10th Aniversary Witching Hour!

[[NPC] Naru]

...Huh? What just...

...Ai! What happened to Black Naru?!

Be with you in a sec!...
Everything's spinning... I need it to not be doing that...

Ai is stumbling around, barely able to keep herself on her feet. Naru is no different, but recovers quickly.

What just happened. I felt dizzy all of a sudden, and then everything sort of jumped around...

[[NPC] Ai]

Urrrrrgh... this is bad.

N-Naru, I think I know what happened. And if I'm right, then we've got bigger problems to worry about.

You think this is another ability of Black Naru's?

Deff'nitely... You mentioned everything jumping around as if we all teleported from one spot to another. I think what happened is we've forgotten the last five... no, ten minutes of the fight.

Forgotten? Like our memories were altered?

Exactly. Know what this is?

Rollback Magnum

One of the pistols Ai carries with her. No one is sure what kind of ammunition it uses.

My Rollback Magnum. When used on ordinary objects and people, it acts like a regular caster gun, but with one exception. When you hit someone in the head, it removes their memories and stores them in Synapse Magazines that are ejected from the gun's chamber. And right now I see two magazines at my feet.

Synapse Magazine

A memory card-like object ejected from Ai's Rollback Magnum. They contain the memories erased by the Rollback Magnum. Like all abstract artifacts, they are indestructible.

That can only mean I must have fired at you before or after firing on myself. There are a few seconds of dizziness after being hit, so either possibility could be true.

But why would you do that?!

I wouldn't. Not unless I had a good reason to. Just to be safe, let's assume this is connected to Black Naru's ability. Somehow, she made me fire on each of us. Knowing her, she might have tried to use my own gun against me, but because the blow wasn't lethal, she found it safe to use it on you. Thanks to the confusion, Black Naru could be hiding anywhere right now. She could have even gone back to the Gemini World. Either way, be careful. Keep an eye out for when she shows herself.

Oh, one more thing. I need you to hold onto this.

Wayback Machine

Ai's time machine. Uses Zeitgeist Archival Technology to travel through time periods. The actual time machine is encased in the shell of a portable video game system. There's enough memory space to hold a few emulator programs as well.

[[NPC] Naru]

Your time machine?

If I'm right about Black Naru's ability, then my Wayback Machine is no longer safe with me. A Black Naru with the ability to time travel is the one thing we absolutely must avoid.

...That's right! Black Naru's abilities don't work on me, like how my spirit influenced her shadow.

Naru, if we want to beat your Gemini self, we need to combine our powers. If you can use your spirit powers on my Wayback Machine, you can send your spirit into the future and predict how the fight will play out.

But how do I even use this thing?

You don't need to know how to use it. Just let your spirit operate it. It shouldn't take your body into the future, but you'll get a clairvoyant-like vision. We can use that to figure out how the fight will play out.

Uh... O-Okay. I'll give it a try...

One more thing. Once you see something in a vision, it absolutely will come true no matter what.

Huh?!

Us Waybackers refer to the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment when it comes to altering the future. If you don't know how the future will play out, anything is possible. But once you open the lid, or know the future, there's only one possible truth.

Then, what if I see something really really awful?! Is there nothing I can do?

Don't worry about it! There's a chance that what you may see might not be what you think you see. Us Waybackers thrive on exploiting subjective context. Either way, I'm the one with the memory gun, so if you see something unavoidable I can always make you forget. Also, squinting sometimes works... sometimes...

Fate's a hard nut to crack, but with enough persuasion you can p'much make it do whatever you want.

Ai gives Naru a confident thumbs-up.

[[NPC] Naru]

Naru sends her spirit a minute into the future. The vision she sees is...

AAAAAAHHH!!!!

Naru what's wrong?!

DAMN YOU! COME ON OUT AND FIGHT ME! I'M THE ONE YOU WANT! LEAVE AI OUT OF THIS!!!

Naru, you have to calm down. Whatever it is you saw might not have been what you thought it was. Tell me where I was in the vision. We might be able to play it out while avoiding whatever it is that happened.

N-No! I-It's not safe here! I have to get you out of here before-

LISTEN TO ME! I want to help, but I can't with you in a panic. I'm not asking what happens, but if Black Naru is going to attack us I need you to describe how she attacks.

I-I don't know. Th-there was blood... blood everywhere. I-I-I couldn't see what hit you...

Don't worry, it's fine. Look, I'll back up against the truck. If she tries to hit me I'll be able to see it coming from here.

Naru notices the blood splatter along the rafters of the warehouse when she skewered Black Naru earlier. Looking at the floor, she sees the blood splatter that was made when Black Naru fired off her rib missiles.

...A... AI! GET AWAY! ON THE FLOOR! THE BLOODSTAIN! THAT'S HOW SHE ATTACKS!

[[NPC] Ai]

Ai's legs lift up at tremendous speed, but this isn't to get away. Somehow, she lifts both feet off the ground without kicking off, dropping her face first into the blood stain on the floor.

Before she even manages to catch herself, let alone hit the ground, the blood fires upward into thousands of needle-like projectiles. All of them relentlessly batter Ai, creating several bullet holes in her body, and blowing her left arm off in the process.

Ai's body falls to the ground, severely injured.

[[NPC] Naru]

Ai! Ai! Please don't die! You can't die!

I-I know! We can get your future self to come back with one of Sensei's D-lixirs to fix you up! And once you're all better we can make a stable time loop and-

Opps! I didn't mean to hit her that hard! Oh well, she was only holding you back anyway. You're better off without her.

Ai is still breathing, but she isn't moving much. Because of the severity of her injuries, in addition to a regular action, Ai will have to roll for her own survival on her subsequent turns.

......

But her last act was pretty smart, giving you her time machine. Had she not done that I could have raided her corpse for it, then spend an afternoon doing all sorts of time travel hijinks!

[[NPC] Ai]

Naru... Get a hold of yourself...!

...!

Everythings... gonna be fine... but you have... to trust me.
Focus on finding out Black Naru's ability. If you worry about me, she'll win.

...but, your injured... really badly.

This isn't... as bad as you think it is. The truth is... I've been hiding something from you and Zarath... because I didn't know if you'd be able to handle it. But I promise, I'll be fine. If you don't believe me, use my Wayback Machine. Look a few minutes into the future. That should be the proof you need that I'll make it out of this.

[[NPC] Naru]

Naru sends her spirit a few minutes into the future, desperately looking for a clue that would tell her Ai would be okay.

Ai is standing in front of her. She's perfectly fine, and alive. Even her missing arm is back. She's waving at Naru and smiling. Zarath's there too, sitting next to Black Naru who looks to have been beaten. This seems too good to be true, but somehow, without a shadow of a doubt, Ai is still alive in the future!

...Stop Black Naru. I gotta tag out for now.

Hey, you done? Did seeing your friend get decimated awaken some righteous fury in you? Hurry up! I wanna fight some more!

SHUT UP! There's more important things in this world that fighting you damn psychopath!!! I don't care how much you try to convince me, I'll never love fighting as much as you do! I'd rather never have to fight again if I could!
Our fight with Overlord Garamond was a year and a half ago. After that we had to deal with Overlord Serif. And not too long ago we had to help Overlord Helvetica when she came out of the Gemini World. I've had to deal with hundreds of minor issues along the way as well, and worst of all I've had to deal with you, all because you're bored! I never gone more than a year without having to deal with some asshole like you wanting to pick a fight!

When am I going to get a break!?

You could try and, I don't know, not give a shit about what other people want you to do and live for yourself. You're only stuck in this endless cycle because you're afraid to say no.

Shut up shut up shut up! You of all people should know how I feel, but that only makes you want to fight more! And now you've gone too far!

Come oooooon! You know I can't help it! That's what I'm saying! Once you move on from this weird obligated heroism you've set for yourself we both can move on! Don't you think that after all you've done people owe you a little respect? Is it so hard to blow everyone off for your own sake?

Yeah, because I'm not a selfish jerk like you are!

...Why do I even bother? Even back in my time you still let others walk over you. Well... you did beat up a shit-ton of Reapers and got thrown in spirit jail for it. That was pretty awesome. But to expect you to change now would contradict who you will be.

Why do you even bother trying to change my mind then?! Why don't you just go back to where you came from and leave me alone?!

...You just don't get it.

......

Fine! Whatever! You want to be everyone's personal maid? Go ahead! I don't even care! Just try and carry the world on your shoulders! You'll fail! I guarantee you'll fail! And nobody will be there to help you get back up! Know why? Because to everyone else, all you're good for is solving their problems for them! And once you're of no use to them they'll throw you away! Nobody cares about your needs! Not even yourself!

[[NPC] Black Naru]

Black Naru instantly appears in front of Naru. In reality, Black Naru never left for the Gemini World, instead having camouflaged herself by altering her skin and hair cells to bend light around them.

Naru is too slow to react, and Black Naru lands a hit, knocking Naru back.

Before Naru can fall over, Black Naru extends one of her arms by shortening the other, grabbing Naru and pulling her back for another beating.

[[NPC] Naru]

Naru is justifiably upset, but she can't risk letting her emotions compromising the fight. Ai was proven to be fine in the future, so Naru is trusting she doesn't need any immediate help.

Naru summons her spear, but her hand refuses to grab onto it.

Quickly looking at her hand, she notices a cartoonish effigy of herself as some kind of tattoo on her hand. It laughs as its arms wrap all the way around to her palm, freezing her hand in place.

Naru's spear drops to the floor as Black Naru lays the smackdown on her. As a result, Black Naru is able to knock Ai's Wayback Machine off Naru, sliding it across the warehouse floor away from them. Naru will have to get it back before Black Naru can steal it.