1 - A Little Forgetful

“This makes no sense...”

“Dima, you’ve...seen him.” Oskar said. “You even talked to him. Hell, you had your own opinion of him. You didn’t like the guy for some reason.”

“You sure you’re not confusing him with anyone else?” Dima asked.

“No, dude, there’s only one Sakuto Hitori.” Oskar said, sounding a little panicky and confused. “You know, the guy with the eyepatch...come on, you literally talked to him not too long ago.”

“Oskar, I swear I haven’t the slightest clue on who this Sakuto Hitori of yours is.” Dima said. “You think I’d be playing around with you for so long?”

“Fuck...well, that’s impossible.” Oskar said, still trying to convince his friend. “But, you know me, right?”

“Yeah, I’ve known you since forever.” Dima said.

“And you know who Ausra and Ichika are, right?”

“Yeah, I know both of them. Those two soulful girls that we used to hang around with when we were in Hayk’s team.”

“Then how the-” Oskar raised his voice before abruptly stopping himself. He took a deep breath. “Fuck...”

“What the hell causes memories to just get straight up deleted?”

“Well, I’ve heard that if someone hits their head hard enough they can lose fragments of their memory. But the fact that everything regarding just one person specifically is missing from his head?”

“Sure, there’s cases of such things happening, but why Sakuto specifically?”

“Hey, you uhh...you remember the last time me and you met, right?” Oskar asked, guiding his friend to walk alongside him, their destination - unknown beneath the night sky.

“Yeah. It was me, you, Ausra and Anna.” Dima replied rather quickly.

“Did you uhh...do anything in particular after that? Maybe some physical exercises? Or do you remember getting into an accident?”

“Are you saying I hit my brain?” Dima asked, now sounding frustrated. “I thought this was a misunderstanding, but now it feels like you’re mocking me. Whatever this is you’re making up, it’s not funny. Let it go. Shit’s serious.”

“No, I-” Oskar abruptly fell silent. “Wait, what did you just say?”

“I said that shit’s serious.”

“What shit?” Oskar asked, finally finding a pathway to a potential solution to this mess. “What shit in particular is serious?”

“Well, this whole...stuff. Everything’s serious.” Dima said.

“And what exactly makes it serious?” Oskar asked again. “A certain person? An event? A situation?”

“It’s just...serious, alright? It’s not that deep!” Dima barked back. “I just need you to focus and stop jerking me around.”

“What the fuck...?” Oskar thought. He quickly got his phone out and made a call to his other friend, at least that one didn’t have any memory issues as far as he knew.

“Hey, Sakuto?”

“Thanks for interrupting a good time.” Sakuto said, sounding slightly out of breath. “Today’s mood was extra special, by the way. This better be something important.”

“Dima forgot about you.”

“I said it better be something important.” Sakuto complained. “Who even gives a shit about that guy? And who cares if he forgot about me? My old friends forgot about me too, I’m kinda used to it at this point.”

“No, that’s not what I mean. He literally forgot about you.” Oskar said. Dima, standing next to him, seemed more and more upset by the minute.

“Yeah, and I literally don’t give a shit about him.” Sakuto said. “And you shouldn’t either. Don’t roll down the mountain for some grass-eating prick.”

“Wha-no, that’s not what this is about.” Oskar said. “He has no memories of you. He literally does not know who you are. He knows about all of us except for you-”

“Oh for fuck sake, knock it off!” Dima said, lunging at Oskar and knocking the phone out of his hand. The call was hung following that motion. Sakuto looked concerned, and Ichika, who was next to him, shared that emotion.

“Hey, what the hell is wrong with you?” Oskar yelled, grabbing Dima by his shoulders. Dime squeaked in pain, and Oskar felt something strange. Almost as if there was an extra piece of clothing around his arms.

He ripped Dima’s shirt open, revealing a set of bandages on his right arm. There was another such set on the left arm once it was also checked.

“What is this?” Oskar asked.

“I uhh...” Dima stuttered a little. “These are old wounds. From the war.”

“And they still hurt?”

“Yeah. They’re pretty bad, bad enough to where I might have to wear these for an extra month or so.” Dima explained.

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“I’m not buying it.” Oskar said. He picked his phone off the ground, it had a little crack on the screen. He called Sakuto again.

“Dude, are you hellbent on not letting me finish?!” Sakuto asked. “And why’d you hang up? It sounded like something attacked you.”

“Dima tried to end the call. Everything’s fine now.” Oskar said. “Except for him, that is. He’s making zero sense.”

“Oh, he tried to knock the phone away?” Sakuto said. He got out of bed. “Right. Tell me where you are.”

“What?”

“Tell me where you are. I’ll swing by and chop his fucking arms off.” Sakuto said.

“Dude, why the hell are you-”

“I gave what you said some thought.” Sakuto said. “Ask him about your soul expression. Does he know about it? Does he know about Ichika’s or Ausra’s abilities?”

“Yeah, give me a second.” Oskar said. “Hey, Dima.” He called out. “What’s Ausra’s soul expression?”

“You don’t know?” Dima asked.

“I’m asking you. What is it?” Oskar asked.

“You’re wasting my time again.” Dima sighed, starting to walk away. He felt a force pin him in place and even pull him backwards a little.

“He’s dodging the question.” Oskar said, bringing the phone a little closer to his mouth.

“Then something’s off for sure.” Sakuto said.. “He remembers nothing about me altogether, and he remembers nothing about their abilities. This can’t be a coincidence.”

“He has scars too, and he’s lying about them.”

“Scars?”

“They’re like proper wounds. Like he was stabbed by someone.”

“I see.” Sakuto said. “That kind of gives us the answer then. He didn’t forget shit, he was attacked. And it forced him to forget memories. Now the question is, why? Do they want to disrupt our synergy or something by making him forget about stuff?”

“I think the answer might be simpler.” Oskar said. “If someone can remove specific memories, they can most likely read them too. They used him to gather info.”

“Right.”

“And whoever that is has a special interest in you, Sakuto.” Oskar said.

“And how amazing is that. Weaponized dementia was the last thing on my list of things I’d like to fight against.” Sakuto sighed. “There’s a Heisei meeting soon in Krakow. Get your ass there, and grab that amnesiac with you. We’ll get to the bottom of this.”

The call was hung.

“Huh? Who were you talking to?” Yumichi asked, peeking into the room.

“A friend of mine.” Sakuto replied. “Sorry if I woke you up.”

“It’s okay!” Yumichi smiled. “I was up in the other room anyway.”

“You should go back to sleep.” Sakuto said, looking a little concerned and waving at him. “Sleep tight. We might be waking up early tomorrow.”

“Okay! Good night!” Yumichi cheered, marching out of the master bedroom.

“Why do you have a problem with Dima?” Ichika asked. “I’m not fond of the guy either, but I have no clue why he rubs you the wrong way.”

“Dunno.” Sakuto yawned. “He just seems...pathetic. Like, not as weak or anything, he’s pretty strong in combat, especially as an assisting fighter...but he just...I don’t know.”

“I don’t remember you two being in conflict, to be fair.” Ichika said. “I don’t remember anything specific happening between the two of you.”

“I don’t either. And apparently he never really liked me.” Sakuto said. “Like, how does that even work? At least I had the will to actually tell him what I thought of him. God damn...portals, huh? What a waste of a soul expression. But you know what, I don’t even need portals anymore. The shadows work just fine. See, my ability alone rendered his entire presence completely fucking useless.”

“If he’s hateful of you, then you’re way more hateful of him in comparison.”

“For sure. All of this hating, and I don’t even know why...”

“Maybe it’s the whole loyalty deal?”

“Oh for sure.” Sakuto said. “Yeah, you’re right. That’s the reason. Like, what the hell was that even about? Jumping from one faction to another like a college girl throwing herself from one athlete to another...or whatever the stereotype was. I wouldn’t be surprised if-”

Sakuto stood still.

“There’s no way.” Sakuto said. “No. I don’t believe it. I’m gonna cut that asshole’s head off before he gets any of us killed.”

“Huh? Where’d that come from?!” Ichika asked, now a little concerned.

“Whoever had the capabilities to do that to him must be strong, but that’s besides the point.” Sakuto said. “The reason they’d want to get that specific info out of him was because they knew they needed it. They knew they were in conflict with us.”

“You think it’s the Eura stronghold?”

“I think that Dima went to them to seek comfort or shelter or whatever makes him emotionally erect.” Sakuto said. “And they did that to him. Ah fuck, we don’t know what else they did to him too. They very well might’ve implanted some types of instructions into his head. Fuck, they could’ve done anything to him, and he wouldn’t even know about it.”

“Then you gotta let Oskar know about it.” Ichika suggested.

“That’s the problem.” Sakuto said, sitting down on the bed and eventually lying down. “The reason that miserable parasite is so difficult to get rid of is because it inserted itself into Oskar’s brain and gaslighted him into believing they’re friends.”

“I’m sure you can convince him.” Ichika said. “We’ll interrogate him during the meeting, we’ll figure out what’s going on.” She laid back down beside him.

“I don’t even know.” Sakuto said, a little quieter. “It’s a pretty dangerous situation.”

“I just...don’t want him to fall into a shithole that he can’t get out of.”

She looked at him, and he looked lost in thought. Focused on something that wasn’t really there, something that didn’t have a shape but was complex enough to cloud his mind. Ichika was good at noticing such things, and she noticed how Sakuto looked rather powerless at that instant. Powerless against the strength of his own mind which kept bashing and crushing and beating him down over and over again.

So she snuggled a little closer to him and held him.

“It’s all gonna work out, alright?” Ichika whispered, holding his head close to her chest, gently running her hand through his hair. He felt the weight of Sakuto’s head press onto her, and he noticed his expression go from worry to relative calm.

“I can hear your heartbeat...” Sakuto said. Before Ichika could respond, she found him half-asleep, with his eyes barely open and slightly teary. She held him a little tighter.

“He’s probably worried about his own friendship with Oskar.”

“It’s understandable. He doesn’t want anything to get in their way. He’s his only friend, after all.”

She continued lightly caressing his head, and eventually, as a matter of fact, within seconds, Sakuto was asleep like a baby.

“They say it’s easier to fall asleep when you’re next to someone you love.” Ichika thought, a smile emerging on her face and she also began to doze off.

“It’s probably because you feel safe.”