[Charlotte] Seventy-Five Years (Discontinued)

Chapter 17: Memories

Medoki, Maedomari, Shichino and Shunsuke had gathered around Kumagami while he was sitting on a single sofa, head downcast on the floor, hands entwined with each other's, his hair dropped as well.

"What happened back there, Pooh?" Began Shunsuke, optics glancing up at him as he knelt to see the other's countenance.

It took him a few seconds before deciding to respond. "You were doing a selective time-leap without you knowing, right? While you're doing it, I keep remembering I died because of your little brother's Collapse ability, and every time you continue time-leaping, the memories get retained. All the time, I knew what had been happening to me."

Crossed arms removed from her chest, Medoki glanced down at the brown-haired male. "Now that you've mentioned it... I do remember every bit of thing that had happened previously. This is weird; we should be losing memories if Shunsuke-san's been time-leaping to the moment Kumagami-san died."

Shunsuke sent his thumb and pointer finger under his jaw, indicating he was thinking of something. "I've probably developed a selective time-leaping because of Charlotte."

Shichino nodded, effortlessly agreeing to Shunsuke's theory. "Yeah, that would most probably be it. If that's a selective time-leaping, it's normal that we get to remember what happened before, during and after Kumagami-san's death."

"Speaking of memories," began Maedomari. "I can now transfer someone's memory to another, and is still able to delete them. This time, I can do it without the need to touch them first."

"Oh?" The slim blonde responded, feet dragging itself closer to the gentler one. "Come on, try it on me!" Said him, voice sounding in an obvious excitement.

Maedomari looked up at him, nodding in agreement after. He stared at him for a few moments before glancing back at Medoki.

The lass then felt like something had been thrown back at her, head shaking as if telling herself to return to reality. "Shichino, you're dirty!" Said her in a mixture of amusement and embarrassment, face had undeniably grown red.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Fired the blonde lad back.

Maedomari was smiling, while both Kumagami and Shunsuke were clueless.

Shichino glanced back at Maedomari. "Hey, did you...?"

There was no vocal response, except for a nod.

The other's face had become red as well, knowing what kind of memory Maedomari picked and passed onto the female. Surely, with such a reaction, it wasn't an appropriate memory for a girl to see.

"I'm curious," began Shunsuke, who was now standing beside his best friend, arms crossed over his chest, right foot leaning against the wall. Shortly, he glanced to Kumagami thereafter. "Do you want to know?" He asked, smiling in amusement.

Kumagami let out a small laugh. "I'd rather leave it at the three of them. It seems like it's too private to know."

"Eh~" muttered Shunsuke. "If it's too private, Maedomari wouldn't even bother transferring it to someone else. So I guess it wouldn't be that bad to know too?"

"I'll pass," ended Kumagami.

Shunsuke's lips curved downwards, hues turning into serious ones. "Pooh," he started again. "Why didn't you head straight here when you found out you're actually alive? It could have been safer."

Upon hearing both of Shunsuke and Kumagami's conversation, Shichino, Medoki and along with Maedomari had lowered their noise, then listened attentively to the explanation Shunsuke's best friend was about to uncover.

"The scientists were after me. I had to run away so I wouldn't lead them to the quarters, almost the same as what failure I did back in that factory," cleared him.

"Hey," Shunsuke leaned down on the floor again to level the eyes of Kumagami. "It was no one's fault; we're not blaming you or anything. Take it easy."

"No, Shunsuke," retaliated the male. "I don't want to repeat the same mistake I did before."

Sensing that an awkward atmosphere had been growing between them, Medoki clapped her hands altogether once to snap them back to reality, let out a forced smile, and started speaking. "Now that Kumagami-san had came back, wouldn't it be the perfect moment to celebrate?"

Shichino nodded. "Yeah, that's right. Besides, Tomori's brother's going to marry a band's vocalist, right? Would it be the time?"

Shunsuke looked up at them. "Maybe, once Nao-chan, and Yuu had returned."

Maedomari shifted his gazes down towards Kumagami who now was looking up at them with his eyes being shown. "Kumagami-san," he called. "How about yours? Did your power develop?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "I was able to do a global search for possible number of people wielding dementia, but there was only one, and he is inside the school grounds."

"Did you already tell Nao-chan and her friends?" Asked Shunsuke as he blinked once.

Kumagami nodded. "Yeah, I sent her a text message about the ability wielder's location; as of the moment, she's probably currently in the middle of ZHIEND's concert, so she would may be able to read my message afterwards."

"As expected! You just came back, but you're also pulling yourself into your work again," praised Shunsuke which sounded more of as if he was intentionally making fun of the other. "But really, not many people can do that," seriously uttered the man next.

Tsutsumiuchi entered their room after three knocks. "Good day, everyone," the old man stated, hands hiding inside the pockets of his laboratory gown. "Shunsuke-san, we need to plunder the remaining abilities around the world in order for our vaccine to work," explained him. "After that, we ask all of you, including your little brother, to come with us."

Everyone exchanged gazes before returning it towards the old man.

"You won't be on Earth for a week; you have an important mission to do," ended the oldest male.

No matter how it sounded exciting, Shunsuke and his friends couldn't help but feel nervous of what actually awaits them. The seemingly leader of the organisation was beginning to feel fear for his little brother; according to Tsutsumiuchi's words, Yuu seemed to have the most serious role in their plan. However so, he--all of them--had to be ready.