10th Aniversary Mind Control!

[[NPC] Ai]

Alright everyone, welcome to our first, and hopefully last, emergency meeting...
Wait, why are you here? I didn't make you a staff member!

I was a witness to the murder last night.

You were?

Jim shush!

Whatever. I don't care. Consider yourself lucky for being here.

You hear that Marvin? Maybe your bad luck is starting to go away?

The spring in my chair is broken.

Why is Mizuki sensei here? Is she also a staff member?

I could ask you the same thing. I don't remember Hanasaku mentioning you and Zarath during the opening ceremony. This isn't nepotism, is it?

NO! ...WE'RE JUST FRIENDS!

......Yeah...? Isn't that the definition of nepotism?

Risky whispers something to Ai.

OH! Oh right. Right, sorry.

Anyway, Miss Mizuki, I need you here because your D-lixirs are the only thing that can bring people back from the dead in case there are any more accidents.

In most cases.

Huh?

My D-lixirs aren't an end-all cure for death, Hanasaku. It has its limits. There has to be a body left behind and, ideally, the brain has to be mostly intact. Doesn't have to be, but if not there's hardly any point in bringing them back.

Why not?

I can't bring back memories, Hanasaku. If the electrical impulses of the brain are disrupted, then they won't have any memories when they're brought back. Happened to a guild member of mine. She hasn't been herself ever since.

Well my Rollback Magnum can remove memories and store them in these boxes. What if I remove their memories before they die, and put them back when you revive them?

Wait, for real?

......What? Why are you all looking at me?

Sensei, Ai wiped your memories a while ago. You asked her to wipe your memories to prove it and she did, and now you're both having this conversation again.

It's true. Ai told us not to say anything.

The room is filled with muffled giggling.

......

You know what? I'm not even mad. Because hot damn, that's amazing.

Jim, can you come down and brief everyone on what happened with your party last night?

Certainly!

[[NPC] Jim]

Jim recaps everything that happened in the basement the night before, with Jim conveniently omitting any mention of the Zombie Gang on Ai's request, any mention of Alex at the request of Risky and his fellow spirits for whatever reason, and anything involving Helvetica for her own sake. This has the unfortunate side effect of leaving Jim without very much at all to tell his fellow event staff, and spends the next ten minutes going off topic on a tangent about how light works. He only stops after noticing a small, red dot on the projector screen zipping around in circles behind him. The room is filled with muffled giggles. Michi had found a laser pointer conveniently under her desk and was using it to entertain the rest of the staff while Jim rambled on about nothing. With a lighthearted chuckle he decides to wrap up his long-winded speech.

...we didn't find Risky's murderer, but we did find a ten year old girl that's able to appear out of any reflective surface down there. Perfectly harmless, but try and keep to yourselves if you bump into each other. She's territorial and easily frightened.

Any questions?

You didn't accidentally wake up Satan while you were down there, did you?

One time! That happened one time, Chihiro! And you got your Fire Helmet, so why are you complaining?!

I like it when you're angry. That's why.

Ai said someone was setting off explosives in the basement. Was there some kind of fight?

Oh yeah, we ran into-

A bunch of time travelling terrorists that wanted to blow up the basement! They had a chip on their shoulder over the FFS and wanted to wreck their headquarters. I banned them from the event and sent them back to their time period, so you don't have to worry about them ever ever ever ever ever again.

Ai makes a zipper mouth expression toward Amy and Jim while Naru isn't looking.

[[NPC] Asami]

I've got a question! I've got a question!
How did you fit your house in your coat?

It's a pocket dimension. You know, bag of holding. Very simple enchantment. Next question?

Yeah but how'd you fit your house in there isn't a house too big?

I didn't fit my house in there, I built the whole thing inside the coat.

Would your coat be heavy with an entire house in it tho?

No, because my coat is just a door to another dimension. All the weight is carried on the other side.

But wouldn't a door also be heavy to carry around?

......

Someone please ask me a different question.

Who'd you buy the supplies from?

I don't remember, it was ages ago!

Do you have insurance on it?

YES! NEXT QUESTION!

If you had another coat that ALSO had a house in it, and you put that in the first coat-

The combined weight wouldn't amount to anything because they would both be gateways to another dimension, so no it wouldn't make my coat twice as heavy. And if you were asking if they'd turn inside out, the answer is still no because they'd be two separate dimensions of holding inside each other. Now can we stop talking about my coat?!

Do you have any pets?

Wha- Pets? Wh-Where did-
N-No! I don't! They die faster than humans do, and that's saying something!

Okay but if you had a pet what kind of pet would you get?

I'm not getting a pet!

Wouldn't that wolf girl count? I read Lycan culture is sorta kinda okay with the pet thing.

NO!

If you're thinking about a bird, don't bother getting one if you don't know how to take care of them.

I'm not getting a pet!

What's your favorite animal?
Oh! No! What's your favorite color?
Oh! No wait! How much would you pay for your favorite animal that's in your favorite color to be your pet?

[[NPC] Jim]

Does anyone here have any important questions they'd like to ask?! You know, about the crime scene or the underground?!

Oh! Oh!

Anyone else?

Mr. Fadbury I just want to ask you a question. Why won't you let me ask you a question? All I wanna do is ask you a question.

ALRIGHT.

FINE.

BUT THIS IS THE LAST ONE. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO KNOW?

Are you The Doctor?

...

...

...doctor who?

p!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No, seriously, doctor who?!

AAAAH! OMG JIM YOU'RE JUST LIKE THE DOCTOR HOLY CRAP!!!!

Who is this doctor person?!?!?!

Play dumb all you want! I know it's you, Time Lord!

Time Lord?!

Jim I'll tell you later, but HOLY CRAP THIS IS A MIND BLOWER WHY DIDN'T I SEE IT SOONER!?

TAKE ME TO SPACE, ALIEN MAN!

......You are a handful, young lady.

Try living with her.

And now you know why I allowed her to join us.

[[NPC] Ai]

If Mr. Fadbury is done, then we need to address the issue of the killer from last night. The footage from the basement's security cameras didn't show any other party besides everyone Fadbury mentioned. Even if the tech is 30 years old, we should have seen something show up if there was someone else down there.

You're a time traveler, right? Can't you go back in time and catch the killer before they murder Risky?

Not before, no.

Why not before? You could prevent Risky from being killed. Not that it mattered since he's undead, but getting killed still kinda sucks, doesn't it?

Gee, thanks.

The ghost in the basement didn't have a paradox bandit, so altering the events of Risky's murder could alter their history. Without a paradox bandit to preserve their original timeline, we would affect years or even decades of their history in the future and destroy the person they originally will be. More importantly, I don't want to kick someone out before they did anything wrong. That would be tantamount to a thought crime, or worse.

Well what about after?

That's the plan. I'm going back in time to catch the killer myself. We haven't run into them again, so there's the possibility that I took care of them already.

You want me to come back you up?

I have backup. If they kill me then I can send an infinite number of my future selves as reinforcement. There's also the possibility that what happened last night was an accident and I won't have to fight.

How could you call that an accident?!

It's... possible. What if they're suffering from some condition that affects how they view reality, or unnatural strength they're unable to control?

[[NPC] Zarath]

Exactly. We don't know what happened because none of us were there.

I was there! I've met them! I even saw what they looked like! They were-

They were...

...what did they look like again? Miss Amy, do you remember my description from last night?

Now that you mention it, I don't remember either. Like, at all.

Me neither. What about you Jim?

'Course I remember! It was a stout, bald man with a single strand of hair and a big, bulbous nose.

No, no, scratch that. Thinking of Mr. Chad there.

But I definitely had to fight back! That was self evident from the room I died in!

And how do we know the killer wasn't defending themselves after you mistook them to be hostile? We don't know their motivation either, Risky.

Does it even matter? Murder is still murder. What if they had killed one of the living guests instead of me?

You say that as if I'm not sitting right here.

I'm not saying we should let them get away with this... But consider the possibility that it was an accident. What then? Do we throw them out of the event?

If they're a threat to public safety maybe.

Risky, nobody's getting thrown out. I want this event to be for everyone. I'm not robbing someone of that just because of an accident.

And what if it wasn't an accident? This killer could still be a deranged lunatic.

But we can't automatically assume that's the case immediately. I don't know about you but I was raised to never assume malice when ignorance is just as good an explanation.

Well whoever raised you did a damn good job if that's the case.

Thanks.

Don't worry, Risky. If this really was murderous intent, they won't get away with it. But I absolutely do not want to ban someone because of a misunderstanding.

Just because it was a misunderstanding, if it even was that, doesn't mean they can be all "Sorry Risky didn't mean to kill you there" and go on pretending like nothing ever happened.

No, you're right. They should at least give you some compensation for what they did. It's only fair. And if it wasn't an accident then I'll send them back to their time period after a serious beating. This is my event and the killer is my responsibility. I won't have anyone else getting hurt. Besides, worse case scenario there are retroactively a dozen corpses of myself somewhere in this building. No biggie.

W-Wait hold on a second! Do we really have to use time travel for this? I could just spirit myself all over the park looking for them. The park isn't that big!... Not nearly as big as Little City. It would be easier than looking for Black Naru, that's for sure... right?

......right?

Naru...

We have the ability to time travel. Why shouldn't we use it?

Risky's right. If I have the power to rewind time, I have no excuse not to do my very absolute best.

But that's-

Don't worry, I've been hopping around time fixing little hiccus like this for as long as I've been deceased. Heck I spent like two days my time just error checking this event's preparations. It's not that big a deal.

大丈夫ですよ。問題ないですよ。

Ai merrily punches the coordinates to last night into her Wayback Machine.

This won't take more than a second... well, for you at least. Risky I have your mom on standby to grant me a new body just in case things turn ugly. Wish me luck!

Ai vanishes.

......

[[NPC] Ai]

Ai pops back into the meeting room mid victory dance a second later.

I'm baaaaaack~!

Well how did it go?

Ehehehehehehehe~ All taken care of!
Turns out it was all a misunderstanding! The killer was really shaken up about it too. I explained everything to them calmly and invited them to the event, but they were worried about hurting someone else and asked to be sent home.

It couldn't have been that easy.

Here, they wrote you an apology letter. Do you want it?

Scrap Piece of Paper

A piece of paper with a written apology addressed to Risky. The paper has what looks like tear stains on it.

Risky takes a quick look at the letter.

"Please forgive me for murdering you. I was scared and thought you were going to kill me. I asked Miss Hanasaku to take me back home because I don't want to hurt anyone else. I'm a terrible person who doesn't deserve friends, so please enjoy your event without me."

The letter is not signed.

Well... I mean...

Okay, maybe it was a misunderstanding... But what about the locked room mystery? How did they escape? Who were they? Why didn't you bring them back with you?

They were too embarrassed and wracked with guilt to face you. They were also afraid they'd hurt someone else and didn't want to stay for the event so I sent them back home. I think that's more than enough.

Is it? Is it really?

What else do you want me to say, Risky? That I beat them to a bloody pulp as punishment? They didn't mean any harm and they felt terrible about it. They're not part of the event anymore and we should let it go.

......

I guess you have a point. I never would have experienced what it's like to truly feel alive had I not been revived by Miss Amy, so it wasn't all bad. If you get the chance, let them know I don't hold any ill will towards them, okay?

Sure. Thanks Risky.

Wait, if you got rid of the killer, do I still have to search the basement?

Everyone gets a new clock face on their Paradox Bandits. Because the Risky in the room hasn't searched the basement yet, Ai's alteration to history has given him no reason to. Thankfully, the Paradox Bandits prevented a paradox from occurring. Risky still remembers the old timeline where he did search the basement, and decides for the new timeline to skip straight to waking Amy and her friends up for brunch.

Opps.

Well at least the killer has been taken care of!

But I'm tired of dying all the time like I'm everyone's meat shield!

Okay, okay, you're right. We'll all try harder to divvy up meat shield duty for the living guests. If it means preventing someone actually getting killed by another basement killer or Black Naru I'll die as many times as I need to.

Oh yeah, what'cha do with Black Naru anyway?

She got quantum locked during our fight. We're holding her in a vault a few floors down from here.

I can show you. You wanna come see?

Uh huh +w+

I guess meeting adjourned then? I need to get Risky's Wayback Machine from Black Naru anyway. The rest of you can go about your business as usual.

[[NPC] Michi]

You captured that Naru clone from last night? This I gotta see.

You want to come with, Sensei?

Yeah. Lemme call the others and ask if they want to come.

Michi starts a conference call on her PDA.

North! Cilla! Milan! I'm gonna see the evil Naru we caught last night. You with?

Evil Naru?

Some poser Naru clone from last night was beating up the werewolf girl. I kicked her ass, but she got away.

Really. You?

Don't worry. We caught her.

Does Drossel want to come?

Where IS Drossel? She bailed on us as soon as the event started.

She's in college, so she has wandering privileges. Black Naru isn't going anywhere anytime soon, is she?

No.

Great. She can visit her later.

Anyone else want to go? Amy? Jim?

I... think I've had my fill of exploring the underground for a while. I should probably be looking out for the androids... in case they... break down.

Yeah. Yeah that. Marvin and I should help too.

Shall I be of any assistance?

Don't you need to sync up with your future self?

Do I have to?

Yes that's an order.

I kinda told Senior B about Black Naru last night... He wants me to stay far away from her. I need to send a report to Mr. Fuhrer anyway...

As soon as North, Cilla, and Milan get here, Zarath and I can warp everybody to the basement.

The maximum security containment room has been re-purposed as a prison for some of the most dangerous guests. After the basement was unlocked, Ai came back for Zarath and a quantum-locked Black Naru in the warehouse, and moved her into the vault. Helvetica spent the night repairing the mechanism she broke by bending it back into shape. According to Helvetica, it's as good as new. Either way, whatever is locked down here will have a hard time getting out.

......罪?

Is that how you pronounce that?

We decided to use this vault to keep all the troublemakers locked up. The writing was Angela's idea. She wanted to write the kanji for "prison" but didn't know how, so she wrote the kanji for "sin" instead.

Why didn't she just write "prison" in english?

She likes to pretend she's Saitonese.

Normally I'd confiscate someone's Paradox Bandit so they can't return to the park and send them back home, but in emergency circumstances we have this room. Zarath, can you open the vault for me?

Zarath opens the vault. Inside are the two fused Black Naru's, still paralyzed from quantum lock.

Quantum Locked Ultra Black Naru

Becoming quantum locked has frozen Ultra Black Naru in time. She's taken on an appearance not unlike a statue. A very disturbing statue. Everyone gets a good look at the hideous work of art while they have the chance. No way in hell they're putting her on display. Too dangerous.

Well, there she is. The only question is, how do we get Risky's Wayback Machine back from her?

Have you tried just taking it from her?

Grim comes out from behind the hallway.

Yeah, we could, but she'll still be quantum locked as long as her future self is fused with her.

That's why we have to update the software on Risky's Wayback Machine. Fortunately I brought the software update with me.

Wayback Machine Software Update

A cartridge containing the latest update to the Wayback Machine's time travel software. Also includes a Nintendo Gamecube emulator and a ROM library of five games for it.

I'm sure Ai has told you, but the wayback machine isn't suppose to quantum lock anything. That is a bug because I'm bad at programming. Once you install the software update she should be free from quantum lock. Maybe...

There might be more bugs that come with this software update. It hasn't been tested.

So... make sure you lock the door so she doesn't escape!

It's that easy?

It is that easy.

It can't be that easy.

[[NPC] Ai]

Ai grabs Risky's Wayback Machine from Ultra Black Naru and has Zarath close the door again. She pops the cartridge into the device. The software takes about 10 minutes to update. Once the software updates, Ultra Black Naru can be seen moving again from the monitor on the wall, displaying live video feed from inside the chamber.

Hey I can see them moving! It worked!

...Wow she does not look happy.

Told you.

Hey Grim, this update wouldn't happen to work for my Wayback Machine as well, would it?

......Oh right I forgot. You two need different software updates. My bad.

Are you serious.

Sorry, Risky's Wayback Machine is a much older model. The outer casings might look the same, but they're completely different machines underneath.

Yeah... Yeah of course they are.

Wait... why did we do this again?!

I mean, eventually one of them will have to go back in time and fuse with the other.

Yeah but... couldn't we have waited until AFTER the event ended?!

......Oh

......Oops.

OOPS?!?!

DON'T WORRY! DON'T WORRY! I CAN FIX THIS!
She's a Gemini Clone sooo... Naru! You don't want to stay locked up in this vault all day, do you?

Uh... No?

Then BAM! Black Naru will! Problem solved!

I really don't know about this...

Well what's done is done. Might as well straighten out the timeline while we're here. I can use my Rollback Magnum to alter the present one's memories and send her to last night's fight. Naru, can you take me in there and hold the future one down?

Oh! Oh! Can I help?

You know what? I like the sound of that. Can my mom come too?

Alright. Alright. You can come too.