Reincarnated Into A Dead Woman's Body In Another World-Chapter 137: Arc 3, - 47: A Future Set in Paper Can Always Be Erased
"Is that what you want to do Jotou? You want to be a hero again?" Asobi’s eyes sparkled.
’Do I want to play hero again? Do I?’ Jotou crouched down, near the edge. ’This grass has definitely grown taller.’ Jotou checked under her. ’And this grass hasn’t grown much since the third time.’
"I’m not sure Sobi. I don’t know if I want to ’be a hero’. It’s nice, sure."
"Well, didn’t you want to help out in Kria? You said it yourself, The Velatos Case would’ve resolved with or without us. You still wanted to be a part of it," Hotaru crouched down next to her.
"And the case now kinda doesn’t really seem like it’s gonna resolve naturally without us. You’re the only one who can remember anything," Fumeko envied the grass growing nearly till her neck height.
Asobi listened whilst surveying the grass far and wide, "There doesn’t seem to be anything except those zebras over there," she pointed to a little pool of water that zebras surrounded in the distance.
"Zebras?" Jotou turned to see the striped figures grazing around the pool, "Hm, I wonder if they’re stuck like us or came in from the outside."
"Can I make us all visible again then?"
"We should be fine," Fumeko stood on the tips of her toes, "There’s no sign of anyone."
"Then sure," Jotou looked to the elf. The invisibility dropped as they all stood right at the edge of the unperturbed grass. "Don’t step out, we don’t know what might happen," Jotou repeated.
Fumeko wore a purple sundress, a dagger taped to her side whilst the magician appeared in her usual attire, hat and all—all illusions that is.
Sunrays seared down on them, making Asobi’s illusions flicker and falter, making it much easier to spot the more freeing attire she wore underneath.
The other two having their enchanted clothes helped, but Hotaru still opened up her parasol for shade. The light gleamed off of her watch as she stood upright.
Birds of golds and blues flapped their wings, landing on the branches atop the hidden carriage. Jotou slowly rose back up, "Besides the Sun, this place is... peaceful."
The silent moment was only broken by the brushing of slight wind, swaying the tall grass back and forth, just as it did with her blonde locks past her ears.
"Always have to be picky," Hotaru shook her head—a soft smile worn.
"What? I don’t like the heat," Jotou smiled, looking back to the grass. "Past this, the world goes on... No news in or out. I’m the only one who seems to remember."
’Is this a burden—a curse? Or is it just pure coincidence? Why me? Why am I the one wrapped up in all of this? Could anyone else do better? Whatever. The question is, with what I can do, what do I want to do?’
"You’re not alone Jotou," Hotaru laid a hand on the blonde’s shoulder, "So you better have a proper plan for all of this," a fanged grin as the blonde turned to look.
"I will. We should go ahead with the plan. I’m afraid that we might already be late to fight the battalion at this rate and we’re drawing closer to needing a reset."
Hotaru nodded before reaching into her purse, "I thought so too; we might be lucky to reach Hartamat by late evening. Not to mention the delay from needing to sneak in."
Fumeko crouched down, squinting upon a trail of red ants in between the blades of grass; they seemed to be marching inward from outside the border of grass.
The trail had broken formation—some ants squirming their tiny antennae. Many of them scattered aimlessly whilst the rest of them followed a particular path. There were a few dead, lying on their sides.
The detective’s head poked back up, facing Jotou, "You need to do it as soon as possible; I don’t think the headaches are at the end of the list of consequences."
"Well, Jotou can only do it as fast as Jotou can. Do you think I could learn all those cool, awe-inspiring spells again!?" Asobi giddied up.
"I’m not sure; you didn’t even learn, you just did it without you even knowing. But I get it, the more resets the more consequences. We still need to get to Frye if we want to reset anything.
It’s a last resort if everything doesn’t look good. Maybe, we could even get our hands on the device.
Though, with the doubling forces since last time, I’m not exactly sure what to expect and whether or not Hartamat’s Defence Force could handle it.
If things look bad, I don’t think the four of us could brute force and take down an entire army as much as I wish we could," Jotou knitted her brows.
"Don’t stress yourself too much. You’ll figure it out with time and patience," Hotaru brought out pens, papers and lines of white string.
"Time that we may not have. If even the horses are getting pissed, how long before we get much more than headaches?" Fumeko stared off with Jotou.
Jotou stared back, a spark in her eyes, "Then I’ll have to do it as fast as possible. Trust me detective, I will figure it out. All our lives, all of the lives in Hartamat, including the animals are riding on this."
"Yay! Jotou’s going to be a hero again!" twinkles of butterflies flew over the blonde. Jotou smiled in the direction of the elf.
"Yeah. I want to be a hero again. Maybe a little for the glory, a little for the fame; money’s surely nice, but this is more so for the victory.
Call me a sore loser, but I don’t like being thrown into a conundrum like this and I really want to see this battalion scared and pissed that I keep getting in their way—I really want to win.
If it’s something I don’t care about, I’d just walk away. But after everything that’s happened to all of you and myself, over and over.
Walking away from this is the last thing I’d like to do, even if we could. I think I’d regret it greatly if I just run away from this problem.
And this is too important; lives are at stake and corrupt officials are at large. I’d like to do something about it. This has become all too personal... Even if they don’t remember me, I remember them.
Trailon walked into this thinking to change their outcome—to dodge whatever disaster and try again. They thought that lightning wouldn’t strike twice," Jotou’s eyes narrowed.
"...Do you have to be so dramatic?" Fumeko snarked, though she smiled, feeling a wave of inspiration going over her.
Jotou smirked back, "I’m the Thundering Blade aren’t I? It’s about time they face the sound that lightning makes~"
"Ugh, enough," Fumeko’s lips scrunched up.
"Alright Thundering Blade," Hotaru handed a paper and a pen, her tail swaying as her fangs grinned in amusement, "Enough with your action lines, that was terrible."
"So cool..." jade-green eyes glittered in admiration. Jotou cackled under her breath, taking the paper and pen with a swagger of her fingers.
"Don’t encourage this," Fumeko glared to Asobi.
_
Jotou placed the end of the pen in between her teeth—the other three of her party stood a little spread out along the border of grass. ’I asked them to leave a message for their ’future’ selves; and then attach string to them so we can reel them in later.
Keep them slightly far apart, so that in case by some miracle the soldiers patrolling do notice them, they only find one and not the rest. The time shouldn’t affect anything outside is the theory. However, one slight issue.’
"What the hell do I write? I remember everything," Jotou questioned why she opted to take a pen and paper. She looked to her left; Hotaru was about five steps away while Fumeko and Asobi were much further.
The redhead sat with her legs crossed, tail over her lap as she folded the piece of paper and tied the string around it. "Hey, you finished writing?" Jotou walked over before sitting down next to her.
Hotaru faced the blonde, "Yes. If you’re theory’s right, we should be able to pull these back without them reverting too, right?"
"I certainly hope it doesn’t... I don’t even want to begin thinking how this device resets absolutely everything in this radius," Jotou sighed, "So, what did you write about?"
"Things to remember for the future me reading it. Some proof that I’m the one who wrote it and information of what you told me as well as some, other things. Having trouble writing something?"
"It seems redundant that I write something, but I’ll figure something out; at least before those two," Jotou glanced past Hotaru.
"Hm, need some help on what to write then?"
"Actually, about that ’working theory’..." Jotou blushed—eyes shying away.
"Oh," Hotaru’s ears stiffened, "So you were thinking of that too," her fangs poked out, "You’re still going with a ’working theory’, huh?"
Jotou faced her, "Well, why don’t you help me confirm it? Do you like me? More than normal?" A deep breath Jotou took, her brows tense.
Hotaru raised an eyebrow, "Like you more than normal? That’s a childish way to put it," she chuckled.
"Uh, got it from someone else," Jotou winced an eye shut.
"Hm," Hotaru twisted her lips to the side, "If we make it through this, I’ll give a proper answer. If we reset, why don’t you ask the future me?" a sly grin.
Jotou’s eyes glazed over, "That’s a bit cruel; I kinda already know the answer..."
"Do you?"
That retort the blonde did not expect, as she was thrown for a loop of paranoia immediately, her eyes widening. "I-I do, I think... I hope," Jotou curled her toes.
The redhead gave a malicious smile, a flutter of her cunning eyelashes as she held her tail in her lap; her ears pointed up, not much giving her away. "We’ll just have to see, won’t we?"
Jotou gave a childish pout with sorrowful eyes. ’You started this war Jotou Howllett... Dammit.’
