( A New canon has begun to turn... Now let us see where our Journey now takes us..)

Bold = English Conversations

Bold + Italics =Japanese Conversations

Canon 16

Sewers... one of the most disgusting places that a person could end up. It's also a place that Sora is quite familiar with, having gone to several sewers with his job. Despite this however, he didn't have to like the smell of the sewers as a dead rat floated up the sewage flow, making him bite his lip a bit before he closed his nose. 'God someone needs to come down here and freaking clean this place up... or at least put up an air freshener.' Sora thought as he continued to walk forward.

'But then again... you might need a shit ton of air fresheners just to make a sewer smell... less like an actual sewer.' Sora thought again as he struggled to find a manhole he could climb out off. For a couple of sewers, Sora had to admit that it was taking much longer to find an exit than it normally would. 'There's got to be an exit coming up soon... just why is it taking so long to find one.' Sora thought as suddenly he heard something squishy on his foot.

Sora immediately looked at his feet to see he had accidentally stepped on a weird creature. It looked like a bug but it had a massive mouth with tiny feet. As Sora picked it up, he noted that the creature had no eyes on it as he tilted his head. "Never seen one of these before... must be a part of the sewers here." Sora thought as he tossed it into the sewer water, unfazed by the fact he had touched a bug and probably didn't know where it had been.

"God damn Kagutsuchi sewers and their far as fuck manholes. I just want to get out of here alrea..." Before Sora could complain even further, Sora immediately covered his mouth, gagging a little in the process. The smell of the sewer was starting to get to him and he needed to find a room to at least breathe before he continued his search for a manhole. Looking to his left, he saw a break room he could break into as he used the Rev Blade as a makeshift crowbar to get in.

A huge cloud of dust struck him as the door swung open. The room was clearly not in use for the longest time as he switched on the light to check the room. 'Nobody in the room. Looks clear to take a break in for a while.' Sora thought as he closed the door behind him and took a seat in the room. Now that he has found a place to collect his thoughts, he couldn't help but start to think about the events that had just happened a few minutes ago.

From the way Tsubaki attacked him without hesitation to the way that both her and Jin simply forgot about him, There were a lot of things lingering in Sora's mind at that moment. Just what was going on and why was it all happening to him at that moment. 'If there was only someone I could talk to at this very moment for things like this that would be very helpful… oh who am I kidding, who on Earth will know something like that?' Sora thought as he took a seat on one of the dusty chairs as his head stared towards the moldy ceiling from the poorly maintained room.

"I might have a few things that I need to say to you." A voice said as that caused Sora to immediately lose his seating as he struggled to not fall over in a comedic bit only to fail in the process, dropping right onto his left stump of an arm which simply sucked. The voice was someone he was familiar with… in fact a few years ago he was talking with this person before they completely vanished out of nowhere and had never spoken to him since.

"Can you not do something like that ever again Amy?! Jesus you gave me a heart attack doing…. Wait a minute." Sora said as he realized something was off…. Something was very off. It was not the fact that he was being talked to by an imaginary girl from his dreams. It was the fact that the imaginary girl from his dreams was talking to him in real life as they spoke at that very moment. "Well it's good to hear that you are still alive and well Sora. And how you remembered me after all of these years." Amy said as Sora himself had a lot of questions that he wanted to ask Amy at that exact moment.

Sora: Well, it's great and all to hear from you too ever since you went away… but can you at least do it from my dreams and not in reality as we speak right now!? In fact, How on Earth is a person from my dream even speaking to me right now!?

Amy: Well… let us just say it's complicated for now. I would speak to you in your dreams like normal, but circumstances have changed enough that I am forced to do something as drastic as this to get in contact with you.

Sora: Drastic indeed… are you trying to give me a heart attack here? You don't just do that to people even if you know them… I think.

Amy: I'm sorry, I promise that this is just a one time thing and that I won't do this ever again.

Sora: Oh forgot it… maybe it's better this way. Better for me to be able to hear what you say in real life than in my dreams which would feel like I am speaking to my imaginary friend… not that this is also speaking to an imaginary friend but… You get what I mean.

Amy simply giggled hearing that when Sora said those words. "I do get what you mean… and trust me, an imaginary friend is the least of your worries at this very point." Amy said as Sora took the chair he was sitting on and sat back on it as he rubbed his stump. "So Amy.. care to explain why did you decide to come in right now? Is it because of the favor you said I owe you two years ago?" Sora said as Amy remained quiet hearing that as Sora guessed that was it.

"You're correct… it's in regards to the favor that I asked of you two years ago..." Amy said as Sora couldn't help but scratch his head. "I would like to do that right now, but as you can… or cannot see right now. I am in the middle of my own trouble. My friends have forgotten about me and the only people that do remember me are from Otsu. Now either everyone's developed amnesia while I was away or something else has happened." Sora said as he struggled to try and make sense with what was going on.

"So unless you have answers as to why everyone's doing that… I don't think I can do that favor right now." Sora continued as he thought about placing his head on the table to rub his forehead on but decided against it when he realized that he doesn't know what has been on the table in the first place. "I… Think I can help shed some light on your current situation..." Amy said as Sora couldn't help but look at the sky with some skepticism.

"A person from my dreams has the answer to my current problem… talk about losing your mind..." Sora said as he saw a light glow a bit before suddenly a bright light engulfed the room, blinding him for a bit before allowing him to see a white haired girl wearing a white dress right in front of him. Sora couldn't help but lose his balance on the chair again and fall off as a result, his mind unable to register the crazy event happening right in front of him at that moment.

"And now said person is in reality! Great! I am seriously losing my mind here!" Sora shouted, his confusion simply growing as he doesn't even know what was going on at this point. "I understand you're confused but..." "CONFUSED! I THINK I DESERVE A PROPER EXPLANATION WOMAN!" Sora shouted, interrupting Amy in the process as he slammed his hand onto the table, kicking the dust right into the air.

As Sora panted, Amy looked at him before taking a deep breath. "I understand… my sudden appearance is… sudden, But the reason why I am here right now in front of you is simple… it is for the favor I asked of you." Amy said, ignoring the fact that she just appeared right in front of someone who has only seen her in his dreams. Sora couldn't help but rub his head furiously at that as he decided to let her continue to explain rather than interrupt her.

"You see… I need you to go to the cauldron here in Kagutsuchi. I know it's abrupt… but only you can do what I need you to do." Amy explained as Sora simply gestured for her to continue. At this point, Sora knew that he had to take this deal otherwise he would get nowhere. "You will know when you need to go to the cauldron when I say so… I know this sounds cryptic but I need to keep things this way for the time being." Amy continued as Sora took a deep breath of his own.

"So… you want me to sneak my way into a cauldron, the thing that supplies a hierarchical city the energy needed to power the whole damn city… and you are not going to explain why… Can you at least tell me it's related to everyone forgetting me?" Sora said as at this point, he cannot help but feel a sense of dread creep up his collar as Amy continued to speak. "Yes… it's related… in fact it's the cause of why everyone's forgotten about you."

The moment Sora heard those words, Sora wanted to lunge at Amy. However he showed restraint as he knew that Amy most likely was a messenger and the head honcho would know more about this. "So tell me… who on earth erased everyone's memories of me in the first place? It's obvious that they want to use me for something… but what." Sora said, wanting to make sense of the current predicament that was placed in front of him, however Amy simply bit her lips, unable to say the reason why Sora was chosen.

"Fine, keep it a secret for now. Just so you know, you owe me a favor for doing this for you. Fair?" Sora said as Amy simply nodded her head, extending her hand for a handshake as he accepted it, taking another deep breath to calm down. "I can at least tell you… that the reason why everyone's memories of you were erased was because my boss needed just you and people remembering you… would make the process more difficult." Amy said as Sora, now calmer, decided to ask her one more question instead of snapping at her once again.

"Then why does everyone in Otsu remember me then? If your boss wanted to erase everyone's memories of me, then they should be able to do so with a city of criminals. Why everywhere else besides Otsu." Sora questioned as he looked at Amy as her eyes flashed blue briefly before she decided to answer. "It's because you have a strong presence in Otsu. If we had erased everyone's memories in Otsu, the beings that are looking for you would realize something was odd and would immediately check Otsu and as a result, find you." Amy said

Beings? What could these beings be? That was the simple question ringing through his mind but at the end, he decided against asking that question as he felt that might be going a bit too far into things he didn't need to know yet. After all, he could sense that Amy was lying about something in her last sentence. A person wouldn't need to lie unless they want to hide something so for the time being he decided to accept her story.

"So what is this being trying to do to erase me? Kill me?" Sora said as Amy simply needed to nod her head for Sora to sigh deeply. "Of course, it's the good old kill this person routine. Why am I not surprised at this point." Sora continued as Amy decided to say something at that moment. "We plan to undo the memory loss once everything is done… but things have gotten more complicated..." Amy said as Sora simply raised a hand towards her.

"That's great and all but not important right now. Just tell me how this being is trying to kill me and I can focus on staying alive so I can do your favor… while I try to do things of my own." Sora said as he knew very well that too much information at once is a bad thing. As much as he wanted to know why Jin, Tsubaki hell presumably everyone else's memories of him were erased, he had to focus on the task of finding Makoto and making sure she's alright… even if she has forgotten about him in the process.

Amy meanwhile couldn't help but bite her lips seeing this resignation come out from Sora. She wanted to tell him that Makoto does remember him, that if he went to her right now she would be fine. But she would interfering with the natural flow of time if she did so… that by doing that, it would allow the Takagamahara system the perfect opportunity to kill him. She knew she had to bring the two together somehow… but it had to be at the perfect moment.

But the least she could do for Sora at this point was to try and help guide him towards a path where he could meet up with Makoto. "The system will try to kill you by manipulating events so that you are forced to meet hostile forces. It has the ability to do so." Amy explained as Sora suddenly had an emphiphany. "Can this being reset certain events so that they can manipulate the event to their heart's desire?" Sora said, remembering how he saw Jin get stabbed in the chest and died but when he ran down to confront Tsubaki, Jin was well, in fact he had not been stabbed by Tsubaki at all and she was nowhere in the area.

"That is correct. I can only say for now, exercise extreme caution from this point on. For now that it knows of your existence, it will do anything in it's power to try and kill you." Amy explained as Sora simply remained calm at this point, knowing that any unnecessary anger would be useless at this point. "So all you want me to do is stay alive in Kagutsuchi until you need me at the cauldron here… am I correct?" Sora said as Amy simply nodded her head.

"Then that changes nothing I guess. I was planning on staying in Kagutsuchi for a few days to relax… but replace relaxation with a murderous almighty being that wants to kill me… god this is so complicated." Sora complained, realizing how ridiculous he sounded saying those words as Amy simply looked at the frustrated man, wondering what she can do to help. "But the best thing to do at these moments is to simply accept the cards fate give you and fight like hell huh… I guess I am used to this routine at this point." Sora said, smirking at the ridiculousness of the situation placed in front of him.

"It's good to see that you at least have some optimism Sora." Amy said as Sora scratched his head. "Well.. Optimism is the one thing I've got left… and her too." Sora said as his hand reached out for his necklace, clutching it tightly as his mind went towards Makoto. "I...need to go now, when the time comes, I will speak to you once again." Amy said as she closed her eyes, about to leave Sora once again for where Sora presumed she lived as he cleared his throat to get her attention.

"Say… where you live… do you think you would be able to learn the whole Japanese language there? As much as speaking english like this is good and all… I would rather prefer not to sound like a crazy man if I have to speak to you in a more public setting… for privacy reasons." Sora said, trying his best to help lighten the mood as Amy couldn't help but smile at this effort. "I think I could learn a whole language in it's most basic form..." Amy said, which was enough to make Sora smile a little bit.

"Alright… now get going. We both are going to be quite busy on our own ends so we should get to it." Sora said as Amy smiled before closing her eyes and disappearing. As soon as she did though, Sora couldn't help but pull the chair back and rub his forehead with his hand. He struggled to process the information that had been given to him as his mind wondered about so many things. Just what are the beings trying to kill him, Why did the world erase memories of him away from everyone else? Was it even worth it to go and find Makoto now if she too has forgotten about him?

Sora shook his head at that, realizing that he was thinking negative thoughts. 'No! You can't think like that Sora! Even if she's forgotten about you… even if the world is going to be out to kill you, Hell even if you don't understand what on earth is actually happening to you right now! You still have to meet her dammit! I just need to know she's alright!' Sora thought, refusing to let negative thoughts and the current confusing situation get to him.

As he said that, he felt his hand get hit with something rather strange as it made him look to see what was the cause of it. It was a black ooze that when Sora began to touch felt more like a tar or jelly like substance. This made him look up as his eyes widened at the sight that was in front of him. The whole roof of the room was now covered in Black ooze and right in the middle of the roof was a mysterious white mask as Sora knew he was in immediate danger.

"Y...SM...KE...Azure.." The mask spoke which was Sora's clue to get the hell out of the room as without any hesitation, he kicked the door down running back out into the sewers as he began to take off running, knowing that whatever it was, it's best not to fight it in such a small and tight room. 'Just what on Earth is that thing!' Sora simply thought as he turned his head around only to see this creature charging towards him at full speed, swimming around the ground in a black puddle as it used it's mask to keep looking forward.

"TA...Me...Azure." The mask spoke again as Sora couldn't help but be befuddled by what he was looking at until he remembered a tale he heard at the bar once that Pikaka told him. "Recently in Kagutsuchi, I've heard the Kakans talk about a big black ball of mass that wears a white mask. I don't know if they are true, but they call it an Arakune which sounds like to me a delicious super secret fish they are keeping hidden from me. HEHEHE" Pikaka told him as Sora couldn't help but sweat at that while continuing to run like crazy.

'I definitely think that Arakune does not stand for super delicious fish now Pikaka!' Sora thought as his feet did not stop running, his instincts telling him to just keep running towards a more open area to fight this thing in because if he were to try and take it on such a dark and narrow tunnel, he would most likely get eaten by this….black mass. 'For now, forget getting to a manhole, this thing's fast enough to do...whatever it does! I have to at least try to slow it down!' Sora thought as he realized his predicament.

Sure he could just run up a manhole and open it up so that he could escape to the surface. But by judging how quickly this thing was able to keep up with him, it would most likely get it's black mass on him before he could even open the manhole in time. Even with two hands it would be a stretch as it would require deploying the rev blade in it's arm form and then open the manhole. The amount of time that would require would be much longer than he could escape.

'My best shot is to figure out how this thing works, try to slow it down somehow and hope that this being that Amy mention that is trying to kill me doesn't undo the work that I have done.' Sora thought as his break came when the tunnel opened up into a much bigger room as the metal floor looked flimsy from disrepair and poor maintenance and parts of the railings once used to help keep people from falling were now falling themselves. Whatever the case, the room had enough space that Sora felt confident he could at least figure out what he needed to do against Arakune here.

"Right… Time to do this!" Sora said, grabbing the rev blade and revving it to bring the Seithr in the area to it. "ENHANCED GEAR!" As soon as he did so however, he saw the black puddle that was following Arakune immediately get pulled towards his direction, forming quickly into a black spike of sorts that forced Sora to immediately act otherwise he would get impaled as he activated the gear. "ENHANCED FINISH!" The Rev Blade shouted as Sora did an aggressive spin that placed space between him and Arakune, destroying the black spike in the process.

'You've got to be kidding me.' Sora thought as he revved the Rev Blade again to confirm what he was seeing as he saw another patch of Black mass come out from Arakune and form itself this time into a long tentacle as Sora used another Enhanced Finish to blast away the tentacle as he flew into the air. 'That thing's made of Seithr!? So that goop it's dragging… it's liquid Seithr!?' Sora thought as he couldn't help but groan at his misfortune.

The Rev Blade was a system created so that Sora could absorb the Seithr in the area right into his own body, allowing him to empower himself with Seithr itself without the need of Ars Magus or having to walk into heavy Seithr dense areas to get stronger. However if this thing was a living mass of Seithr, then it could get into the Rev Blade and simply rip it apart from the inside out as it relied on absorbing the Seithr into itself and refining it into a much purer form for Sora to use.

'If that thing's Seithr then using the Rev Blade's out of the question. The Rev Arm's too risky as well if I want to use it.' Sora thought as he quickly raised the Rev Blade to block one of Arakune's attacks which was simply throwing it's mass of liquid Seithr right at Sora's direction, causing him to fly back to the ground as Sora quickly recovered before he caused significant damage to the metal floor underneath him.

The Rev Arm's problem was simple. While it gives Sora the ability to fight with both hands, if he tried to use the rev function in that form, he ran the risk of pulling the liquid Seithr right towards him, leaving him very little time to dodge as a result. Hell heaven forbid if it managed to grab him when he did that. 'Fuck, this thing is literally my worst match up right now.' Sora thought as he blocked a bony claw attack from Arakune as he noticed something glowing red come out of Arakune's body.

As Sora raised his guard, his face suddenly got struck by this glowing red thing as his eyes barely saw that it was in fact an insect, the same type of insect that he threw back into the sewer water as he realized where it most likely came from. 'So besides being a mass of living Seithr, it's also a living biome for insects that go berserk… Just my luck.' Sora thought as the more he fought against this thing, the more he realized just how badly this fight would go if he allowed this thing to have it's way.

And have it's way was Arakune's goal as he sprouted several black tentacles and began to attack erratically, attacking in ways a normal human being would have never seen before. As it swung with one tentacle, a claw was already swinging towards Sora's legs, threatening to sever them right off the white haired man. Thanks to his Drive thought, Sora was able to dodge both attacks, jumping into the air to dodge the claw swipe and using the momentum gained by blocking the first tentacle attack to push him away from Arakune's offense as Sora panted heavily.

'I can't prolong this fight for too long. There's definitely a limit to using this drive before it kills me.' Sora thought as while he got used to the pain it caused to the point his nervous system no longer felt pain, he could never really fix the exhaustion his drive caused as repeated use of it has increased his duration but not by much. 'There's got to be a way… an opening I can exploit to put this thing down.' Sora thought as his mind was working in overdrive, thinking of solutions to his current problem while his body reacted to the attacks being thrown his way.

As Sora took one step on a metal floor panel, he could hear it rattle as he noticed his way out, a manhole that he could climb out of. His mind quickly came up with a plan as he raised his blade to block another wild attack that came from Arakune as he stabbed the Rev Blade right onto the metal panel. As he did so, he tossed his bladeless knife right towards the Manhole, closing his eyes and waiting for the perfect moment.

Arakune saw his chance, his prey had just disarmed themselves and was leaving themselves open for attack. All it had to do was simply surround his prey with his tentacles and ensure they could not escape so that he could devour them to his heart's desire. His tentacles lunged forward at rapid speed, their black mass reaching dangerously close to Sora as before they could even touch his skin barely, Sora had already vanished, using the second aspect of his Drive to pull himself towards the bladeless knife, catching it mid air and grabbing the ladder leading towards the manhole.

Arakune, realizing his prey had just escaped, gave chase, using his black mass of Seithr Tentacles to quickly give chase. But before they could reach him, Sora briefly released his grip on the ladder and extended his hand out, closing his eyes as the Rev Blade that had been stabbed onto the metal panel suddenly appeared on his hand, Metal panel in tow as the black tentacles struck the metal panel several times. He then quickly turned the Rev Blade into it's arm form to grab the ladder before he lost his grip on it, using the increased strength of the Rev Arm to push the manhole cover out with ease

Sora knew he had very little time to waste so as soon as the manhole came flying out, he used his Drive one last time to move himself right onto the manhole cover and kick it back into the hole sealing the entrance once again as Sora's weight held down Arakune's attempts at trying to escape. Continuing from there, Sora tipped over a large discarded wardrobe over the manhole, covering it up completely as Sora placed distance between himself and the manhole, unsure what was going to happen next.

'...I've got to get away now.' Sora thought as when he saw that the wardrobe was holding… whatever Arakune was back, he knew he had to put some distance between him and that thing immediately as he took off at full speed, not looking back as he just ran, not knowing where he was going. Somehow Sora had managed to survive that one encounter but if this being really wanted him dead, they were not going to stop at that one attempt.

'Do I have presume that everyone coming after me is going to be hostile? If that is the case, I better not be the first person to strike otherwise they might really attack me if they just happen to be there.' Sora thought as he realized that not ever person he would meet from this point on would be hostile and that it was going to be up to him to exercise proper caution on his own end. 'For now, I got to get somewhere I know at least… I can't afford to get lost in this town now.' Sora thought as he continued to run, avoiding any manholes for the potential of Arakune bursting forth from them if he still was hunting him at this point.

'If I ever meet that thing again I better just run away from it. I can most likely defeat it with time but it would waste too much time and resources. Time and resources I need to spend finding Makoto and surviving whatever this divine being has for me.' Sora thought as soon the scenery started to change for Sora, forcing Sora to take a look of the surroundings around him. As soon as he did, his face couldn't help but pale a bit as he realized where he was.

'Fuck… I was just here yesterday and here I am back.' Sora thought as he looked at the entrance in front of him both with shock and horror as he was now standing in front of Orient Town, the same district that he was taken to have dinner with Makoto's former superior named Hazama as Sora couldn't help but scratch his head at that. 'Just keep my head down and hope nothing happens...I guess.' Sora thought as he began to walk towards Orient Town, his senses on high alert as simply put…

His day was only going to get more chaotic from here.

GREETINGS LOST SHEEP OF FANFICTION!? HOW IS EVERYONE DOING!? And I have a bit of a special announcement to make to you all. Due to reasons I am not going to let the internet know, I will have to release this chapter and the next chapter a bit earlier than I normally do. Don't worry, you will still have you two chapters a month, just expect them to come much earlier than you are used to so if you are the type that can't really wait, then you all are in luck.

SO WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT TO SORA!? WILL HE HAVE TO FACE WEIRD CREATURES LIKE ARAKUNE ONCE AGAIN!? WHAT ELSE DOES THIS WORLD HAVE IN STORE FOR HIM!? AND FOR HOW LONG WILL HE NEED TO SURVIVE IN ORDER FOR THE TAKAGAMAHARA SYSTEM TO LOSE INTEREST IN THE MAN!? ALL THIS AND MORE IN THE NEXT BLACK!