Our Adventure Will Never End

source: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/93417630
Entry 5 A Wish to Decide the Future

“So how exactly do I reach this dead timeline?” I ask her. I’m a little concerned I don’t possess the ability…or courage to do so anymore.

“Ufufufu…aren’t you the time traveler? Well thanks to the...other Ame. Gura and I had found a very hidden text, locked away within the Atlantis library…we...I will transport you across space time the same way I sent IRyS to you. I can create a point of travel to almost anywhere in any timeline…provided a few conditions are met. One being that I need to possess an item of the person I am looking for. Two, I need an immense amount of mana to cast the spell.”

“Oh! The other Ame’s diary!” I exclaim out, hope sinking its teeth back into my voice.

“Correct, according to your story, her timely offer to assist us had cost her… her life. I think it’s best to not squander the opportunity she has presented us.”

“Right…so how did you guys find me? Did I leave something of mine behind for you?” Ina stares at me funny. Did I say something wrong? Oh god!

“You mean aside from your office full of your possessions Ame?”

“Ah…right…”

“Ufufu…well actually…remember when you jokingly sold me your soul for that donut?”

My eyes shift to the side embarrassingly, “…Yeah…” I say faintly.

“Well…” Ina lets a giggle slide under her breath.

“You’ve had my soul the entire time since then? Souls are actually real?!”

Ina raises her arms and folds them across her chest. “Well…in a method or manner…yes. But! I was eventually going to return it! And besides, it’s better I still have it anyways since it allows me a pure and undisturbed link to you.”

I’m not going to think too hard about what I’ve just heard…What the heck! Why didn’t Calli say anything about that, surely if souls were real she would’ve told Ina to return it to me!

"Wait a second Ina...if the other Ame gave you guys info on where that book was..." I get interrupted before being able to finish.

"Yes. That means Kronii more than likely also has knowledge of either this or other ancient texts."

"Is...that something...we should be worried about?"

"Is it something to be worried about Ame? Did anything seem different about Kronii? Your story didn't seem to show something off about her as far as I could tell." As far as you could tell?

"The reality marble...you don't think that's too much of an issue? She did say she wasn't the only one using the ancient ones magic or...something... heh..." I laugh nervously..am I misremembering things? No...just...been a lot to take it.

"Hmm, I think she was lying. For one...that's not even our magic. Two...she didn't notice you nor IRyS arrive right? You know her better then us Ame, what do you think?"

Ina is right...Kronii...might've been lying... she hasn't been consistent with what she has said and done.

“As a reminder Amelia, the timeline you will be heading to has already ended. You can’t travel forwards in time there at all, only backwards from the point where time had ended.”

“Timeline 37564… Wait…why only back?” I ask cautiously.

“Because the timeline has no future. It is no more than a specific still on a roll of film. I hypothesize that if you were to travel forward, you would simply move straight to the end of time with Kronii again.”

“Alright, I’ll keep that in mind then.”

“Not just in mind! You cannot, I repeat, CAN NOT, go forwards. It takes me several days to gather the necessary mana required to cast the spell. If you end up back at the end of time with Kronii, nobody will be able to reach you. Promise me you won’t go forwards.”

“Yeah…ok Ina. I promise. Detective’s honor!” I raise my right hand like I’m making an oath with Ina. So if I travel forward in a timeline that has been eliminated…No…Kronii said she had summoned me…but… if she had summoned me then why were we standing in the dark in complete silence…This doesn’t add up, clearly she would’ve expected me…but…I’ve never been summoned by Kronii before... maybe... she was lying to me? Was she hoping to take advantage of the situation? Maybe she just recognized what happened quicker than I did…sigh Every answer I get opens up ten more questions…

“Ame? You ok?” Ina reaches out to me and nudges my left shoulder.

“Oh…Oh…Yeah! Yeah I’m okay! I just…have a lot on my mind…” I keep my thoughts to myself, Ina doesn't need more weighing down on her mind.

Ina smiles at me and pinches my cheek. “Ame…this is going to be your most dangerous investigation yet. Nobody has ever recorded anything from a failed timeline because a timeline has never failed before. You are going deep into uncharted territory and it’s possible that you may even garner Kronii’s attention. Steel yourself. Prepare for the journey to save our…to save all timelines. I will let you know when I’ve finalized the preparations for travel.”

“Right! Thanks Ina!” I smile at her and head back towards my room. This investigation…It may very well be my last one…Something like this has never been recorded before... so not even the ancient ones have experienced something like this. Heh...if the consequences of failure weren't so dire, I'd probably have a lot of fun trying this out. Well...it's still pretty fun. As I reach my door I spy an exceptionally charismatic takodachi. “WAH!” It squeaks out at me.

“Hey buddy! How have the patrols been? I’ll try to sneak you a cookie back next time ok!” It hits me with a very excited “WAH~”I enter my room and sit at my desk, spending some time reading through old notes from investigations I performed at Kronii’s behest. My door creeks open and someone sits themselves on my bed. I know who it is...I've been neglectful and not spoken to her yet and I'm about to leave again...Sorry... I clear my throat and try to speak with confidence.

“I’m not afraid of going…in fact…it’s really the opposite. I’m excited! I’m really excited! This is the chance of a lifetime, to go boldly where no one has gone before!”

“Yeah but you better come back! Plus what's a lifetime to a time traveler anyways you dummy!”

“C’mon Gura! You know me! I always come back!”

“You almost didn’t last time Detective!”

“Well…those were just unforeseen circumstances. It’ll be different this time! Just you watch!”

“How exactly is anything unforeseen to a time travel dingbus?”

“That’s not even a woorrrdd Gura!”

“You’re not even a word!”

“What does that even mean?!”

Gura picks herself off of my bed and walks towards me at my desk.

“I just…You know…I was scared you weren’t gonna come back. I spent days searching with Ina inside the library’s most forbidden section… looking for something…anything that could’ve led us to you. That other Ame is just as lazy as you! Zero hints! Just "It's in a forbidden part of Atlantis' library." Real helpful Watson!”

I stand up…walking to meet Gura and giving her a hug.

“I’m sorry…I…I don’t know what happened…I really don’t know…I just blinked and ended up at the end of time…Everything lately has been so fragmented…I’m…maybe because I’ve lost all my other selves…All the other Ame’s are gone…It’s just me now…” I pause and hold onto Gura tightly, trying to keep my big girl face on for her…but it’s getting hard.

“We’re…me…I’m especially grateful to that Ame who showed up to help find you. We thought maybe you were setting up a prank at first, but Ina had noticed her soul was fragmented. She immediately knew it was a different Ame and brought her here to explain what was going on. I’m sure Ina has told you the rest of that story.” Gura grips me back, I can feel her shaking in place.

“Yeah…yeah…wait…Ina didn’t mention anything about a fragmented soul. What are you talking about Gura?” I let go of her and stare curiously at her.

“She didn’t…uhhhh…MMMMaybe I wasn’t supposed to mention that…” Gura trails off, bonking her head and sticking out her tongue on the side of her mouth.

“Why wouldn’t she want me to know that…wait…so if that Ame’s soul was damaged…and Ina had my soul…then…I’ve been protected by Ina the whole time…That Ame…she never made that deal with her Ina!”

“Deal?” Gura looks at me curiously now.

“Oh…eheheh…uhhh don’t worry about it! The important thing is that somehow…Ina has had me protected the entire time…And that also means…I have a perfect reference of time to visit when I arrive in the other timeline!”

“Well that’s a good thing right? These are all good things right?”

“I hope it is Gura…” I feel like Ina withholding that information from me is suspicious to say the least…but I trust Ina! We’re friends to the end!

“So what now?” She asks me

“I dunno. Wait for Ina to finalize her preparations I guess.”

“…Wanna make out or something?”

“Sure ehehehehe.” We both start laughing and Gura heads towards my door.

“Well I’ll leave you with your thoughts then. I’m sure you have a lot on your mind.” She says with one foot out of the door.

“Yeah…thanks for coming Gura.”

“Anytime smelly!”

“Let’s get some cookies! Follow me takodachi!” I hear her voice get more and more quiet as she travels down the hall. For all life to have ended in other timelines…all that life vanish from existence…I have to fix this! I won’t let Kronii take this from me! I go back to my desk and plan out my actions for my adventure, my eagerness making the wait feel like an eternity.

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"Alright Ame, if you are at peace with your decision, let's begin. I have gifted you the equivalent of 72 hours worth of time to spend in the dead timeline. You must stop the other Ame from forming that deal with Kronii. When the 72 hours are up, you will immediately be sent back here, where we will eagerly be awaiting your return in a hopefully "safer" universe."

"72 hours? IRyS was under your spell for like 5 minutes!"

"I severely underestimated how much mana it took to send someone to the end of time. Even for someone like me, it's a considerable challenge. You and Kronii don't know how easy you got it!" Ina replies to me with a hint of annoyance in her voice. I didn't mean to doubt her or anything...

"Ok so I have 3 days to stop the end of everything? I can only go backwards in time however, going forward would send me to the end of time. Do I have this right so far?"

"Correct! You can call it 3 days but I think saying the time value in hours is easier to manage. Up to you. Anyways...do not...under any circumstance...go forward! It took me a week of almost pure meditation to gather all of this mana up, I want to take a break after sending you back... At most I can gather mana for another...let's say 64 hours. I'm not sure how much time that would give you... maybe 13 or so extra hours. Don't check my math!"

"So 13 extra hours..."

"Also keep in mind, we will have no idea whether or not you need the extra time...sooooo...don't do anything you would normally do Ame."

"Waddaya mean? I'm a professional!" I whine back at her, does she think I'm that dumb?

"Ame. Not this time, we can't risk it." Ina's voice is quiet...I know what she means...I know she's right...sigh Why do I be me sometimes.....

"Well then...lets get this mission started! Have you said your goodbyes?"

"Yeah...I saw everyone after waking up." I realize that my hands are shaking...How long have they been shaking? Yeah...alright I'm nervous... but I'm hopeful! I can do this! I go back and fix things all the time!

"Alright...hopefully it wasn't the final goodbye to everyone! We still have lots of adventures to go on, right?" Ina smiles at me warmly...I've gotta fix things, I will fix things!

"Of course! When this is all over we can gather everyone and eat and laugh and sing together over a mission successfully complete!" Everyone...even...her?

"Step into the circle Ame. I'm going to start the ritual." Ina picks up my...the other Ame's diary. I never got to look inside it...maybe that's for the best. I guess that's knowledge that I should never learn. The burden of that knowledge might make me doubt myself... I guess it just rolls off of Ina...she's probably seen some things in her time... I step into the ritual circle and stand in place. I tighten my coat around my back and look down at my watch hanging over my chest...although my watch doesn't work...You know what! I don't need that thing anyways! I can move through time just fine! I hope...

"Ready Ina! Send me back!" Ina moves towards me and stands now in front of me. Her gentle smile slowly fades off of her face, she nods and begins to recite her...magic...chant?

"I hold the silver key. Come forth from nothingness and open the lock... Oh Father, my God. Moving beyond the sleep of roses, the realm of dreams, we arrive at the final gate!" The circle below me lights up, just like the one that lit up around IRyS and I at the end of time. No going back now Ame! I feel oddly tranquil, I've never imagined that something like this would be so calming. I start to lift up off of the floor, my clothing also lifting up...slightly embarrassing but I guess if it's just Ina seeing...I blink and open my eyes up to a new world.

Reflections Ten Thousand Meters Deep:
Entry 4 With Passion and Purpose:
Entry 6