It's been several months.
Several months since he took everyone's memories of the DGP and himself away.
But a few remembered.
Ziin, herself...
While a new, just DGP was starting up...she couldn't help but wish he was here to oversee it with her...
She looked at the shrine to him, with his Boost Mark IX buckle encased in stone, and several people's wishes hanging from ropes.
"..." The Navigator frowned as she looked at it.
Ziin had recommended she do this...
She didn't think it'd work. That fox only did as he wished.
Kept calling her Nee-san just to mess with her.
She never lied. She never saw him as a sibling.
...
However...
They were more than acquaintances and she struggled to put into words, even for herself, what she felt.
She took a plaque and a pen...
"Ace..." She whispered. "..."
'I swear...if he comes back with that smug grin as always...'
She began writing down.
"I wish to see Ace again."
She hung it on the racks.
"..."
She took a deep breath...
At some point later, she returned.
She didn't expect it to work. Not immediately anyway...
However, as she paid tribute to him, leaving flowers at his shrine...she felt it...
She couldn't help a smirk. "You took a bit long."
"Aw, did my Nee-san miss me?" Ace's smug voice called out as he walked up behind her.
Tsumuri turned around. "We are not siblings."
"I suppose not." Ace shrugged. "But then, what do you want us to be?"
"A pair of friends where one doesn't go off making everyone forget him like his mother tried to do to him." Tsumuri said flatly.
"...fair." Ace said after a moment. "So, did you wanna see me just for that?"
"..." Tsumuri was silent.
Ace and Tsumuri stared at each other for a bit.
"...I'm sorry..." Ace said, sighing. "...but the world is better off-"
"You do not get to decide that." Tsumuri told him.
"Doesn't a kami-sama get to decide things?" Ace cheekily replied.
"This is not funny." Tsumuri told him. "...I killed you, Ace..." She said, shaking. "I killed you, and...and you go and try to make everyone forget..."
"..." Ace frowned, seeing tears starting to emerge from the Navigator's eyes. He walked forward, staring down at her, wiping away her tears. "...I'm sorry."
"..." Tsumuri sniffed, turning around. "Do not expect me to forgive you that easily."
"...why did you want me here?" Ace asked.
It was a genuine question...
And Tsumuri didn't have the answer she thought she would.
"...I wanted you to know I didn't forget...I wouldn't forget...no matter how hard you try, I won't forget." Tsumuri told him. "You may think we're better off forgetting you, but you're wrong. You changed all of us for the better. You helped give us happiness, even to Daichi of all people...you helped me break free from my chains as Navigator and Goddess, you helped me become my own person, so don't you dare try to pretend we're better off forgetting you." She told him harshly, hugging herself, digging her nails into her arms.
"..." Ace walked forward. "What can I do to make you happy again?" He asked.
...it wasn't to appease himself...
It wasn't for any selfish goal...
That fox still cared about everyone's happiness but his own...
It was both the best and most frustrating thing about him...
"...don't leave..." Tsumuri told him.
"I can't stay." Ace told her. "There's other things I have to do. Hell, I've stirred up quite a bit of chaos in the heavens with my ascension."
"Don't leave forever, then..." Tsumuri told him. "Visit...visit as often as you can...and if by some chance everyone remembers you, don't make them forget again...don't try to make me forget..."
"...ok..." Ace nodded. "I promise."
"You're a fox..." Tsumuri gave a bitter smile. "...how can I trust you'll keep your word?"
Ace took her hand in his, placing something in it.
She held it up to her face...
...the coin...
"Ace..."
She turned around, afraid he was going to disappear the moment she faced him...
He was still there...
He smiled at her, Tsumuri returning it through her own tears.
"...what do you want us to be?" Ace asked her.
"...I don't know...how to put it into words..." Tsumuri admitted.
"...think this'll help?" Ace asked, leaning forward.
Tsumuri leaned up...
...
Breaking contact, the two smiled at each other.
"I have to go." Ace told her.
"...don't forget me...or any of us..."
"I won't."
With that, Ace, shifting from his human form in his fancy clothes, to his god form, to Geats IX, depending on the angle of the light, nodded at her, bursting into blue fire with the sound of church bells, vanishing.
"..."
Tsumuri smiled, blue embers appearing to make her tears vanish off her face...like a hand wiping them...
She walked off...a bit happier than before...
And in her pocket, unknown to her...an object appeared...
An ID core, silver and black, with a bunny-esque helmet silhouette...
