Yay we've reached the end of Ignite Infinity! It's been a long and stressful road but it's done. I'll keep this short and just enjoy the chapter.
More for Me to Do
After the Crowley incident, life on Little Wing had gotten back to normal. Emilia was out of the office most of the time doing research, sometimes with Shizuru. Yuto was still going back and forth from his home village. And everyone else was busy one way or another with their own personal missions.
Before we knew it, quite a bit of time has passed by.
Quite a bit of time since I've seen Nagisa.
Sometimes I get urges to go out and find her. After all, she left without saying anything to anyone and I was still recovering from my injuries then. But then I stop myself. She needed this time away. With all that happened on Crowley, it was expected.
As for me, I was put into inactive duty from Little Wing for a while. Everyone had figured that my actions warranted the long time off. I don't know if I felt relieved at the decision. I do get restless when I'm not doing missions. So I had taken that time to get back into my school work and catching up people.
A lot of that time was spent with Hilde.
It was nice to have an older female to talk to about these kinds of things.
It made the periodic loneliness easier to deal with sometimes.
Actually, I had just come from an outing with Hilde when my terminal displayed that I had a message. Which I will always find odd. I always tell people to just contact me on my communit.
'Hello Ami darling. It's been a long time hasn't it?'
Wait...
That couldn't be right.
Sure enough, an image of Wynarl appeared on my message. It should have been impossible, he was gone. He gave up his existence to seal away Dark Falz for good.
"What are you doing here?"
'You're probably wondering why I'm here. I left a little extra something in your terminal in case everything went to plan. How is Nagisa? Heh, knowing her she's probably wandering again. I can't thank you and everyone else enough for what you've done for her. I just need to ask one more thing of you all.'
It was then I received some coordinates on my map. I recognized the area. It was a Relics site in Parum. Along with a date.
'If you could make an appearance then I would greatly appreciate it.'
And just like that his message was gone. I stared at it for a while, just thinking. I was immediately trying to think why. It couldn't be a trap. It would be silly to think if it was.
"Ami! Ami!"
"Emilia? You're back from your trip?"
"Yeah, but that's not important. Did you look at your terminal?"
Apparently, I wasn't the only one who got a message. A lot of people had gotten a message on their terminals from Wynarl as well. Emilia included. They were different literally, but had the same point.
To meet at that Relics site on that specific date.
What was also odd was that the ones that received a message was people Nagisa met during our journey.
"What does it mean?"
"I think I have a clue, but we should wait until then."
"Emilia?"
"Just trust me. You over think too much you know."
I didn't really ponder over that statement. It was just Emilia being her. Anyway, we would only have to wait a week before we had to head for the site anyway. It seems a lot of Little Wing members were going too. When we arrived, it was already quite a few people there. I could see Lumia and Yuto.
"So I assume you got the message too?"
"Oh. Yes I did Hyuga."
It would make sense for him to be here too.
Things were still a bit tense between us. Mostly on my part. After the Yaoroz race I never did settle my feelings with anyone else. Ethan I wasn't worried about since he never was the type to get involved in personal matters like this.
But Hyuga on the other hand...
"How are you doing Ami?"
"I'm okay now."
"Now?"
With my dad working with him and everything that's happened, it didn't feel right to leave him out of the loop of something like this.
"Yeah, I've just been thinking a lot lately. Only thing I can do since I've been forced on inactive duty."
"I see. Have your injuries healed up?"
"Yep one-hundred percent."
"That's good to hear."
"Yeah, anyway I want to apologize. I...haven't been the best person to be around lately. Left over emotions from Dark Falz was still affecting me."
"Ah, well I forgive you then. You know you can talk to us right?"
"I know, but it was personal things."
Which was really the truth.
Besides, I didn't know how he would have felt if I told him that I had an illusion of him strangling me to death.
Anyway, we didn't talk more before Nagisa appeared. She seemed surprised at seeing all of us there. A wave of relief washed over me seeing that she was safe. Apparently, the reason she was there was because she made a promise with Wynarl to visit the Relics they first met on every year for her birthday.
Oh...it was her birthday.
We were asked to come as a gift from Wynarl.
The one thing Nagisa wanted the most was friends.
I thought about that. The friends statement. Then I thought about our journey. Everything that had happened along it. It was a lot.
"Reminds you of back then doesn't it?"
"Hyuga! Yeah, it kind of does."
"It feels like a long time that you were like that."
Huh?
"I don't understand."
"In a lot of ways you were a little like Nagisa over there. You were focused on only your mission. You still are in a sense. But meeting all of us, you've changed."
"I never pegged you for being so intuitive Hyuga."
"I am an expert of the female gender you know."
"Pfft."
"And maybe because I remember how you were when you were a newbie. You're genuinely happy now that you can be yourself with people."
"Hmm, I suppose so."
Then I felt his hand brush against mines.
It was a nice feeling.
"Ami?"
"Nagisa."
Nagisa was standing in front of me. Her eye was still a little puffy from crying earlier. But she looked nervous. I wonder about though? I hope it wasn't of me. I smiled at her. Knowing that she was here was enough for me.
"A-are you doing better?"
"I am."
"I'm sorry, a lot of those injuries were by my hand."
"I don't blame you."
"But!"
It was then I hugged her.
"It's okay Nagisa. I'm okay. Don't blame yourself for anything."
"Ami...Ami!"
She sobbed into my chest. I didn't mind. I guess the fights between us was the last business she wanted to sort out. As I stood there hugging her, I realized something.
She had helped me as much as I helped her.
Though our journey for the fragments, through helping Nagisa blend better into society, I reconnected to the self that had left the Guardians. I'm not sure when I lost it, but I had along this time. I wouldn't say I was carefree but I was a lot more happier in my thoughts I think.
I knew I could rely on friends.
Nagisa made me realize that point I had forgotten.
"It seems I have to thank you Nagisa."
"Why?"
"You helped me a lot."
I know this isn't really the end of problems Gurhal will face in the future.
Far from it.
But I think as long as I keep in mind that we're not alone we can overcome it.
Though...there's the smallest part of me thinking that this is only the beginning to something much bigger.
And with that we've reached the end of the "Life and Times" series. What started as a little backstory project on Deviantart in 2010 for my main character turned into something so big for me now. After so many rewrites and retcons I think I'm satisfied with Ami's place in canon.
Thanks to everyone who's read, reviewed, encouraged, just in general being there during this project. I would have abandoned this a looong time ago if it wasn't for all this. Even though my more pissy moments while writing this thank you.
Does this mean I'm done writing Phantasy Star fanfics? Nope. I have two possible fanfics to do in the future. But I can't say for sure if I'll post them (very early planning stages). But I got so many other projects to do and I think I need a break from PS-related fanfics for a bit.
Anyway, review and thanks again ^ o^y
