Chapter 13: 10th Fragment – Discussion

"Hi, Valerie."

"Hi, Rio, my dear friend."

 

Valerie smiles wide at Rio, who has just arrived. The man hugs and pats Rio's back gently.

—and pushing him roughly on his shoulder.

 

"What the hell?!" Rio is definitely pissed.

"Can you not call on weekends? I'm supposed to have my date today!"

"Huh, you able to get a date on this timeline?"

"Heh, that's right. It's only natural that I find it easy to find companions, no matter what era I'm in. Want me to tell you how?" Valerie puffed himself up while smiling mockingly in front of his friend.

"No need. That's not what I want to talk about right now."

"Okay, let's get into the matter. Don't waste time! So, tell me the reason you called me here?" Rio's best friend folds his arms across his chest, hoping his friend has a good reason for calling him out in his precious free time.

"There is a major problem. It's something to do with the secrecy of my identity as a person from the future."

"Wait a minute. So you got caught—!"

"Ssh! Tone down! We can't talk about things like that here," Rio exclaimed with his fingers in front of his lips to hint at Valerie.

 

When the man with messy blond hair looked around, they were now on the sidewalk of the city shopping center area. This place has many shops and stalls on the left and right sides of the highway, and that goes without saying that there are a lot of customers around.

 

Valerie sighed. "Sure. Let's go somewhere more private. Café, maybe?"

"I agree," Rio responded.

 

Valerie had no idea about that. How could Rio be careless and leak his identity as a volunteer who came from the future? This made him think about some worst possibilities if the identity that was supposed to be strictly confidential, no matter what happened, was known by someone in the past.

 

Maybe we'll be caught by a cop agent who went into the past? No, it's not that severe a crime, if I may say. Indeed it has something to do with the consistency of the times and so on. I don't know. I forgot the details. However, considering how they are always wary of our very secret identity status, something unimaginable could happen.

 

Rio feels awful while they search for a suitable place. He notices that Valerie is thinking something because of what he has said. Because leaking one's identity is risky enough for this trip to be exposed to everyone in the past.

 

"Val, how about that cafe," said Rio as he pointed to a coffee shop with greenish nuances for the theme of the place. The simple sign shaped like a turquoise coffee cup is quite eye-catching from afar. When Rio looks closely through the window, it also looks really quiet. It's the perfect place to talk about something past-era-resident don't need to hear.

"That one can do. Let's go there."

"Roger."

 

Rio stops when he sees someone quite familiar who happens to walk in front of them. He never expected his next meeting with her would be here and now.

 

"Arisa?"

"Oh, hey. Rio. A coincidence that we crossed paths here, "said the girl who was eating her ice cream.

 

Valerie is looking from Rio's behind and notices a girl he has heard about. She carried two bags in both hands. They crossed with her while she was finishing shopping.

Rio feels that this is not the right time to meet her. Secretly, he didn't want to hear her answer for now. What if-

 

"Wow, Arisa, huh? I'm Valerie, Rio's best friend and coincidentally his classmate too. Nice to meet you," the blonde-haired man approached for a handshake, to which Arisa responded kindly

"My name is Arisa. I used to be Rio’s classmate. Pleased to meet you too."

Facial muscles are adjusted to look as friendly as possible... Yes, it fits.

"Right, right. Sometimes, Rio told me about you when we hung out. Is that right, buddy?" said Valerie casually while glancing at his best friend.

"Yeah, right," said Rio flatly.

"You also said that Arisa is a nice person to talk to. Isn't it?"

"That's right. I agree," Rio replied again.

"…"

 

Valerie slaps his best friend's back which makes Arisa almost gasp.

 

"What is your problem?!"

"Why is your reaction really flat, flatter than any whiteboard, even? Give a response that is a bit long, cake," said Val angrily.

"There's.... stuff!"

"Then what is the stuff you said just now?!"

"You should know it already."

"I'm not. That's why I'm asking." Valerie grins.

 

Arisa still maintains her smile, seeing the two men fighting alone until she recalls something.

 

"So while we happened to meet right now, do you guys happen to be busy now? I want to discuss something," Arisa asked with a lowered tone, "it's related to my existence that disappeared suddenly."

 

The two young men look at Arisa with gazes that explain they have no idea what she means. Rio wasn't the only one who had some problems related to this journey.

 

"In that case, we really need to talk about it as soon as possible. So Arisa, it's okay for you to join us. Do you mind, Rio?" asked Valerie.

"I don't mind," Rio replied. This time it was flatter than before.

 

Shortly, the three of them arrived at a café that Rio pointed to, taking a table in the corner of the room for the sake of guaranteed privacy. As far as the eye could see, only one or two people were at the table about five meters from them.

 

"What do you want to order, Rio?"

"Warm drinks, please."

"How about you, Arisa?"

"A banana split. Then, after about fifteen minutes, I will order a caramel apple pie ice cream."

 

Valerie is silent for a moment before writing it down on the order list. "Alright. As guessed, you would like ice cream a lot."

"Is it because Rio told you?" asked Arisa, which had made Rio focus on her because she mentioned his name.

"No, this is just the result of my deduction. You know, I'm actually a person who can easily guess people's personalities," said Val pretentiously, "after all, that hairpin of yours has given me quite a hint."

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“I've never heard of such a thing, Val. Besides, I did tell you that Arisa's favorite is ice cream,” said Rio to himself. But, knowing Val, he just let him say stuff that is primarily a joke.

"That is interesting for me. In that case, can you guess some of my other traits?"

"Easy!"

 

Before Valerie guessed Arisa's personality, she gave her order to the waitress first to have more time to discuss while they waited. Then, he cleared his throat to get the attention of the other two people at the table and was ready with the answer he would give.

 

"Okay, I'll guess some of your traits according to my analysis. So," Valerie focused his attention on the girl beside her, "Arisa. You are a fun person, generous, loyal, easy to get along with, and give away a lot of positive vibes for those around you."

"I think those guesses are mostly using the Barnum effect," said Rio, who Valerie ignored.

"Regarding that…" Arisa doesn't know what to respond to because, more or less, his guesses now seem pretty random. She only smiles, though.

"There's more," continued Valerie, "as a human being, of course, there are certain qualities that are lacking. I'm guessing, for this part, you're a stubborn, selfish person—"

 

At this point, Arisa can finally confirm that Valerie is just blatantly guessing.

 

"—and cold-hearted."

"…"

 

There has yet to be a response from Arisa. And yet, there's a sudden bad feeling coming from Rio. But, still, he is not saying anything and just looking at those two.

 

"I think I also can guess some of your traits, Valerie," replied the ice cream girl without losing the smile on her face.

"Go ahead. It's your turn to guess," Valerie replied nonchalantly. Rio is also curious about Arisa's prediction.

"I will follow your previous pattern, starting with the positive traits first. So first of all, you are sociable, know how to please people, know what others want to hear, and are quite insightful."

 

Valerie doesn't answer, but he nods in agreement.

 

"Then, as for your lacking traits… you are a person who needs more attention and always wants to be the center of it. Also, you like to play with lots of women."

 

Rio didn't think the sentence just now could make Val freeze for a few minutes. The young man's gaze was blank, which was returned by a smile from the girl. He only returned to his senses when their orders arrived at the table.

 

"…wow, it looks delicious," said Val, changing the conversation.

 

After the pleasantries were done and each tasted their orders, Rio put on a severe face.

 

"We'll start discussing the problems that we experienced in the past," said Rio, which responded by nodding from the other two people.

 

First of all, Rio explained his experience in his house. There was a time when Vemia, her past-era sister, thought of Rio as the eldest according to his records of the past. But, there's also a time when she recognized him as a total stranger. Rio tried to convey everything entirely so that everyone got all the details.

Now it's Arisa's turn to share her problems. The girl tells them about the disappearance of her existence. There's a moment where her presence disappears so the past people will totally ignore and completely forget about Arisa. No one could hear or see this girl except those from the future just like her.

Each listened to the discussion with extra care and racked their brains to understand what had happened.

 

"That's strange… so you two have similar problems. Both have something to do with your identity as a past-era resident. I think this must have something to do with the records of the past," Valerie concluded.

"I agree. The pattern of this problem is identical. If I try to guess, the error in my records of the past caused Vemia's original memory to return. So, she doesn't recognize me as her older brother anymore." Rio added.

"Ah. so we can also say that due to the error of my records of the past as well, people can't recognize my existence."

 

Rio nods in agreement, and so does Valerie. The blonde-haired man couldn't think of any possibility other than the alleged connection due to a certain error in their Record of the Past. It's a problem they cannot solve on their own.

 

"For now, I think it would be best if we report this matter to the scientists in the future," Valerie muttered.

"Yeah. This problem can only be reviewed by scientists because they're the ones who created the records of the past. Hopefully, it can be resolved quickly, "Rio added.

Arisa has missed something. "Wait a moment. Can we still communicate with scientists in the future?"

"Yes, we still have an open channel on Ringnet. I'm not very technically savvy, but it's still possible to transmit data to the future to get help from the scientists there. Sending information to the future doesn't need to require a lot of energy. It's different from sending us back to the future," replied Rio.

"Amazing. Because of that feature, our communication ring also gathers energy over time, and it's estimated to be enough to bring us back after a year of being here, right?" Arisa said.

"I think we've created a super item that can practically do anything, making our communication easier. I heard there's a hidden feature inside it." Valerie added more information.

"Is that true?" asked Arisa.

Rio butted in. "It's just a rumor. It's still not yet proven, and the said feature's purpose is unknown. It's best that we leave that urban legend and do something else better."

"Tch, you must be fun at the parties." Valerie frowns.

"Shut it. Still, I can't understand how we were able to send information to the future that shouldn't have happened because we were here. You know, we're trying to change the future, right? Will everyone in the future will have a bad effect or something if we mess up in this timeline?"

"Hey, Rio. You can't understand something so simple like that?" Valerie sneered.

"What about you? Can you explain it to me?"

"No."

Rio sneezes.

"Okay. We have reached a temporary conclusion for our situation. Then, I will make a report for the scientists when I can access the Ringnet later," said Arisa.

 

Unknowingly to the two guys there, Arisa's banana split has gone during their conversation. The atmosphere in the cafe is quite relaxing for her. So, she calls the waitress to bring her second order.

 

"More or less, we know what to do next. So…" Valerie glanced at Rio and Arisa briefly as Rio noticed that, "I remember that there is still a date I have to attend. So, you two, try to get along now. Haha!"

"Val! Wait a minute!"

"Hah? What else are we going to talk about? The only thing that we can do right now is to send a report to the future and wait for the scientists to resolve it, right?"

"Erm, yeah. You're right."

"We can do that later, maybe in the evening or night. Now, ciao, you all."

 

The blond man walks away towards the door of this cafe, ignoring his friend's plea. While he is at it, Valerie gives a small flirty greeting to one of the servers by inviting her to out later, making the said person blush.

Now only Rio and Arisa are the only ones left at the table.

 

"…"

"…"

 

Not any conversation was heard between them as Arisa continued to enjoy her ice cream.

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