LOST TIME MEMORY Vol. 1

Chapter 4.2

The group dispersed a few moments later, finding it impractical to gather everyone in such a small room. Mary went off to the living room, and Seto joined her while the rest stayed behind in the room with Shintaro to have a talk. Or rather, an explanation. Kido, the tall girl with green hair, took the initiative to speak up first.

"You probably have a lot of questions."

"Well, I... do, yeah," said Shintaro.

"We do, too. But you've done a lot for us so-" Kido looked to Momo, then gave a slight grin. "Just ask us anything you want. We'll trust you so... we won't hold anything back."

Shintaro wondered why they would consider holding back at all. He examined the room again. "Where are we?"

"Our headquarters," she answered curtly.

"Headquarters of?"

"The Mekakushi Dan. Our organization." Kano proudly held his head up, but with a playful smile, and his arms arched on his hips.

"Mekakushi Dan... You're called the Blindfold Gang?" Shintaro had a slightly concerned reaction to the name, not that he actually knew of them. But he looked to Momo and gave her an inquiring look, asking her what she'd gotten into. "That's kind of weird, isn't it?"

Momo and Kano understood what he was getting at. The former looked at the ground with wide eyes in embarrassment. The latter held in a laugh with a severe grimace. Kido, however, was utterly oblivious.

"I don't know what you mean. How is it weird?"

"Well, see... Um. What is it you do, exactly? For activities... and such." He tried to be very discreet about it. Kido seemed like she was more innocent than she let off.

"We're a group of people with special eye abilities. Our mission is to look for others like us. To help them, and recruit them."

"Special eye abilities?"

"Like this." Kido stared at Shintaro. Her usual look was more of a glare than anything and almost intimidated his gaze away, but then he saw it. Her eyes turned from black to a glowing red. Like in his dreams. His mouth gaped, and before he could say anything, Kido added: "And this," then disappeared.

It wasn't as if she teleported or got whisked away. She was there for one moment, and then it was like a camera paused in the middle of filming and removed her from the shot. She was completely gone. Someone spoke from behind Shintaro. For a second he believed he was hearing things again.

"I'm right here." His shoulders flung up, and he jumped back and glared at her.

"Holy shit don't do that again," he said in a hurry.

"Oh, sorry." Kido looked surprisingly hurt.

Shintaro felt like he'd spent the entire day screwing up his first impressions of these guys. "No, it's just... it just startled me. Don't mind it. Anyways..." He looked to Momo. "You guys all have abilities?"

Momo nodded. "You got over that pretty quick, onii-chan."

Shintaro wasn't quite sure why he'd taken the new info in so readily himself. Maybe because it happened right in front of him. Or maybe because of Konoha. Most definitely because of Konoha. "Momo... what's your ability?"

She scratched her cheek with a wry smile and said, "I can make people pay attention to me, I guess?"

He blinked twice before asking, "That's it?"

"I can make them really pay attention to me."

"A lot of people, then. All at once?"

"Yeah."

"So like, when you're working as an idol?" He took no time coming to that conclusion.

"...I really hate it when you do that," said Momo.

"Suddenly, everything makes a lot of sense," Shintaro said while rubbing his temple.

"It does?"

"Yep. That explains why they'd pick you over me."

Momo snorted out a laugh that sounded more like a stifled fart before giggling like a little kid. He laughed too, though a bit awkwardly.

"I'd smoke you every time!" Momo yelled through a toothy smile, her hands firmly on her hips in pride. Shintaro could only grin in return. Where'd she even learn that expression? Ene? She's becoming a bad influence on the family. The next thing he knew, she might be sending over her terrible taste in memes, too. Still, Momo's words rang true. Probably, he thought.

"Shintaro," Kido called out.

"Hm?"

"What's your ability?"

"I don't have one?" He tilted his head.

"Huh?"

"I don't have one."

"No, but" she looked to Kano. "How'd you time that so perfectly, then? The call you made. And all the other stuff."

Kano himself likely didn't want to push the subject, but he didn't stop it either. He instead looked like he'd thought Kido made an interesting point. Kido continued:

"We were cornered. Then you distracted them and we escaped. The men were looking around, and they still stuck to the area even though they couldn't find us. We couldn't get out. Not until you distracted them. That's two consecutive times."

Shintaro didn't want to lie. But he didn't like where the conversation would be going if he told them the truth. He'd heard a voice. And it'd come from his head. He knew who it'd come from. But she was gone, and he didn't want to ever recall it. "I can't say. I just found an opportunity to turn their attention away and used it..."

"But that doesn't-

A startling clap echoed throughout the room and commanded silence. It was Kano. Slowly, he lowered his clasped hands and motioned them to the side as if welcoming someone for an embrace.

"Again. Like I said last time, we don't need to pry," he gave Kido a semi-serious look. "Each to our own. Right?"

Kido didn't find that to be a particularly satisfying answer, but she seemed anxious about Kano acting the way he did. But she could somehow tell what he was getting at. Even Shintaro realized Kano's behavior was probably out of the ordinary for the group. Kido left the topic at that.

"So what happened to them? The men, I mean," asked Shintaro.

"They got arrested. Probably. I mean, we tied them up real good," Seto provided the answer.

"We don't know what they wanted, though," said Kido. Kano didn't say anything and just smiled. Another member of the party viewed this as a perfect moment to ask:

"So, you guys wanna go out?" It was Ene. She was currently resting in Shintaro's left hand. She looked up at him with her eyebrows in a straight, severe line. "You promised."

Shintaro snapped out of a dumfounded haze when she'd asked. "I-I'll be going out," he told everyone. "We're going to the amusement park. I did kinda promise her."

Kano smiled widely and put a hand on Kido's shoulder, then declared, "We'll come, too!"

Route: ?