and explained, "I wasn't that close with him…"
Kenta let out a sigh and complained, "but if he won't talk to us, there isn't anything we can do, did we come all this way for nothing? Such a waste, I was hoping we'll be able to get inside intel if we got him on our side."
He's right, deep down, I too wanted for Shinobo to be our aid when we rescue him, but if he's like this…
And to think that arrogant Shinobo is now in this state.
Somehow, I don't want to see the strong Shinobo in this state…
The Shinobo I know isn't like this at all, he always used to make fun of other people, make fun of my personality but despite that, he would always come and apologize and help us whenever we were troubled.
Even though he barely had any brains, he would always attempt to help.
Reassuring us with a smile, patting our backs, worrying about us… Shinobo…
I wanted to be the one to help you this time.
I expected you to praise me after I rescued you and tell me that, my personality isn't so bad anymore.
But when you're in this state… How… How can I help you!?
I reached for Shinobo and begged, "please Shinobo don't be so scared of us, we won't do anything to you," I smiled as I patted his shoulders, "we're your friends, so just tell us what happened so we would help you."
Please, return to your usual confident self.
Shinobo's body stopped shivering and with a blank face he started talking, "I was taken here after a huge part of my brain cells were damaged beyond the limited capacity for regeneration, they already know I don't have much time left before I die, so after forcing me to use my ability multiple times, I was tossed in this room."
Beyond what…?
But brain cells… wait a minute, was Shinobo the kind to actually know about complicated stuff like this!?
I squeezed his shoulders and scolded him, "why didn't you talk to us sooner!?"
Shinobo responded with a blank look, "I don't know how to talk anymore, as my brain cells die one by one, I lose memories and can barely function normally. They used to regenerate naturally, but I used my ability far beyond the capacity of a natural regeneration of cells."
Damn, I can't really understand what he's saying completely but it seems that his memories weren't removed by them, instead they were lost when his brain cells died out?
And what does he mean by not knowing how to talk anymore?
As his words confused me, I asked Shinobo, "But you are talking now, what do you mean?"
Shinobo looked at my hands that were on his shoulder and answered, "it's because you're using your ability on me, so you're talking directly to my body, my real self can't function anymore, all that it can do is shiver and wait for our death."
My ability!? I remember my profile saying something about talking to Innerself, so this is what it meant, it's like I can talk directly to their bodies? This is surprisingly useful.
Kenta got down and asked Shinobo, "but how did they manage to kill your brain cells?!" but Shinobo didn't answer Kenta's question and kept staring blankly at me.
He's not responding to Kenta.
It seems like the Innerself doesn't answer or talk to anyone other than me.
I looked over to Kenta and informed him, "I probably know the reason, Shinobo's ability profile did state the harmful effects, if I remember correctly, and of course I do, his ability is Knowledge Steal Ability and it kills the brain cells of the user when he uses it. I'm guessing they forced Shinobo to use it till he got into this state."
I didn't really understand it before, but now I get the full picture.
Looks like those profiles that I memorized are being put into an effective use.
But with many scientific terms, it looks like I'll have to expand my knowledge to fully understand them.
Thankfully, thanks to my ability, even if I don't understand it, I'll never forget it.
"If it was in his ability profile that means those bastards knew this would happen yet did this nevertheless!?" Kenta yelled in anger.
He's right, they did an unforgivable thing.
Toying with us like this.
But if we really used our abilities wisely, then taking them on isn't that far from reality.
I see it… our hope.
Beating them with the abilities they gave us, nothing will satisfy us more!
Kenta got up and exclaimed, "this is getting interesting, we're discovering more and more about their dark side!"
No, you're wrong.
If anything, this would mean our doom.
Our abilities are two sides of a coin, as much as we know about our abilities, they have the same card in their possession, we can't act carelessly.
But with this I know that they aren't anyone that just didn't care about children, they are people who will even go to such lengths.
Deep inside my head, I thought they wouldn't really do something like this to kids but seems like I underestimated them.
No matter what we do, we'll be surrounded by danger.
Against such evil, what can mere kids do?
I feel bad for those who fell victims, but the best solution is for us to forget about this and act like nothing happened.
But ironically, it's really hard to act oblivious now that we know this much.
"But how is your ability allowing him to talk?" Kenta wondered while smiling my way.
How can Kenta smile like that after knowing all of this?
How can he be this carefree!?
It makes me wonder who the monster really is…
"My ability's name is Innerself, it allows me to talk to the real self of the person I touch, it stated that the inability of forgetting is a side-effect of the ability not the real ability like we originally thought," I answered explaining.
Kenta looked confused and asked again, "but that doesn't explain the voice we heard before?"
That's right, what was that voice?
I scratched the back of my head and mumbled, "I don't know, nothing in my profile mentioned a thing about a voice."
Not being fully convinced, Kenta changed the subject, "anyway, what will we do about him? He can barely talk now without your ability; can he even live properly even if we got him out of here? Is getting him out of here the right thing to do? And even if we got him out, where should we hide him? We didn't really think this through, huh."
Leaving him here!?
I looked at the room that was like a prison and the need to get Shinobo out of there rushed inside, and I knew that even if making Shinobo live like before was nearly impossible to do now, at least I don't want him to spend time here anymore.
"Let's hide him in my room," I announced to Kenta, "I don't wish to see him suffer here alone anymore, so the least we can do to protect him, is to make sure they never force him to use his ability ever again, and I'll do my best to find a way to help him gain his original self back," I explained.
Despite what I said before, not letting my emotions take over my decisions, I did this.
Will Kenta even accept this?
Won't he make fun of my weak resolve?
Kenta got down and carried Shinobo on his back and headed toward the door, "lead the way," he said, but despite what he said he left the room before me.
Kenta… you…
I quickly ran after him and asked, "isn't he heavy? Want me to help you?" but Kenta continued to walk without responding.
Kenta can be scary and unreasonable sometimes, smart and calm some other times, and really kind and brave some other times, which makes me really wonder who he really is.
"It's really hard to judge you," I mumbled to Kenta, he looked at me with sweat covering his face from carrying Shinobo and exclaimed, "HAH!?"
But regardless of what adjectives I'll use to describe him, he will always be the person who firstly attempted to save us, in spite of his motives.
He's way better than me who's not attempting to take a gamble.
"I'm saying, your personality is way better than mine," I said while helping him carry Shinobo.