Her Pursuit of Happiness

"And that's what happened," I said summing up what happened to Katsuo, eating from a small ice cream tub.

"She's probably guilty," Katsuo said.

"But she says she's innocent," I said. 

"That's what everyone says,"

"Innocent until proven guilty," I said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Yeah but she's a Tormentor so it's guilty until proven guilty," he said in a matter-of-fact tone, "and that's why your working overtime?" To prove she's innocent because of her manifestation?"

"Yup," I said with a mouthful of ice cream, "You see what I'm thinking is if her manifestation can only alter memories then she's safe but of course, if it turns out that she can manipulate them to get people to do what she wants then she might end up in a jail cell,"

"Why are you going so far to help her?" Katsuo asked.

"Because your aunt did the same for me, I was an orphaned child and coming to this country was hard for me. I didn't know the language, customs or anything but your aunt went above and beyond to help me, so I'm going to do the same for her,"

"I see your point," Katsuo said.

"So do you wanna get down here and help me?" I said in a cheerful tone.

"I would but someone needs to be sane once you start hallucinating from lack of sleep,"

"Ugh fine, how did talking to the head of health and safety go?"

"Mina? Yeah, she plans to come in another day to see you since you brought in Mayumi,"

"I don't wanna talk to her," I said.

"Come on Director, it's ok, she's only going to ask a few questions,"

"Mina is a demon, I stand by that until I reach my grave better yet, write that on my tombstone, " I said throwing away the empty ice cream tub. I removed the phone from my ear and pushed a button on the control panel. "Take 5 Mayumi," I said as I retracted the dummies and Mayumi dropped down from exhaustion.

"Wow, you give breaks?" Katsuo said in a sarcastic tone, "Maybe you should take one, "

"Please Katsu if I took breaks nothing would get done, "

"Are you sure about that?"

"Positive, remember high school?"

"Don't even get me started,"

"Exactly, anyway I gotta go. You get some sleep,"

"Shouldn't I be telling you that?"

"I'll sleep once all my research is done,"

"So on your deathbed?"

"Oh Katsu not even then, bye,"

"Bye Director," Katsuo said as I hung up the phone.

"Hey Mayumi, can I ask a question?"

"What do you want?" 

"Ou feisty, I was going to ask what you know about the archer,"

"The Archer?" Mayumi sighed, "Why do you want to know about them?"

"Just curious,"

"I'm not telling you shit,"

"I'll give you a longer break," I said trying to bargain. 

"What do you wanna know?" Mayumi said almost immediately.

"Whatever you know is fine,"

"Well the Archer family lineage had been around for years, they just weren't as troublesome as they were in the recent years. The Archer family is usually known for being the first Tormentors since they used their power to put their name out there. The Archer child they're talking about today is a mystery. Nobody knows anything about them such as age or gender, but their manifestation will have to do with archery, thus the Archer name. The Archers are known by us Tormentors as our guardians. For the last 500 years, they have protected us from your government and saviours but after the parents' capture and the child's disappearance, we've been left on our own. We're certain that the child will be back and protect us but other Tormentors are trying to bring them back by force thus the raids every hour." Mayumi explained. "How long is my break?"

"We'll discuss that after you're done explaining," I said eager for her to tell me more.

"Ugh, fine," I said as she rolled her eyes, "The Archers left a final message for the child and people. They told the child to lay low and the people to have hope until the child returns,"

"How do the tormentors feel about the disappearance?"

"Most are ok with it, the drunkards in the bar said that if their parents are telling them to hide then they must be young. Although some are concerned for their safety because before we were able to walk around with the Archer's protection but now most of us are either imprisoned or dead, "

"What do you mean by Archer protection?"

"The Archer Family has special eyes, they're scope-like. Basically, they can see anything at any range."

"That's amazing," I mumbled.

"I guess so,"

"How do you know so much about them?" I asked.

"It's the same as gods and goddesses, it's common knowledge for us but I hear a lot from the drunkards, "

"The drunkards?"

"Yeah, I practically live in that bar, I never knew my parents but the bartender always good me and told that my father dropped me off there,"

"Oh, I get it, that's what you meant by don't know, don't care,"

"They never cared to get to know me so why should I care about them?" Mayumi said pulling her knees to her face.

"Parents do what they think is best for us, I didn't know my parents much either,"

"Why not?"

"My parents were workaholics, so much so they hadn't noticed I left,"

"Left?"

"I'm originally from another country, but one day I stumbled upon a boat and ended up here. That's when Katsuo's aunt adopted me,"

"Why do I get the feeling that half of that story is true?" Mayumi said as her eyes started to glow a light purple.

"Hm?" I said smirking at her.

"How come I can't see your memories?" Mayumi said looking at me.

"Because my memories are locked away, in a place I can't even reach them,"

"But I could see them before,"

"Oh really? What did you see?"

"You were sad and lonely, I know the feeling all too well," Mayumi said crawling up into a ball.

"Would you like to talk about it?" I said pushing a button to open the door. Mayumi watched it open and she sat there, in a ball.

"I…" Mayumi froze, I walked into the room and approached her, my arms outstretched. Mayumi leapt into my arms and I held her tight. "I'm sorry, I took the pink-haired lady's happy memories to replace my sad ones but when I did they just disappeared," Mayumi said, holding me tight.

"It's alright Mayumi,"

"W-why did they fade away?"

"They faded away because they were yours, memories usually stick with you based on emotion. Those memories will stick with you for years but happy memories will make the sad ones fade away but those memories need to be yours,"

"But I don't know anything about happiness," Mayumi said.

"Neither do I but we could find out together if that's what you want,"

"Could we?" Mayumi said as tears formed in her eyes.

"We definitely could," I said smiling as I patted her back.