LOST TIME MEMORY Vol. 1

Chapter 5: Red Eyes

The sun was as brilliant and unforgivingly hot as it had been the day before. There was a gentle breeze that traveled through and cooled them down a tiny bit. The entirety of the Mekakushi Dan, along with Shintaro and Ene, was out and about, briskly walking down the somehow quiet streets. It was a Sunday at about two o'clock. August 15th, the day of the Bon Festival. Most people were either working on preparations for the night, hanging around the town, or swimming at the beach. It was a lovely day to be out and about, after all. Although, there wouldn't be many on the outskirts of town at this time. If people had a destination in mind for today, they were likely already there.

"Okay, okay, so we're taking the rollercoaster first. And then... Oh, and then the freefalling tower! And then another rollercoaster!" Ene was happily expressing her wishes on which rides to take. Seemed like she was completely fine with letting bygones be bygones in regard to what happened before.

"I don't even like rollercoasters," Shintaro said miserably. He was completely ignored.

"And then we eat caramel apples and cotton candy. Maybe some burgers and shakes later?"

"What happened to eating salads?" he asked.

"Why would you do that?" There was a big question mark at the top of her head that made him wonder whether or not she had supremely selective memory. Shintaro gave her a weird look as if she just genuinely didn't remember what he was referring to.

"Never mind. I can get some burgers and shakes, sure," Shintaro said.

"Make sure to eat them in front of me like you're doing a mukbang!"

"Oh, those are actually pretty fun to watch!" Momo chimed in.

"Right!? I watch those in my spare time," Ene said.

"You mean when I'm sleeping?" Shintaro asked.

"No, I watch you sleep. For hours. Every day."

"Yikes... I don't even have a problem with you watching food shows in the first place."

"Yeah! That's right! You better back off, momma's boy!" Shintaro got caught off guard and made a grimace, breathing heavily through his nose. "Oh? What's that? I can't quite hear you over your wheezing. You out of breath? Need a lil' break?"

Shintaro took a deep breath and held himself together. "Where did 'momma's boy' even come from...."

"Anyway, I mean, I sure don't need any shuteye. And this'll be the next best thing to actually eating."

"Okay, okay, I get it already. I swear you would've been fat if you could eat."

"See, that's where you come in. Take the calories for me, minion!"

"Seriously, what happened to all the talk of proteins and stuff?"

"Oh, that. Changed my mind. You could use a li'l fat on those bones, Master."

"You guys make it hard to join the conversation sometimes, you know," Momo said, slightly pouting.

"Did she just call him Master?" Kido whispered to Kano; they were just a couple of steps behind.

"Must be a fetish," Kano answered, and Kido hit him on the back in return.

The others, walking at the back of the group, started curiously looking Shintaro's way. Seto spoke up.

"Hey, how did you guys find Ene?"

"Find her?" Momo asked.

"More like she found and hacked her way into my computer," Shintaro said.

"Oh. So you didn't download her off a site or something? You didn't program her? No offense, by the way." Seto quickly added the last part as if making sure no one got mad at him. He seemed to be weirdly careful when talking to people, though Shintaro thought he was naturally talkative and friendly.

"No. Dunno where she came from."

"N-Neither do I!" Ene nervously laughed the question off. There seemed to be a lot of people hiding things within the group. Seto looked like he was thinking about something regarding Ene. But whatever it was, he kept it to himself.

"She's a little too weird to be a virus anyway," Shintaro added, but before Ene could retort:

"We're here. Mary, wait up." Kano announced their arrival and jogged after Mary, who'd already excitedly run off to the ticket booth. Her near-white hair was fluttering along with the wind as she bounced around, very much like a little rabbit. People were starting to look her way. She instantly grew weary of the attention she was getting and hurriedly ran behind Kido. Some of the people who'd been staring were now looking around in confusion as if looking for Mary. Shintaro had his eyebrows arched up in surprise. He knew what had happened. She'd disappeared. This is what they'd done at the mall. And he was in on it now. He thought it was a pretty cool ability, a grin on his face.

"Did you make all of us invisible?" Shintaro asked.

"No. Just Mary and Momo," she answered.

"Momo?" he asked and looked at his little sister, who could only give him a droll smile.

Kano chose that moment to go buy them the tickets.

"Does he have enough to cover all of us?" asked Shintaro.

"Oh, right. Probably not," Kido replied.

"I'll go over, then."

Ene hollered 'sugar daddy' at him as they went together to the booth, to which Shintaro just replied with a grunt. As Kano and Shintaro bought all the necessary tickets for the group, they could see Kido telling Momo something from where they stood. Or rather, she was instructing her- giving her pointers on how to breathe and the like.

"Your sister still can't control her powers," Kano said. "So we're helping her out with that. It'll be easier for us all to have fun inside without all the attention, anyhow." He patted Shintaro on the back, and they went back to the group.

Shintaro found it a bit peculiar how casual Kano was acting with him. He really didn't actually know the guy, and he would have remembered if he did. He'd never seen him before, either. But prying into that would be a two-way ticket to a whole lot of personal questions he really didn't want to answer.