No more distractions

Before anyone could even react, I took a step back and grabbed Emmett by the arm.

“Come on, let’s go.” I urged him.

“Huh? Why?”

“I simply don’t feel like being here.”

“Don’t walk away from me you prick! Is that the first thing you have to say to me?” Dan slammed the door furiously as we walked away. I worried that it might even have broken, but luckily nothing of the sort happened.

“So, uh, that was something, huh.” Emmett scratched his head as I let go of his arm. “Where do we go now, though?”

“I don’t know…wanna go to the meeting spot?” I suggested. “There’s not gonna be any more distractions there.”

“The meeting…you mean that underground space we were in yesterday? The one you almost got freaking exorcized in?”

“I mean, yeah, you said you took care of all the corpses, right? So there shouldn’t be a problem.”

“That’s not the issue, though, you’re just delaying the inevitable. Eventually you’re gonna have to come back to your house and confront your parents..”

“Not necessarily.”

“What do you mean, not necessarily, you idiot? What, you’re gonna sleep on the streets? Because I sure as hell ain’t taking you back to my place!”

“Emmett, you wouldn’t know, but that underground space wasn’t the only thing there.” I explained. “There’s actually a secret passageway down to a second area that’s concealed through magic, turning the doorway invisible to the naked eye.”

“Oh, that’s pretty neat, I didn’t even think that was possible.” Emmett remarked. “Wait, actually, the first door to enter the space is also hidden by magic, right? I remember seeing that in the memory.”

“Right, and I’m assuming the reason it wasn’t this time is that without my memories, I would have no way to find it, so they made sure to leave it visible when I was tailing Louise.”

“Hold on a minute, though, at that point they assumed you had your memories, didn’t they? I think I heard them say that while I was snooping in, so it’s kinda contradicting. Otherwise, why would they assume you’d follow Louise if you lost your memories?”

“Wait, you’re right. That doesn’t make sense! Our plan was for me to follow Louise, so why did the door stay visible?”

How could I have been so stupid and miss something so trivial? The Masked Order acted under the assumption that I had all my memories at that point, which is why Louise knew I’d follow her, even though that ended up happening through pure luck. Regardless, there was no reason for them to let the door stay visible unless they knew my memories were gone, but that doesn’t make any sense because why would Louise assume I’d even follow her in the first place? The entire plan would end up hinging on whether or not I’d have a hunch, which seemed extremely unlikely.

What was the plan in the first place? I’d told them to assume that…huh? Why…can’t I remember anything past that moment? No, that’s not it. I remember, but…hold on, I was the one that came up with this whole thing in the first place, so why can’t I remember?

I stopped dead in my tracks.

“What is it?” Emmett stopped as well.

“I-I can’t remember…”

“You’re kidding me! You lost your memory again?”

“No, hold on, that’s not it…” I tried to explain. “I…I remember what happened…but there’s a certain moment that feels really fuzzy…not just a moment, the three days that occurred right before the transmigration plan was put into place…It’s hazy, like a fog. Nothing’s clear to me.”

“Wait, what the hell? Wait, Louise was there too, so we could ask her about it!”

“Ask me about what?” Louise spoke behind us.

“Ahhh!”

The two of us leaped in terror.

“What are you doing here?” I shouted.

“Shhh! Stop drawing attention to us!” She said, “I felt like coming over to see where you two were at, since I didn’t wanna be left out of the loop. When I arrived, I saw you bickering with your dad, and then you turned around and grabbed Emmett’s arm as he slammed the door. I then instinctively hid in a bush for some reason, before realizing a few minutes later that there was no reason for me to hide, so here I am!”

“....Okay…” Emmett looked disappointed. “That was a lot more boring than I expected.”

“What, did you expect me to go on like 50 side quests, or something?”

“What the hell are you waffling about..” Emmett muttered.

“Anyway, what did you two wanna ask me about?”

“Wait, hold on, we’re heading to the meeting place, we can talk in my room there.” I said.

“You have a room?” Emmett exclaimed.

“Yeah, under the actual space, I just told you, dumbass, do you have amnesia?”

“You just told me there’s an “area”, idiot! How am I supposed to deduce that by area, you mean a room?”

“You should just have known all along, it’s as simple as that.”

“Ah, yes, my apologies for not being a wizard and predicting the future, Lord Arthur!” He spat. “Next time I’ll be sure to do that!”

I saw Louise on my right trying not to let out a chuckle, our two man act had clearly started to grow on her.

“Alright, we’re closing in on the station.” Emmett said. “Which means you need to calm down and stop being a distraction!”

“No, you.”

“How am I distracting you?”

“Like this.”

I then slapped him and sprinted away as fast as humanly possible. As I looked back, the only thing I saw was Emmett chasing me like I had murdered his entire family, with Louise right behind him, trying not to burst out with laughter.

After a few minutes of running around in circle, he gave up and allowed us to finally enter the station.

“Look how much time you wasted, idiot.” I told him.

“Wha-you’re the one who slapped me and ran away!” He defended himself. “Either way, I still owe that to you, don’t think I’ve forgotten.”

The rest of the way to the meeting place was quite uneventful, except for the fact that Emmett tripped on his own feet, causing him to push a man over who tripped yet another man, causing a domino effect. As we exited the train, a lot of people stared back at us with fury in their eyes, with me and Louise both pointing at Emmett who chuckled nervously.

With all distractions out of the way, we finally arrived at the alleyway where the meeting place resided.

“What the…there’s no door!” Emmett freaked out.

“You unintelligent, dim-witted moron! I showed you the memory yesterday and then explained it to you again today! It’s hidden by a veil!” I said.

“Right, so how do we-”

“Shut up and let me do it!” Louise stepped forward, moving her hands in the same motion that man in the memory did, causing the door to reappear, which she then held open. “Idiots first.”

“What are you, five?” Emmett said, while suspiciously eyeing me and remaining standing in place, clearly unwilling to move.

“Yo, she said you first.” I told him.

“Never in a million years!” He retorted. 

“What’s wrong, Emmett, I thought you were calling me childish, seconds ago?” Louise smirked.

“Don’t worry, man it’s not a big deal, just go in.”

“Alright, alright…”

As soon as he stepped foot inside, both me and Louise burst out laughing and pointed at him like the idiot he was.