Memento Memory

"I've always hated your carefree attitude."

Her lady above the firmament proclaimed, anger focused solely on a personality befitting the Strongest Mage. Seeing the cacophonous declaration of hatred insufficient─the 'childhood friend who was pressed against the wall' struck thine conscience in half.

"Whatever happened to you four years ago, you've become an entirely different person."

Four years past─I tampered with Chaos Magic, and ultimately got hold of it.

I call it the Curiosity Incident. During the time, as the Strongest Mage, I whined that my talent is only superficial. I thought that if I wanted to change the crooked system in the governance of mages, I had to break through hell and back.

I was offered exactly what I was looking for.

My curiosity, alongside the zeal, accepted the overture.

Primarily, the seven fortune deities were there to oversee the fluctuations destroying the worldly balance. However, it didn't end beautifully─albeit resolved. It wasn't even the protagonist who suffered the most─but the supporting characters.

Whence everyone changed for their better and for their worse.

"Amaterasu never saw the transgression you're talking about," I said, pertaining to whatever could have been churned that I managed to raise an eyebrow.

Ayase instantaneously bounced back saying, "Nee-chan only stands by your side because she pities you, not because she genuinely cares for you."

"I can live with that."

"You can live with it because you blame yourself for killing her dreams."

Something broke.

"Yeah, every time we're in the same room… that's why I didn't want to talk to you."

Aya would definitely be one of the people who suffered from the change.

"Then show it in your face, nii-chan!"

For someone who knows the person has lost control of his expressions, her qualms sounded more of a goofball thrown for incessant annoyance. I can forgive her, though. She was genuinely, painstakingly letting her emotion gush out to the point she's not hearing herself anymore. I had to babysit her as an ally but not when she openly declared us as enemies.

She couldn't repress her tears anymore.

"Please, don't act like everything in the world is not worth your time."

Yes, I've always thought the world is not worthwhile anymore.

"Come back to the person who you were before!"

It's my fault she's even in the situation, strongly determined to carry a fireless torch in the first place.

You see, I once loathed the Human Side.

Now, she hates the other world more than I could have nearly taken their civilization down.

Coming back to the person who I was before, huh?

I hate the sentiment.

"Either it's invading them or harmonizing with them, Aya, we're not capable."

"No, you're capable enough of doing either!"

Whichever she meant, I didn't try to nitpick anymore.

"Sadly, I understand myself more than you."

"You don't understand your power among the people," she pushed further. "You're hated because you gave up on us!"

"No, ," I called back.

She argued back, "You were the one who wasn't listening to us!"

"So you wanted a puppet for a leader?"

"No… You don't understand!"

She cast her look down, closed her eyes─and bit her lips towards frantic hesitation. Such warped consensus can only be painful for both people present, but I dared not get swept away by her offset. Of course, I knew what she implied as opposed to what she said.

"I don't need the school's acceptance, Aya. I don't want to lead genocidal mages corrupted into thinking all other forms of life are the enemy."

Looking in retrospect, I made a choice between unhealthy and peaceful─and the latter was the obvious answer.

She raised her head, drenched in her woes.

"You only care about yourself, nii-chan. You don't care if everyone disappears tomorrow!"

"That was never the problem."

"It will be─if you stay relaxed about anything and everything."

"Again, why is that a problem?"

"It's called giving up."

"Hmm, I don't know."

"You gave up!"

Unreasonable down the line of injustice, I suppose there's no longer a possibility for us to meet each other's standards.

"It's our lives that's in trouble, how can you not see it with such strong power you possess?"

"Aya, you're missing the point of our discussion."

"You're escaping again? Yeah, it's all you ever wanted, to not partake in everything at all. It's dragging everyone to the bottom, everyday. You don't see that as a problem, do you?"

"No, seriously, because the problem is about you playing the villain card in Miss Ayanami's situation."

Firm and resolved, albeit her ugly countenance smeared in snot and tears. "Fine, let's have it your way. In allegiance to what I know is right, nii-chan… I won't tell you anything!"

"It calls for a torture, then."

Aya only looked at me with contempt─conflicted as I ended our unfruitful exchange. I've never been subjected to persecution before, and it definitely hurts to know that she had so much contained dread for my existence overall… if I can't fix mistakes, then it's only best to destroy them thoroughly.

Even if it makes someone unhappy.

We spent quite some time bantering inside the discontinued time.

How it affects myself or the world outside, I should have considered before I whimsically asked.

Now, it goes without saying that I'd have to take responsibility.

It's not as if I'm feeling the consequences.

As time passed more and more, glitches in my mind started flickering and discrepancies were being born.

However, I needed to prolong the moment more for unearthly plans to work.

"I'm sorry to bother you again, Benzaiten!" I murmured for the man beside me, who held his hand high─projecting a magic circle for time manipulation. "Please accelerate Ayase Kyoukaisenjou's urinary bladder to a point nearing urination."

"Hey, wait… what the hell are you babbling about?"

Ayase overheard, which coursed onto her senses that it's nothing but dreadful.

"It's a trade secret but yeah, you can read along the lines. Let's see…I'll offer my memories of my childhood: take an excerpt from August 12, 2008, when Amaterasu Origami and I first met Ayase Kyoukaisenjou."

"Hnn!"

For such a blissful reaction, Aya's knees pulled onto each other─her face contorting from pain and embarrassment. Also, there came tinges of confusion, her mind tried to make sense of what she's being accursed into… answer to slightly ruminate out as she averted her sight not only for me but the whole classroom.

In my defense, I didn't want to do any of it.

I'm only playing by the book.

"It normally doesn't have to take the whole day, I can pinpoint it for more precise erasure. But it doesn't seem like I would even want anything to do with you anymore… Not a righteous decision, but it's better this way, Aya."

"Why would you…sacrifice…our precious memory together for your little trick?!"

"No, it's no longer precious. I mean, I don't even remember it."

"...Nii-chan!" She called in a shout, more like an outcry─but evidently in agony. "Huhn, if you don't care then I also don't care. I won't tell you what you want to know…!"

"No, I can sell my memories if I want them to make you talk," I blazoned, further incurring her dread. "Benzaiten… okay, I'm being too reliant on you. Bishamon, break the classroom windows beside her… the payment, my recent memory of saving Ayase, an excerpt from January 1, 2022."

"Eep!" Aya screamed as the glasses broke about.

"Hotei! I'll trade you my memory of Ayase Kyoukaisenjou's confession."

Confusion.

"The juicy scene everyone seeks after once or twice in their youthful lives, you know, Aya stood at the rooftop eagerly waiting for me to come up. Love letter hidden behind her, and for the first time, she dolled herself to the cutest she'd ever been."

More confusion.

"I don't remember ever confe─Hngh!"

"I know, you were always satisfied being my fake little sister and I appreciate that from the bottom of my heart so how about exchanging…"

It's been a long time since I've felt primary melancholy.

I didn't feel it from someone else, but from myself. It churned deep inside the heart, and before I realized it─the warmth of tears ran onto my cheeks.

"That time I took Ayase Kyoukaisenjou outside Nichiyoubi…"

Our time alone in Kyoto together.

"Stop! …Stop it already, nii-chan. What difference do you think sacrificing those memories would make?! I… I'm not even affected, it's nothing to me if you forget me. I've already given up on you!"

"Exactly the point?" I tilted my head.

I have been mean, and any forgiveness can no longer be accepted. I'd choose to be hated, or for the current case─be hated more than deserved.

I smirked.

…And I made Aya cry.

"Fine, if you unfreeze time… I'll tell you everything I know! So stop it… Stop it, nii-chan!"

Flick.

"Thank you very much for your coop─"

I couldn't even finish my sentence for what surprise chained at the time.

In sheer suddenness, the atmosphere cracked and the particles roared.

Wind blew warm inside and pushed my frame─I was moved albeit slightly, and the scattered broken glass fragments scattered everywhere.

I took a step back.

I had no choice.

Instinctive for me to stay away from it or else, I'd be devoured and find myself at some place I've never seen before.

Sooner, a ripple revealed a blackened magic circle─the Space Magic broiling itself into a miniature black hole.

It aimed to pull Aya, evidently surprised but nonetheless shaken by what dreadful experience she just went through.

Sniffle.

"You made the wrong choice… Fine, it's the last time I'll ever see you as a brother ever again!"

I didn't say anything back.

The concrete wall started to give in, I'd only surmise the onlooker couldn't care less if they'd be destroying property.

The trust written over her face spelled impressiveness─out of place for me to feel, but my heart fluttered with how wholesome it was from behind the scenes.

This was the helper.

I should have known.

The connection between the two of them was uncanny.

I fail to believe their teamwork is junk─that if I chase after them, I could just catch them within a few minutes.

I stayed out.

I'd give it to them, and seek another chance later.

"Nii-cha─Yukihime…!" Still sobbing from all the drama, Aya─my defunct fake little sister─imparted her final words. "I… I didn't want to turn it this way!"

Hole in the wall: Ayase Kyoukaisenjou completely vanished into the vacuum, atrocious enough to bring classroom debris along her soulful ride.

"I guess I failed to keep her?" I let out a huff of air.

Time went back to normal again, and our transfer student─watched from the back, injured from her fall and to add insult to it, relinquished her awkward demeanor into oblivion.

Aqueous for her eyes to look onto her savior, she hugged the closest person in the vicinity and cried her eyes out to the drain.