I woke up a minute before my alarm to the dull roar of rain. The gray darkness seemed to creep into the apartment, muting the bright colors of what Meiko called my magpie nest. I laid there until the alarm started buzzing. I slapped the snooze button and sat up. Next to the alarm was the small whiteboard and marker. Time Driver and Memoka. As I got dressed and re-braided my hair, they weighed heavily on my attention. Meiko didn't know we were friends. Rou thought I was incompetent, and there was a loud shark monster out there somewhere waiting for me.

I slipped the Time Driver and Memoka into my pocket and went to make coffee and check the Internet for anything interesting to report at work. I was just looking at an article about the mascot that was introduced the day before, just to see if anyone had mentioned the whole weirdness with the ReMares and blots, when my cellphone chimed. I checked it, my heart sinking when I saw the time on the lock screen. I was running late. Very late. Usually Meiko knocked on my door as she was heading downstairs to go to the bus stop and we'd go together. I had already missed the bus and I only had fifteen minutes to get to work.

I checked the text anyway. It was from Rou. "Come by sometime today," it read, and included a location pin.

I texted him back a quick "k" before grabbing my work messenger bag and barreling down the stairs. The next bus would be another hour, and that would be well after my show had started. I'd have to brave the rain. I jumped on my bicycle instead, peddling furiously down the road. Let me tell you one thing about Oara. On one side is the ocean and the other side is a bunch of mountains. Flat Kansas it is not. I got to work soaked from the rain, exhausted and barely on time.

"Meiki, are you alright?" The receptionist asked. "You're soaked."

"I'm fine, I'm fine. Not dying, probably." I said, taking off my soggy outside shoes for my comfortable inside shoes. Even my socks were wet. Ugh. I took them off too. I had an extra outfit in my locker, it was just a matter of getting changed. "Just had to swim to work, that's all."

"Meiko is already here. Did you guys get in a fight or something?" she asked, watching me as I awkwardly walked over to the lockers to grab my emergency set of extra clothes.

"No, um. I don't know," I said, distracted. That is probably what it looked like, wasn't it? "I'm going to change. I'll join her in the booth as soon as I'm finished. Let her know I'm here, could you Nawata-san?"

"Alright."

I quickly got changed in the bathroom, and went to our sound booth. I waited until she put a commercial up to join her. "Good morning!" I said cheerfully, "Sorry I'm late. Usually you knock on my door on the way out so I lost track of time."

"Good morning, Kimura-san," Meiko said quietly. "No, I don't think I do. I do not know where you live. Are you alright?"

"We live next..." She looked a little alarmed, and I dropped it. Maybe announcing that we lived next to each other when she didn't remember that was weird. "Whatever. I'm fine. Just fine." I said, although I was starting to doubt it. "Must have been thinking of someone else. Sorry."

"Alright. Let's start," Meiko switched us back to recording.

"Good morning Oara. It's your hosts, Kimura Mei," I said, trying to give my radio voice its normal high energy. I mostly just sounded tired.

Meiko looked at me, puzzled, before giving her own introduction. "And I'm Koda Mei!"

She didn't add the part about being the Mei Brigade, so I awkwardly added, "We're the FM 98.4 Mei Brigade, and um..."

"I've been thinking about that. Why are we called that?" Meiko asked.

"What? The Mei Brigade? We've always been called that," I said, floundering. "We're both named Mei and we're a team..." I glanced out the window to the hallway to see if the producer was watching. She was. Okuda-san had looked up in concern. I gave her a sort of pleading look and she made a gesture to change the subject. "Anyway! How's the weather today? It's really coming down out there. I had to ride my bike this morning and I got soaked!"

"Right. It's raining for most of our listening area. It'll keep raining all day. Tomorrow should be sunny and clear though, so it's a good day to go do something fun!"

"I heard there's a big sale down at the Kamitori Arcade tomorrow. Maybe we should go shopping?" I said, falling into our regular banter.

"I'm sure that is something our listeners should go do," she said, dodging the invite. "There's going to be a lot of lovely booths from local farmers and artisans. Please stop by! And with that, it's time for our Morning Music Drive," she said, putting on the morning playlist.

"What's going on?" Okuda-san asked as she came into the booth. "We've gotten a ton of calls from listeners asking if you guys are fighting and it's only been a few minutes!"

"Why would we be fighting?" Meiko asked, like it was beneath her notice to even talk to me, let alone care enough to quarrel with me.

"Ah, um... Sorry, boss! I'm actually not feeling very well today. It's my fault," I said, trying to keep Meiko from just outwardly admitting to the boss that she wasn't friends with me.

Okuda-san gave me a searching look, and sighed. "Alright. Explain that to the caller we give you and then go home. Get some rest, alright? We're looking for a Mei combi and this just isn't working today. Maybe you need to take a sabbatical..."

"Yes, ma'am." I said, feeling like I was sinking into the ground. I loved the radio station, and it didn't seem fair that I had to take a break. Well. It was better than getting into an actual fight with Meiko over memories that didn't match up and have her deny our friendship on air.

After our music break, we patched in the caller that Okuda-san had selected.

"Hello, caller. This is the Mei Brigade. What's up?" I asked, ignoring Meiko's puzzled frown.

"Hey, Mei Brigade! What's going on today? Are you guys alright?" The caller asked.

"I'm a little under the weather today. Slept in late and had to bike in the rain. So I'm actually going to be taking a little time off. Meiko will take care of you, so no worries!" I said, trying to sound cheerful.

"Oh no. Take care, Meiki. We love your show!" The caller said.

"Thank you so much. I will. And thanks for calling. I'm going to head home, so I'll hand you off to Meiko with some cool tunes." I took off my headset while Meiko introduced some more music.

I hesitated at the door to the booth. "Bye, then," I said.

She nodded, not looking up from the mixer. "Take care."

I waited a moment longer before sighing and leaving. I gathered up my things and grabbed an extra umbrella. My outside shoes were still damp. The receptionist gave me a concerned look, "You could just apologize. I know Meiko would forgive you right away."

"We're not fighting!" I snapped and shut the door to the station a little harder than I had intended. Whoops. I walked out of the building and stood at the entrance for a long moment. Of course now the rain had let up. I didn't really want to go home just to mope around, so I hooked the umbrella handle to my bike and looked up the pin that Rou had sent me.

It looked like it was a little café called Momiji, in the Kamitori Arcade. I hopped on my bike and started pedaling. At the top of the hill before reaching Kamitori, I paused to catch my breath. A motorcycle zoomed past and I heard the rider shout "Nice ride!"

I scowled after them, and pushed off, gliding down the hill, letting the thrill of zooming down distract me from how annoying the day had started off.

At the bottom of the hill I took a sharp right, entering the arcade. It was oddly quiet now. Usually the place had a constant stream of people, with vendors in long aprons trying to hustle folk to their bars. Most of the businesses were shuttered still for the morning. It wasn't even eight, so the day hadn't really started yet. I parked my bike to the side of the street near the cafe. It was still shuttered.

"I'm here. It's locked up though," I texted Rou. I nodded politely at an employee at a nearby shop who was setting out a sign with the day's specials.

A door next to the cafe swung open, and Rou stuck his head out. "Up here. Come on."

"It's not the cafe?" I asked, following him up some narrow and distressingly steep stairs. This building was clearly not made recently, nor with comfort in mind. "I was kind of hoping to get something to eat," I said.

"No. I hang out there sometimes, and the owner helps me with things occasionally. But my lab is here," he explained, putting his shoulder into another door that seemed to be slightly off its hinges.

"Oh." I said, not sure what to say about that. The inside was almost as run down. The floor was covered with an atrocious green carpet, and the walls were covered in bookshelves and filing cabinets. Over that layer of junk, he had propped up several large whiteboards, which were covered in notes and drawings of the Time Driver. A table covered with more notes and bits and pieces of white plastic and other tools took up prime real estate in the center of the room. Off to the side was a cramped kitchen and a large bay window with a surprisingly nice leather couch.

He stood there for a moment, as if suddenly realizing how disorganized the room looked, and started quickly straightening a pile of papers on the table.

"What did you need?" I asked, wondering if maybe he expected me to help him tidy.

"First of all, give me the Time Driver." Confused, I hesitated. Why did he want it back now? He rolled his eyes. "I'm going to give it back. Just hand it over," he held out a hand, his voice impatient. He had cleared a small area around what looked like a cell phone docking station that had a number of cords coming out of it.

"What are you doing?" I asked, handing it over. He placed the Time Driver in the docking station. He typed something in on a soft pink portable keyboard, the kind that could be rolled up or folded.

"I'm recording the battle data from yesterday and syncing it to the Pair Device," he explained distractedly. More jargon. I sighed.

"So… Is that all you needed?" I asked, wandering around the room. He had a picture of himself in a school uniform with Katsumi-san putting him in an affectionate headlock. I picked it up. He looked so clean cut, with his school appropriate hair and normal clothes. At least today he had replaced the hakama with loose jeans that had a sort of metallic sheen to them.

He looked up. "No. We're going to go find Sharky," he said, pulling a map out of the mess and unfurling it on the table. "The longer you wait the worse it's going to get."

"What?" I straightened up and took a step forward. "Worse?"

He gave me a look like I was stupid. "They're going to keep eating memories. And if they're like the other new ReMares, they'll go for other memories of you and Koda-san being friends first. ReMares tend to get a get a taste for certain memories. Now, you're basically safe from them as long as you're transformed, but if you're the only one who remembers being friends with her…" He trailed off, giving me a significant look. I shuddered.

"So, what do we do?" I said, investigating the map of Oara. It was something the tourism board handed out to local companies, so it had cute cartoony markings on it where there were points of mild interest, like where to find restaurants, locally grown fruit or the local style of pottery. There was also something about a bell that claimed to be the biggest in Japan. I had never seen it, but I was pretty sure there was a town up north near Tokyo that claimed the same thing. "How is this supposed to help?"

Rou narrowed his eyes at me, his ears going red. "It's the biggest map of Oara that I could find. And you'd be surprised how often these places are targeted," Rou snapped and shoved a blue highlighter into my hand. "Look, I just need you to mark places that are important to your friendship, and where there would be a lot of people who know about it."

"Alright," I said, crouching down to mark places like our schools and the radio station. "But, I think the whole city knows about us. It's kind of our whole radio thing. That's why I'm here and not at work. Our fans think we're fighting."

"Then the radio station might be the best place to start," Rou said, snatching the map away from me and investigating it carefully.

"I just came from there. Everything seemed fine," I said, not really looking forward to biking back up that hill. Or explaining to my coworkers why I was back already.

"We'll stop by the schools as well. What's this? Apartments?" He asked, pointing to a spot on the map that I had marked, but wasn't labeled as a point of interest.

"Yeah, we both grew up there," I said. "Listen, I've just got a mamachari bike, going to all those places is going to take all day."

"I know, I saw you earlier. We'll fix that," he said, waving me off distractedly as he walked over to one of the white boards to affix the map to it with magnets.

"You're the one that made fun of my bike!" I said, gasping like a child who had just decided to tattle on someone.

"Because it's silly. What kind of hero gets around on a bike with a basket?" He snorted, rolling his eyes. "Come on. Did you bring the Memoka too?"

I nodded and he grabbed the Time Driver and a second small whiteboard. "Is that another Time Driver?"

"No, unfortunately. It's the Pair Device. It's going on your garbage bike," he said, smirking at me.

"Excuse me for having a garbage bike," I grumbled as I followed him back down the stairs.

"Is that it?" He asked when we got down to street level. My bike was still the only one parked along the side of the arcade. Later there would be a long line of them. I nodded, and he handed me the Time Driver. "Take this. Let's see…" He knelt next to my bicycle, clamped a cellphone mount to the center of the bars, and then secured the Pair Device to that. "There we go. Swipe the Memoka on this." He tapped the Pair Device.

I took out the Memoka and uncapped it. I drew a swooping line across the Pair Device. The line glowed, and the Pair Device started playing a complicated drumbeat while white light circled around the bike, similar to my Time transformation. "SYNCHROCYCLE PAIR TIME!" the Pair Device declared in an oddly gravelly voice. The basket disappeared and the tires became thick and sturdy. White armor appeared on the bicycle until calling it a bicycle was no longer accurate. It was definitely a motorcycle now, with a sleek gleaming white frame and stylish black lines that mimicked the lines on my Year armor.

"Eeeeeh? No way!" I exclaimed, circling the bike, admiring it.

"You're welcome," Rou said. He was grinning and had his arms crossed in front of himself. "Now, let's get going." He undid a latch under the seat and pulled out a white helmet that, while looking more like a normal motorcycle helmet, still had some echoing style elements to Time's helmet. He thrust it into my hands.

I turned it around in my hands. "Right. Um. This is really cool and all, but I've never driven a motorcycle in my life," I said, my excitement slipping.

"The Pair Device is linked to the Time Driver and thus to you. It will adjust for any mistakes you might make. It also functions as a GPS, radio, and a communication link with me, among other things." It was really annoying to see him look so smug, but I suppose he had just transformed a cheap old bike into a super motorcycle. He maybe had a right to it. "Get on. Try it out. I'll meet you at the radio station." He took off into an alleyway.

I put on the helmet and straddled the Synchrocycle. The Pair Device made a chirp and the Time Driver made an echoing one from my pocket. On the Pair Device, the words "Let's Go!" appeared. I tapped it, and the engine rumbled alive. I lifted my feet and drove slowly down the arcade street. It handled so smoothly. As soon as I got back to the main road, I increased the speed, grinning and leaning in.

At the top of the hill, Rou caught up with me. "Nice bike!" he shouted again as he passed me by on his black motorcycle.

Okay, so this is a little embarrassing, even for me, but I may have whooped really loud and raced him all the way back to the radio station. We probably looked like jerks, weaving in and out through the morning traffic. It was close, but I ended up pulling into the parking lot first. "Nice bike, yourself!" I said as I took off my helmet and stored it.

He was also grinning like an idiot. "Not bad for someone who only knew how to use a garbage bike. Am I a genius or what?"

"Of course," I agreed amiably. "So, do we just go in? I'm supposed to be at home, resting," I peered up at the building. "They think Meiko and I are fighting."

"I know. I was listening," he said, getting out a small plastic box out of a saddle bag on the side of his motorcycle. "And I heard your show this morning. It was pretty awkward."

"You listen to my show?" I said, surprised.

"You'd be surprised how often you've alerted me to ReMare activity," he flashed me a grin, "And no, we don't have to go in. We're putting down a sensor. If a ReMare shows up, it'll trigger an alarm on the Pair Device and Time Driver," he explained. He opened the box and I peered over his shoulder to see what was inside. Origami paper? He handed me a piece of pink origami paper. "I'll need you to write the kanji for sensor on it with the Memoka." He noticed the look I was giving him and scowled, "What?"

"What good is origami paper going to do?" I asked dubiously.

"Is this really the weirdest part about this whole situation?Just do it!" He thrust the paper at me. "It's special paper that works with the Memoka. Don't worry about it."

"Alright." I did what he asked. The mark glowed white, and Rou took the paper back, inspecting it.

"Huh. I did not expect your handwriting to be so…"

"Cute?" I said, grinning.

"Girly. Whatever. It should work." He said, quickly folding it into a little flower. "I'll go stick it to the wall. Stay here." He jogged away and slapped it to the brick. Somehow it stayed in place. He came back. "Let's get going. Dai San Junior High is closest."

We road to the junior high and repeated the process. After that we went to Oara High School. There was a surprising amount of people around. Adults in suits and kids in uniforms that seemed slightly big on them milled around, taking photos as families or with friends. "Huh. I didn't realize the entrance ceremony was today," I said, getting the Memoka out to mark another one of the origami papers. "Wouldn't this attract ReMares?" I asked, "Maybe we should stick around." Okay, so secretly I wanted to say hello to a few old teachers and impress small children that the voice they heard on the radio in the morning had went to school here.

He paused what he was doing and glanced down the entrance way to where people were gathering around the gymnasium. He shrugged. "It's fine. If something shows up, it'll trigger the alarm. We have more places to put sensors."

After that we placed the little origami flowers at the park, the community center, and at our parents' apartment complex. It was starting to get close to noon and quite frankly the novelty of riding around on a motorcycle was starting to wear off. And I was hungry.

"We'll stop by your apartment complex next, and then the mall…" He said, climbing onto his motorcycle.

I waved my hands in objection. "Wait, wait, wait. Change of plans. Next let's go to AllFull. We can get lunch, and put a sensor there!"

"At AllFull? The family restaurant?" he asked, his lip curled in distaste.

"Yeah, Meiko and I usually go there for lunch on the second of the month. They've got a free bread special," I said, "And what's wrong with AllFull?"

"It's just… I dunno. The name sounds like awful in English. Kids are always just hanging around there. And there are so many good restaurants. Why go to a family chain?" he asked, ticking off reasons on his fingers.

"You sound like Meiko," I sighed, whining a little. "You people and your standards. I'm hungry. Let's go." I started the Synchrocycle and left. A few moments later he had caught up. I could feel the annoyance rolling off of him. Well, I was annoyed too. I wasn't some kanji machine just here to make his stupid origami sensors all day. I had to eat. And as I parked at the AllFull, I kept an eye out for Meiko. I didn't have much hope that she'd come here without me, but maybe it was enough of a habit that she would anyway. Rou grumbled as he followed me to the entrance. I ignored him.

"Maybe we should just put the sensor out here. We can go someplace to else. There's another hamburger place across the road," Rou said, standing at the threshold of the entrance.

"I'm eating here. Meiko might…" I sighed and grabbed his wrist, "Come on, snob, it won't," he yanked his arm away and glared at me. I blinked at him in surprise. "Sorry. It won't kill you. You don't have to eat here."

"I won't," he snapped.

"Alright, I'm sorry." I held my hands up, and walked backwards into AllFull, turning only to nod at the hostess who indicated we could sit anywhere. I found a seat near the drink machine. Rou had sulkily followed me in, and he sat down across from me like he was trying to touch as little of the table and chair as possible. "The chair isn't going to eat you," I said, picking up the menu.

He snorted and handed over the origami paper. I scribbled the kanji on the paper, not really looking at it. Rou made it into a flower, but held onto it, fidgeting with it. "This place doesn't feel right."

"Feels fine to me. What's your problem?" I asked. He just shook his head and peered warily around the room.

I ordered a cheese filled hamburger steak from the waitress. Rou just glared when he was asked what he wanted, so the waitress disappeared back into the kitchens. I got up to grab a melon soda from the drink bar. Rou was still holding onto the sensor.

"Here. I'll put it on the floor under the booth. I don't think anyone will notice it right away." I said, holding out my hand for the flower. He handed it over and I ducked under the table and tucked it under the booth. As soon as the paper touched the ground, black lines seeped up from the tiles, joining together to make a massive inky spider web across the entire restaurant floor. "Uh. Is that supposed to happen?" I asked, sitting back up.

"No. We're in trouble. Transform now," he said, scrambling to perch on his chair.

"Oh, Rou. I'm hurt." A ReMare with mandibles and too many limbs appeared, leaning casually on the drink bar. She had bright purple lines glowing over her inky body and purple armor that put an odd emphasis on her chest.

"Spider," Rou said with a scowl.

"It's Arachne. Don't teach your pet bad manners." She gestured and the flower I had placed on the floor appeared in her hand. "What's this little morsel?" She put it in her mouth and the Time Driver made a whooping alert sound. The other diners looked alarmed, and started running out. However, those that touched the inky lines on the floor found themselves stuck. A little boy tugged at his mother's hand, but she couldn't move her feet.

And Meiko walked in. She stopped and stared at the struggling people, and at the monster. I couldn't help but stare at her. She was here. She came after all!

And this was the worst possible moment for her to come.

"Don't touch the webs! But please! Take my son!" the mother said. Meiko nodded. She scooped up the little boy, who was now kicking and screaming, and carefully took him outside.

"Now, stupid," Rou hissed at me.

"Right," I said, staring at the spider monster. I climbed up onto the booth and held up the Time Driver. I uncapped the Memoka and brought the Time Driver down, swiping the Memoka across it. I put the Driver to my waist and shouted "Henshin!" and put the Memoka in the slot on the side of the driver. Light swirled around me, and the belt cried out "This is your YEAR! Let's go! Let's go! Yeah!" while playing guitar music. I was Year again.

"So this is what Anubis was barking about? I'm surprised he didn't try and eat you himself." She said, lazily inspecting one of her hands.

Rou climbed over the table, shoving past me to make his way to the far end of the restaurant, gingerly avoiding the floor. He pulled at the mother of the little boy, trying to get her free.

"You're not eating anyone!" I said, jumping over the table to launch an attack. She didn't move from the place she was lounging. I soon figured out why. I landed in front of her, and I had intended to quickly bring up one leg to kick her in the face. Unfortunately, my feet landed on one of the inky black lines. Purple light pulsed through the web, away from me, leading to Arachne.

She laughed and I heard Rou swearing in the distance. "Oh, little butterfly, that's where you're wrong. Please, do keep struggling. Year's energy is a delicious candy shell, but I'd much rather have your memories."

I stopped struggling and she made a pouty noise. "Tisk. Too bad. You've got to make it difficult, hm?" She stood up straight and stretched all three pairs of arms. "That's okay. I like to play with my food."

"Rou?" I yelled out, glancing back to where he was standing on a table. "A little help would be nice."

"I'm busy! Don't get caught in the spider web!" he shouted back, helpfully. So very helpfully.

Arachne grabbed my arms and held them like she was greeting a treasured friend. "Let's see if your candy shell has a weak point, shall we?" She pulled my arms at an awkward angle, so I leaned back hard and then flung myself forward at her, smashing my helmet into her chest plate. She hissed and stumbled back, using her extra arms as legs to keep herself from falling. I had no such luck, and fell flat on my face, right into the spider web.

"WHAT DID I TELL YOU?!" Rou shouted. I heard the rattle of silverware and a shower of clinking. Arachne gasped indignantly, and she stepped over me towards him. I heard more swearing and things being thrown around.

I tried to wriggle free, but the inky web held fast. I had one arm free, but I had to hold it awkwardly to keep it that way. And worst of all, every time the purple light pulsed through the web, I could feel my energy slipping away. I was starting to feel tired. I didn't know how long the transformation would hold out, and I had a terrible feeling that if it faded, my mind would be next.

"Prism Charge complete," my belt chimed. Oh good. I very carefully dislodged the Memoka with my free hand. "Prism Blade, GO! GO! GO!" It announced. I carefully aimed it down at the floor.

"What is she doing, Rou?" Arachne demanded. Rou laughed, and it sounded sort of strangled and breathless.

The Prism Blade extended out into the ground, sparking where it made contact. It did nothing to the tile floor, but it severed the web easily. I freed my helmet and my other arm, and then my knees and feet. The web started falling apart on the floor, bits and pieces dissolving while other patches remained. I stood and held the Prism Blade in front of me. "I'm living in color!" I shouted.

She rushed at me, grabbing at my arms and at the blade, trying to wrest it from my hands. "How dare you destroy my web?" she yelled, thrusting her face awfully close to mine, mandibles snapping. I slashed down with my sword and sliced off two of her arms. They turned to inky goop as they hit the floor. She screeched and flung me backwards into a table.

I scrambled up, returning to a defensive position.

The door chimed. Arachne glanced toward the sound, and started edging towards it. "FINISH HER!" Rou shouted, sounding alarmed.

I shut down Prism Blade and reinserted the Memoka into the Time Driver. It glowed, and I felt power surge through me. The Time Driver played some high energy music, before proclaiming "VANISHING POINT!" I jumped up and delivered a flying kick squarely to Arachne's chest. She burst into a mess of black ooze, and a globe of purple light. I landed on one knee.

Meiko was standing in the doorway, staring down at me.

I stared up at her for a moment, and then jumped to my feet. "Are you alright? I'm sorry, that must have been such a shock, um…" I said, panicking. She had come back. She had known it was dangerous, but she had come back. She was there and I had fought in front of her.

"Yes, it was," Meiko said, dryly. "Your son is safe, ma'am." The woman thanked her and ran outside with the other patrons who had made it out.

Rou appeared beside me, plucking the purple globe of light out of the air. "We should set this right, Year, before the employees forget why they left."

I nodded slightly, still staring at Meiko. I was exhausted, and it was starting to feel difficult to keep the Year transformation up, but I found myself not wanting Meiko to know that it was me. I couldn't bear the thought of her recognizing me and saying "oh, it's you," and then walking away.

"What happened here?" Meiko asked, stepping gingerly around the pile of black goop.

"This meathead here sprang the trap that spider monster set up and almost got both of us eaten," Rou explained, shoving a table back to its proper position. "I knew it was a bad idea to come here," he muttered.

"You just don't like the food," I grumbled, "How was I supposed to know it was a trap?" I righted a chair and put it back with its table. Meiko started picking up silverware, stacking them on a dirty plate on one of the tables. "Oh, um. Thank you," I said, startled. She smiled at me and shrugged, before picking up some plastic glasses off the floor.

I guess I had supposed that with so much of her memory gone, she wouldn't do the things she'd normally do. In school, if we caught a bully messing with someone's stuff or pushing someone, she was always the one quietly setting things to rights, while I chased after the perpetrator. We had a friend who had tacks get put in his shoes every day. She just started coming to school early to remove them. I was so… so proud of her. And she didn't even remember me. I sighed.

It took a long time to get all of the silverware cleaned up. "Did you have to throw every single fork, spoon and chopstick in this place?" I asked Rou, putting the last of the knives in a pile.

"It bought you some time while you were glued face first to the floor," Rou said smugly.

Meiko laughed. A quiet, polite laugh, but a laugh nonetheless. I smiled behind my mask.

"By the way, do you mind if I say something about this on the radio?" Meiko asked. "I'm a reporter, you see..."

"Do what you want," Rou said, scraping up black goop into a garbage bag.

Meiko nodded. "Then I need to go now. My lunch break is almost up."

"Thanks for your help," I said, "You were cool, helping that little boy."

"You were the one fighting the monster… But you're welcome." She smiled a little and left. I watched her walk away.

"She's gone, you can change back," Rou said, "Although I don't know why you didn't before."

"Meiko doesn't know Year," I said quietly, "and that's fine, because at least she's not supposed to know Year."

"Hm."

"It is fine," I said, trying to be cheerful. I capped the Memoka and swiped my hand across the Time Driver.

It said "Erase, bye bye," with its powering down noise. Once the armor disappeared, I realized I had been a string held taut, and a pair of scissors had just snipped it in two. That is to say, I found myself face first on the ground again.