CHAPTER 10: CONFLICT

She spotted him walking through the halls with a number of people she did not recognize. As luck would have it, he was straggling behind them when he neared the room she was in. Better still, the rest of the hall was relatively empty as she could hear only the hollow echo of a few footsteps. With a swift but firm hand, she yanked him by the arm inside the room and closed the door behind them. He tumbled into the room and braced himself on a nearby table.

"What the… Kyoko?!" Sho asked in surprise.

"I need to talk to you and, since you don't want to be seen around me, I'm abiding by your ridiculous requirement," she replied flatly, then gave him a wry smile. "Also, I owed you for last time, Sho. Turnabout is fair play, after all."

"You didn't have to be so rough about it," he grumbled, then sighed. "Anyway, what do you need?"

"Since you're the only person who's known me since childhood," she explained quickly. "I need to know if you happen to remember any of the other kids I was friends with when i was younger."

"Why the weird question all of a sudden?" he asked, raising a curious eyebrow at her.

"There's not a whole lot of time before your friends realize you didn't just disappear into the bathroom, Sho," Kyoko urged. "They'll come looking for you and find you with me and you don't want that, do you? Now, come on, out with it."

"Fine," he said with a groan. "Could you be a little more specific at least? Like, what age range?"

"Around the age of six I suppose," she explained with a shrug.

"You… can't remember any of the friends you had when you were six?" he asked warily.

"I can remember, I just need to know if I forgot anyone."

"Well, I only remember Lira and Sam from around that time," he said, squinting as he tried to recall.

Kyoko nodded with a frown. She remembered Lira well. Particularly after the girl suddenly stopped talking to her once Sho hit puberty and started bleaching his naturally mousy brown hair. She started talking to him instead. An important lesson was learned about the fickleness of some friendships at that time and, from that point onward, she tended to shy away from befriending other females when Sho was around. Sam, on the other hand, was a nice kid, but she mostly only hung out with him by proxy because she tagged along with Sho. She never saw him aside from the times he and Sho would visit each others' houses.

"Uh," he hesitated for a moment. "Maybe Mika from school?"

"She was in my class for a few years, but we never really talked."

"Hm, well, I can't think of anyone else," he finished with a shrug.

"No one else?" she asked in disbelief. "I wasn't friends with anyone with blond hair?"

"Well, there's yours truly, of course," Sho replied with a smirk and a laugh.

"I didn't mean you," she scowled. "Besides, your hair wasn't blond then."

"I really don't remember any others," he admitted, scrubbing a hand back and forth through his hair. "If there was anyone else, I probably never met them."

"But we always hung out together," she said, almost desperately. "If you never met them, then they weren't my friend."

"We didn't always hang out, you know," he reminded her. "That was same the year I went on vacation with my parents in the summer, remember?"

Of course she remembered that summer. How could she forget it? It was the infamous summer when the Keypointe Incident happened. That was unfortunate, she realized with a frown, as the largest chunk of her forgotten memories were from around that time. She began to feel disheartened.

"Yea…" she trailed off, not knowing what else to say.

"Well, we kinda got back right after, you know, everything already happened and the aftermath was a little chaotic," Sho said uneasily.

Her body went slack and she sighed in defeat. Another dead end. Great, just great. She laced her hands together over and over, as if it would somehow help gather her thoughts in a more orderly fashion.

"So, what's the deal with all these weird questions?" Sho spoke up after watching her for a bit. "You're not in some kind of trouble or something, are you?"

"No, no," she assured him quickly. "I'm just trying to get some outside help with the missing pieces of my memories."

"Aren't you already getting outside help from that guy?" Sho asked, making a strange face.

"Yea, but he doesn't know me," she explained. "He can't exactly fill the gaps in my memory when he wasn't even there and doesn't know what happened."

"You know, there's someone else who could help you," Sho said hesitantly. "If you need someone who's known you since you were little…"

"Sho…" she began in a warning tone.

"I know, I know," he held his hands up in defense of himself. "But, you know she works here in the city now. Maybe you could take some time to see her. If anything, it'll get you off campus for a bit."

"I don't know if I even want to see her," Kyoko admitted finally, crossing her arms tightly.

"Well no one's forcing you to," he said. "But, she probably already knows about you being here."

"Ugh, you're right," she said with a groan. "Maybe I should at least have a short talk with her."

"It couldn't hurt."

"Understatement of the year, Sho," she grumbled, then gave him a tiny smile. "Anyway, you should get going before you're missed."

"Uh, yeah," he said, as if suddenly realizing how long he had been there with her. "I'll see you around, okay?"

"Sure," she said with a nod. "And thanks."

Returning the nod, he gave her a slight wave before disappearing out the door. Kyoko collapsed against one of the desks and exhaled loudly, hunching her shoulders as she curled inward on herself. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath in through her nose before slowly releasing it through her mouth. Shaking her head gently a few times, she cleared away the upsetting thoughts from her head before they had a chance to take root. Once again on an even keel, she opened her eyes, gathered her belongings and walked out of the classroom.


Ren stared, muted by shock, at the key for a very long moment. What was that doing here? This was highly improbable. Impossible, even.

"That shouldn't be here," he said.

"Shouldn't it?" the boy beside him asked innocently. "Because it very definitely is."

"It doesn't belong to me," he explained in exasperation, looking pointedly at the boy. "It shouldn't be here."

"Oh… OH!" exclaimed the teenager once he recognized the object. "This is Kyoko's key, isn't it?!"

Ren nodded, pondering what it could possibly be doing in his own mind. While it was true that he was the only one of the two of them that could hold or use the key, it seemed odd that something that did not physically exist was somehow able to manifest itself in a place other than the one in which it was created. His thoughts then took a frightening turn as he considered, for a moment, whether or not it meant that his being in Keypointe had some connection to her predicament. He felt the first icy fingers of dread creep into the pit of his stomach at that thought.

"That's impossible," he said out loud, trying to reassure himself.

"Is it?" the younger of the two questioned.

"How do you know what I'm thinking?" he eyed the person beside him carefully.

The boy rolled his eyes, "I'm you! Even if we are somewhat fractured parts, I can still make a more than educated guess."

"Okay, that aside," Ren shook his head dismissively. "Why wouldn't it be impossible? If any of this is because of what I… what we did, shouldn't I remember her? I couldn't have caused something like that—if I even knew how to in the first place—in the mind of someone I've never met."

"When was the last time you even looked at your memories from back then?" the teen said in a challenging tone. "Are you absolutely certain you don't remember her?"

"Yes, and I'll prove it," Ren straightened up, accepting the challenge.

He collected his jacket from the bench and bent again to pick up the key, placing it carefully back in its designated pocket. Slipping the jacket back over his shoulders, he stood and stalked off towards his memory archives in a determined stride. His younger self bid his animal friends farewell before getting up himself to follow behind him.

The shelves with those particular memories were matte with dust and neglect. The boy was right in that respect; it had been a considerably long time since he last revisited these memories. Then again, it made sense as they were from a very painful time in his life. It was better that he did not dwell on those particular memories as they were often emotionally crippling. However, this time was different. He had a point to prove… to himself.

"That summer was exactly the same as the others," he said as he lightly dragged a finger along the spines of the books on the shelf, looking for the ones he wanted. "I went hiking with Dad and shopping with Mom and played in the woods by myself when I was alone."

The younger man shrugged beside him, but said nothing in response. Ren stopped on a book from a day one week before the Incident. Hooking a finger around the top of the spine, he carefully pulled at it before fully opening his hand to remove it from the shelf. He took a deep breath and blew as much of the dust as he could off the cover, then used his hand to brush off the rest before opening it.

"See?" he said confidently. "It's exactly as I said, the same—"

His words were stolen from his mouth, along with his very breath. The book lay open in his palms and he fought to process what he was seeing. Reeling as he tried to consider what it meant and how exactly it happened. The book was empty.

"How?!" was all he managed to gasp.

The book dropped from his trembling hands, as if it were a white-hot iron from the depths of a fire. Ren immediately looked back up and pulled another book from the shelf beside the gap left by the one now on the floor. He flipped through it frantically before it, too, joined the other one by his feet. Suddenly, his hands moved swiftly along the entire shelf, fingers scrabbling as they pulled volume after volume off only to confirm that nothing but blank pages lay within. One by one, they all fell to the ground accompanied only by the sound of flapping pages and a woody thud upon impact.

He soon joined them as the strength in his legs gave out and he sank to his knees, one hand dragging along the shelves as if to somehow slow his descent. Dread wrapped around his throat and held him in a vice grip. His stomach twisted itself in to so many knots, those knots were soon knotting themselves together into a coagulated, tangled mess. This was unexpected and it was not a good sign in the least.

"How do I not have any memories from then?" his voice was inexplicably hoarse as he spoke.

"I'm guessing," his previously silent companion now timidly spoke. "That key in your pocket might be an invitation for you to figure that out."

"Does that mean that she and I—," he broke off. "That we—"

"Maybe this is good thing," the boy tried calming him in a soothing voice. "I mean, I thought you two had sorta hit another snag anyway. Perhaps you'll both learn something important from this."

"But, she doesn't know I was in Keypointe back then," Ren's voice rose in volume and he nearly yelled before calming himself. "If this is here, then I am somehow involved. And, if I'm involved, I'll have to explain to her why and you know very well what could potentially be exposed."

"You don't know that for sure," his younger self posited.

"True, but the odds are not in our favor," Ren reasoned. "Do you really think it's a good idea for us to restart a country-wide witch hunt when we'll be the first ones tied to the stake?"

"That's only if the two of you reveal the truth to everyone," the younger man raised his voice with conviction. "Think for a second, will you? She has just as much to hide from the Academy if this comes to light. If she thinks she's a lab rat now, she'll be a bacteria culture in no time."

"That would still mean I'd have to tell her about me," he maintained obstinately.

"Call me crazy, but I get the feeling she'd be more understanding than most about that," the boy shrugged again. "Besides, you still haven't figured out if that key is even usable here. Right now, we just have an odd collection of coincidences."

"True, I supposed it would have to serve a purpose here as well for it to show up," Ren nodded thoughtfully. "Any guesses as to how it would work if, indeed, it does?"

The younger man looked at the older one with a wary leer, "I think you know as well as I do."

"I really don't."

"Oh, don't play with me 'Ren'," the boy said, clearly irritated. "If this is actually meant to tell you that there's some connection between the two of you, where's the one place that this would most likely be used?"

Ren gave him a withering look before his shoulders sagged and he looked down towards his knees. Then at the disheveled pile of books before him. A guttural sigh escaped him and he rested his head in his hands before nodding weakly. He knew precisely where the key might be used. That did not mean he was any more enthused about going there. Like this particular shelf in his archives, it was the last place he ever chose to frequent in his own mind so of course it would be there.

He left his mind momentarily to find out what the time was. The meeting had only been in session for about three-quarters of an hour, there was still at least another forty or fifty minutes to go if their previous track record was anything to go by. Returning to his mindscape, he went back to where he had been to find the boy perched on the armrest of one of the many chairs in the lounging area.

"Care to join me on an excursion?" he asked the teen, who shook his head and chuckled.

"Too scared to go by yourself, huh?" he teased. "I suppose I can find some time for you in my extremely busy schedule."

"Well if you come along, I'd still be going with myself, so it's really not any better."

"You have a point," the boy relented. "I guess now's as good a time as any to see if there's something to all of this."

If one were to describe a mindscape as having finite boundaries with a defined shape, they could certainly say that the intended destination lay in the far corner of Ren's mind. For the sake of easily understanding the location, this is a fairly apt description as they were headed to a rarely visited and purposely neglected area.

Ren took ample time to make his way over to the spot being in no hurry to get there right away. It was always going to be there, so time was only of the essence in the respect that he kept an ear out for the sounds of the meeting adjourning. Really, he was merely stalling for time and the younger version of himself that accompanied him was well aware of that fact. As they got nearer, he found he was being pulled along by the hand.

They stopped at a gravel path that led to a daffodil colored house nestled in a cluster of tall, lush trees. Bright green shrubs snuggled tightly against the sides of the house and a narrow bed of perennials flowered along the border. The boy, still holding his hand, dragged him unceremoniously down the path, up the front steps and through the bright crimson door. Once inside, they stood in silence in the entryway, not knowing how to proceed. Ren distracted himself from the discomfort of being in the mental recreation of his family's vacation home by primly straightening out his sleeves.

"You didn't have to pull me like that," he said gruffly, but quietly as if he was hesitant to disturb the eerie quiet of the empty house. "I would've made it in here on my own."

"Sometimes it's best to just rip the bandage off quickly," the teen said nonchalantly. "Gets the unpleasantness over with faster."

"If you say so," Ren mumbled. "Where should we start?"

"No idea," the boy said, nonplussed. "But let's start somewhere."

They wandered through the living room, taking in the comforting, familiar decor; bright curtains hanging at the window that matched the muted print on the two bergère chairs across from the large sectional that curled around the heavy, solid wood coffee table. He fondly remembered how much his mother enjoyed decorating this house as it was much smaller and cozier than their home in Astetra. The kitchen had the obvious, telltale traces of his father; professional-grade cookware, a large gas stove and wall-mounted oven and, of course, the hilariously garish apron hanging beside the refrigerator that said 'kiss the cook' in bright green letters.

Ren gently ran a hand over the grey and white geometric patterned duvet on his parents bed as he walked through their room, not noticing the smile that formed on his face at the sight of the various family photos displayed throughout. Despite how much the underlying hurt of being reminded of the events that took place, he found it difficult to not enjoy the chance to reminisce a little. As they continued to walk through the house, he became less reluctant to interact with what was there. He found himself opening every closet and set of drawers they came across as he assumed he would not find anything of note in any of those places.

At least, that is, until they made it to his room. When they entered, he took in the eyeful of blues, greens and yellows that was the overall color scheme and immediately froze. If there was anything to discover, the chances were good that it would be in here. The knots in his stomach began to form again and he felt a light push at his back. A pair of green eyes urged him forward as the push became more forceful. He gave in with a light sigh and began to scan the walls and floor of the room.

By the time they had opened every cabinet, closet and bureau in his room—and looked underneath the bed—the pair decided there was nothing to be found. Perhaps they were both wrong about it being in the house. Maybe his teenaged self was right and it really was just an odd collection of coincidences; not that it explained his missing memories in any way. He almost wanted there to be a connection for that reason alone.

Ren led the way back towards the front of the house, stopping in the hall leading to the entryway. He turned to the boy behind him and jabbed a thumb towards the nondescript door on the wall beside him.

"You know, I don't remember this coat closet being here," he said.

"I don't either," the boy confirmed with a shake of his head before walking up to it and turning the knob. "It's also locked."

"Why would it be—," Ren choked on the remainder of his sentence at the realization that all but slapped him in the face.

"Well, go on and get the key out," his younger self said with urgency. "Let's see if it works!"

He fumbled around his coat pocket before his unsteady hands closed around the key contained within. Swallowing thickly, he brought the key out and slowly lowered it towards the keyhole nestled in the doorknob. It slid home with absolutely no resistance and both men took a deep breath in unison before the key was turned. The only sound was of the tumblers in the lock moving aside and the resounding click as the door unlatched. Ren jerked his hand away, swiftly removing the key along with it and the door swung open following the momentum.

They did not have to go any further through the door as, true to the nature of coat closets, the interior was rather shallow. However, instead of shoe racks and coat hangers, there was one bookshelf, not unlike the ones in his memory archives. It seemed to be a bit much considering each shelf was empty save for one. On the fourth shelf from the bottom, there was only one book, laying on its side and sitting perfectly in the middle as if it were on display.

Ren snatched the book off the shelf and went to open it. What he found was not the populated pages of his memories. Rather, there were no pages at all. The book was merely a box masquerading as something it was not. The lid opened with a pop and a head of blond hair poked itself around his shoulder to get a better look.

Inside, surrounded by what appeared to be dried rose petals, was a stone with chipped edges in an oval shape. It was a deep blue that nearly bordered on purple, he noticed, as he reached in to pick it up and let it sit in the palm of his hand. He thought back to the teardrop shaped stone in Kyoko's memories and his skin prickled all over. Looking behind them, his mind also took note of the location of the door in the hallway. His parents found him slumped against that very wall in that very spot when they returned home the evening after the Incident.

"Well, there's no doubt now that we're definitely connected," he heard a younger version of his voice say.

The knots were back with a vengeance, nearly forcing their way out through his throat. Before he had time to give in to the panic, he heard the distinct sound of chairs scraping along a floor. The meeting had adjourned and he needed to leave with the others before someone realized he was otherwise distracted. Quickly pocketing the stone with the key, he vanished from his mind without so much as a goodbye.

There definitely was no doubt that he and Kyoko were connected. There was also no doubt that he could never tell her.


Kyoko was still struggling with the after effects of the conversation she had with Sho the previous day and the weight of the suggestion he made before he left. She was trying her hardest to get her wayward thoughts under control when when Ren arrived in their usual meeting room in the hospital. When she gave him her usual smile in greeting upon his entry and he responded with a flat, grim expression, she knew something was going to happen. Something was going to happen and she, most likely, would not like it.

He sat stiffly across from her at the table and she waited apprehensively for him to finally speak. Her leg shook as she bounced it rapidly up and down, not caring that it caused the table to shake. Snapping her eyes to his when he cleared his throat, she saw him open his mouth to speak.

"I came to tell you that I have to cancel my commitment to our appointments," he said at last and her heart sunk to her shoes.

"What?! Why?" she gasped, her lungs were suddenly having a hard time getting enough air. "If your boss is giving you too much work, I will tell him myself how important you are to helping me."

"That is not the case…" he offered, but said nothing further.

"Then what is it?"

"There has been a… conflict of interest," he explained hesitantly.

"A conflict of interest?" she asked, her voice pitching up towards the end. "Care to elaborate on that?"

"I apologize, but I cannot," he said flatly, as if he had practiced saying it to the point that it lost all meaning. "I only wanted to tell you in person because I owed you that much at least."

Well, that, and his boss had mandated that he tell her in person.

"Oh, well thanks so much for telling me that you're effectively abandoning me," she spat the words out like they were poison in her mouth.

"I regret that it has come to this," he said, again in the same monotone.

"Oh do you?!" she sneered in mock surprise. "You were the last resort that was brought in here because nothing else was working. This is the closest I've ever been to figuring out what's wrong with me and now it's being taken away me and all you can say is you regret it?"

"I do not know what else to say," his replies were starting to sound almost robotic.

"Of course not, you've obviously already said your piece," she said bitterly. "You don't care that this was my best chance. My only chance. That these appointments were one of the things I looked forward to the most each week."

Ren sat there silently, looking just over her left shoulder as he found he could not look her in the eyes. Internally, he was waging war against himself as he wanted to comfort her and tell her everything but he had already made his choice. There was no way she, or anyone else, could know about him. He had to protect himself, even if it was at the cost of her recovering her missing memories. And his for that matter. They were better off never knowing that their lives were somehow intertwined. He would take that secret, along with all of the others, to his grave.

"And we were so close too! I could feel it," she said with a whine.

"I doubt that was the case," the words were out of his mouth before he could stop them and he strained to keep a straight face, lest it betray how badly he wanted to wince.

"Well, I guess we'll never know for sure now, will we?" she threw up her hands, limp wrists flicking them backwards as they moved.

"You know, I felt so proud that we might've become friends considering how most people treat you. I saw past all the rumors and whatever this stoic front you keep up is," she motioned towards him as she spoke. "But, now that you're pushing me away, I wonder why I even tried at all. Clearly, there's nothing more to you than that."

"You are entitled to think that," he said calmly.

"You're not even going to argue with me on this?" she asked defeatedly, disappointed that even her attempt to rile him was ineffective. "You won't even defend yourself?"

"I do not see how that will accomplish anything other than making you more upset," he remained placid and unmovable.

Kyoko let out an aggravated groan at this.

"The worst part of this is I can tell you don't want to do this. This isn't like the person I've come to know. I know you're just trying to come off as callous hoping that I'll get mad and walk away because you won't explain to me why this is happening and…" she took a shuddering breath and he could almost hear the imminent tears in her voice. "Honestly, Ren, it's heartbreaking."

She abruptly got up from her chair and it screeched nastily against the ground. He flinched. Her arms hung limply at her sides and she suddenly looked so tired, like she had aged ten years in five minutes. Still, he said nothing. There was nothing to say. He was well aware of the fact that he was hurting her in this moment—it hurt him as well, if he was honest—but his mind was already made up.

"Since you're clearly not going to engage me, just go," she dismissed him, pointing to the door. "I'm sure this is the moment you've been waiting for since you arrived so you can leave now."

He rose from his chair quietly and, with a cold nod, he resolutely turned towards the door.

"I thought you were one of the few people who believed in me and made me feel like maybe I wasn't crazy after all. I thought maybe you believed in me enough to tell me what's really going on. You know I would've understood, even—," she called after him, pausing to blink her eyes rapidly to keep them dry. "Even if it was a secret, I wouldn't tell anyone. I mean, who would I even tell?"

"I'm sorry, Kyoko," he said softly, his voice finally betraying the emotions he struggled to keep hidden. "I really am. But, it's for the best."

The short walk to the door suddenly felt like he was trudging through molasses. His feet dragged as he fought to keep them moving and he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head. He did not realize anything was off until he opened the door and made his first step out into the hallway. Looking to his left, he saw his ever-present companion in the middle of reading through a set of papers, only his hand remained hovered over the corner of one of the pages. Ren blinked, expecting the hand to continue its descent and turn the page but nothing happened. It was then he noticed the other people in the hallway, frozen in mid-stride as if they were in a photograph.

He turned back around to look inside the room just in time to see Kyoko's eyes roll back in her head before her legs gave way underneath her and she dropped to the floor. Instantly, the noise of shoes walking down the hallway returned and he found he could move easily once more. Letting the door slam closed, he rushed to her side, picking her limp body off the floor. Her long, black hair cascaded through his fingers in tendrils as he gently lifted her head. When Yukihito poked his head inside the door after hearing it shut so violently, he saw his charge sitting on the ground with the unconscious girl in his arms and his eyes blown wide in fear.

"Get help," was all he said to the older man and he quickly obeyed.

Suddenly, the words of his younger self echoed in his mind.

"She has just as much to hide from the Academy if this comes to light."

Ren's thoughts ground to a halt at that. He definitely raised a good point, one Ren was too panicked to consider at the time he made his decision. Kyoko had every reason to not reveal that she was in any way related to the Keypointe Incident. She was already under intense scrutiny as it was and that would only serve to intensify it. He frowned as he cursed himself for being so selfish. There was more than just his future at stake now. Especially now that he witnessed her ability. It was one that would definitely get the attention of not only their own Academy, but Academies all over the world.

His grip tightened around her body as he continued to admonish himself silently. He was so caught up in protecting his own identity, he never realized that she was the one who was really in need of protection.


HOPEFULLY THIS WILL TIDE YOU OVER UNTIL NEXT MONTH: Since I have a bunch of stuff coming up towards the end of the month, I probably won't be able to update two weeks from now as per the usual unless I get a lot done in a short period of time. As such, I hope this will be enough to keep you satisfied until then. I actually started to end this chapter at the second line break up there but realized that was way too cruel (or maybe not cruel enough?) so I kept going. Anyway, things seem to be heating up and I hope you're as excited as I am!

AUTHOR OUT!