Return.

Akira: (If I can’t remember anything about my past, does that mean I’m an Alter-Ego of the original Akira too…?)

I took the last sip of my drink while thinking this.

I could see Shylock through the glaze at the bottom of the empty glass. It made me feel vaguely uncomfortable for some reason.

Akira: (Huh…? Why does this feel so familiar?)

Akira: (I remember seeing Shylock like this during the Fellowship Ceremony, but somehow that doesn’t feel like the answer here…)

Akira: “…It’s more like… Something I used to see…”

I looked at my fingers as I mumbled this, observing how the glass distorted them.

Akira: (Oh…)

As soon as I’d noticed this, my fingers began to transform into pink petals, losing their shape and gently drifting down to the countertop.

Riquet: “Akira…!”

Shylock: “It can’t be… You’re an Alter-Ego too…?!”

Shylock: “…I need to prepare some Kirsche Persche, quickly…!”

Riquet’s and Shylock’s cries sent everyone hurrying towards us.

Snow: “Your finger…! There has to be something we can do to stop this!”

Cain: “Trying to hold you together isn’t working, you just keep falling apart…!”

Heathcliff: “I can’t believe it… You skipped the rampaging stage entirely…”

Riquet: “Please, wait…! I don’t want you to disappear, Akira! You’ve only just become part of the family…!”

I watched as Cain and Riquet did their best to try and gather the flower petals that should’ve been part of me in their hands.

Their desperation slowly filled my chest with a warm feeling — but I couldn’t help feeling a little guilty at the same time.

Having to say goodbye to anyone always makes people feel grief and sorrow. And yet, for some reason, I didn’t feel like I had a reason to panic or be afraid.

Akira: “I’m sorry for surprising you like this, everyone. But you don’t have to worry… I’ll be alright, really.”

Mithra: “…You cannot possibly be ‘alright’. You have already lost most of your hands.”

Owen: “You’re just pretending to be brave with an expression like that, aren’t you?”

The two of them said this while watching some distance away from me, and I gave them both the gentlest smile I could muster.

Akira: “I’m not pretending to be brave, and I’m not frightened either. Because…”

Looking down, I watched as the petals continued falling from my body.

Akira: (These petals aren’t from the Lunaset Flower at all. I know exactly what kind of flower this is.)

Akira: (I can feel each memory, each experience, coming back to me with every fallen petal.)

Shylock: “Akira…! I have the Kirsche Persche ready for you now.”

Looking up at the sound of my name being called, I saw Shylock rushing towards me with a full glass in his hand.

But I no longer had any arms left to accept it with.

Narrowing his eyes in a heartbroken way, Shylock put his fingers to my chin instead.

Shylock: “Please, Akira. You must drink this, I beg of you.”

Akira: “Shylock…”

I could hear the desperation in his voice as he held the beautiful drink to my mouth. 

With a pained smile on my lips, I answered—

Akira: “We all drank Kirsche Persche together the other day, remember? It’s alright. I’m not an Alter-Ego, Shylock.”

Shylock: “…So then, what…”

Akira: “I am Akira.”

Akira: “And I’m also the Sage — summoned to a broken world on a night when the moon was full.”

Shylock: “The Sage? What in the world…?”

Akira: “It’s the name of the role that was given to me. The ordinary ‘Akira’ who likes cats became ‘Akira’ the Sage, responsible for saving the world.”

Akira: “That’s who I was before I arrived here.”

When I smiled at him, Shylock laughed as if I was simply being troublesome, placing the glass in his hand down on the counter instead.

Shylock: “So… You’re saying that’s who you’ve really been all along, are you?”

Akira: “Well, yes… But also not exactly.”

Akira: “Akira the person, Akira the Sage…”

Akira: “And Akira of the Luna Piena Family — they’re all who I really am, deep down.”

Shylock: “Akira…”

Like the tears people shed when they have to say goodbye to each other, the light pink petals continued gently drifting away from my body.

Shylock: “…Though the parting hurts, I’m sure you must have others waiting for you to return to them as this ‘Sage’.”

Shylock: “Consequently, it would be cruel of me to try and keep you here.”

Shylock: “So in the few moments we have left… Allow me to offer you this drink as my farewell.”

Shylock gently held the Kirsche Persche to my mouth a second time.

Akira: “…Thank you, Shylock.”

I closed my eyes, trusting the light pink cherry blossom petals to return me home safely.

I felt the rim of the glass touch my lips.

Akira: (…I remember now…)

Akira: (This refreshing, slightly sweet taste, and gentle floral aroma… I knew what it was all along.)

Akira: (I am the Sage who will save the world…)

When I opened my eyes again, my view of the bar had become blurred, as if covered by a thin white cloth.

As the people I had come to love faded from sight, I whispered—

Akira: “Goodbye, all of you… From the town where Lunaset Flowers grow…”

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘❀༓❀∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

Shylock: “…Master. Master Akira.”

Akira: “Mnngh… One more sip…”

Shylock: “Oh my, is that what you desire? Here, allow me to hold the glass for you.”

Snow: “‘Tis ‘ahh’ one usually says when they desire something in their mouth, not ‘mnngh’. Heathcliff, dear, demonstrate for us, won’t you?”

Heathcliff: “Wh-What? Me?”

Heathcliff: “Um… Ahhh…”

Akira: “W… Wait, huh?!”

Startled by the unexpected turn the conversation had taken, I found myself very awake all of a sudden.

Akira: “Is this… My room in the Magic Manor?”

Snow: “Ohohoho, shocking you awake worked after all!”

Snow laughed heartily as he stood there in his adult form, while Shylock and Heathcliff looked at me with slightly relieved expressions on their faces.

Looking around, I saw that there were actually quite a few wizards gathered around my bed.

It wasn’t just Shylock, Snow and Heathcliff — Cain, Riquet, Arthur, and even Mithra and Owen were there with me too.

Akira: “Um… Is something wrong, everyone?”

Shylock: “Do you remember spending last night in my bar, Master?”

Akira: “Sort of, yes…”

Shylock: “I had served you a non-alcoholic cocktail with herbs, designed to give you a good night’s sleep.”

Shylock: “But when the next day came and you still hadn’t woken up even after noon had passed, we began to grow worried for you.”

Heathcliff: “We all just wanted to make sure you were alright.”

Snow: “Mithy and Wenny are terribly disobedient children, of course, so I forced… Ahem, I mean, I invited them to come along with me.”

Akira: “Ah, now I remember…! I’m so sorry for worrying you all.”

Mithra: “Haah… What a pain. It was obvious you were just sleeping.”

Cain: “It’d be a problem if anything happened to you, Master. We’re lucky sleeping is all you were doing.”

Owen: “You had such a stupid look on your face while you were asleep, it was almost like you’d died. I’m bored now that you’ve woken up so soon.”

Akira: “Ahaha… I’m sorry I couldn’t make it more interesting for you.”

As I sat up, Riquet asked me curiously—

Riquet: “Despite the side effects, it seems like the cocktail Shylock gave you really did work as intended. How did it taste?”

Akira: “It was delicious. It had a refreshing, slightly sweet taste, and a gentle floral aroma.”

Riquet: “A cocktail that smells like flowers…! That’s amazing. I want to try it now, too.”

Arthur: “While I’m certain the cocktail likely helped, you must’ve been terribly exhausted to have slept so deeply, Master Sage.”

Arthur: “Why don’t you take a day off from whatever it is you’ve been working on lately?”

Snow: “I concur. Worry not, Sage, I shall make the arrangements on your behalf — ‘tis better that you do not push yourself unnecessarily.”

Akira: “Thank you, everyone. You’re probably right that I was tired… I had a very long dream.”

Shylock: “You certainly seemed to have been dreaming, yes. You asked for ‘one more sip’ as you were waking up — whatever were you dreaming about?”

Akira: “Well, actually… I was having a drink at a bar you owned, Shylock.”

Snow: “Hmm, is that so? So Shylock is the owner of his own bar even in your dreams?”

Akira: “Well, yes, but the bar owner thing was more of a side-job… I guess you’d say his main occupation was closer to being a criminal than anything.”

Heathcliff: “Shylock…? A criminal?”

Akira: “Actually, you were too, Heath. And so was Snow, and everyone else…”

Heathcliff: “Huh?! Me as well…?”

Snow: “Certainly not, Sage! Could someone as cute and sweet as me really act in such a manner?”

Cain: “Shylock as a criminal, huh… Now I’m curious to know what that looked like. I kinda get the feeling he’d be unexpectedly attractive?”

Mithra: “I have no interest in discussing what people dream about, frankly.”

As I listened to everyone’s cheerful conversation, Shylock carried on preparing me a drink by my bedside. The sound of his glasses clinking together was strangely nostalgic.

Shylock: “Fufu. Well then, Master Sage — which would you say you prefer? The criminal me, or the me sitting in front of you now?”

Akira: “Well…”

Akira: “I don’t think it’s fair for me to choose. Criminal or not… Shylock will always be Shylock.”

Akira: “I like you for who you are.”

A smile lit up Shylock’s face as I told him how I honestly felt.

Shylock: “Well now. I appreciate you saying something so kind to me.”

Shylock: “That aside, however — here. A wake-up drink, just for you.”

Bowing gracefully, Shylock held a silver tray out towards me, a single glass balanced on its surface.

It was a drink coloured warm yellow on the bottom, flower-like pink on top. A beautiful gradation of colours, melding together within the glass.

Akira: (Ah… It looks just like the drink I had at the end of my dream.)

Shylock: “I have, of course, omitted any herbs for peaceful sleeping this time — for those who prefer conducting their business during the light of day.”

Akira: “Ahaha. Thank you, Shylock.”

Taking the glass, I held it up to the sunlight streaming in through my window, watching as a pink and yellow light began to dance on the back of my hand.

As I tipped the glass back towards my mouth, I thought to myself — that light almost looked like petals just now.

A refreshing, slightly sweet aroma tickled my nose. While it was similar to the drink from my dream, I now knew exactly what it is that it reminded me of.

It was similar to the nostalgic scent of flowers I’d once known very well — the scent of cherry blossom trees.