"Did we meet before?"
"!!?"
Ash asking that question stunned her for a while, but her expression calmed down quickly as she asked him in a more serious tone,
"So you actually don't remember?"
"Huh!?...No!...do we actually knew each other ...?"
Ash's hands loosen around her waist, he was stunned to the point he froze in his place . Serenity felt the change, and seeing his clueless expression, she had roughly guessed his situation. After she adjusted herself, she adjusted the chair and asked him to sit back.
"Sit down first. I know you have so much to ask..."
"..."
Ash had a lot on his mind: 'Who is she?...What was their relationship before?...And how exactly did they meet?' Most of all, what was she for me?... A lot of unsolved riddles were piling on his head, causing a strong yet painful headache.
"Ugh...tch…"
"!?!"
The headache was so painful he was squeezing his head between his hands trying to ease the pain. Serenity, seeing him like that, felt uneasy. She came closer, placing her hands over his ears; his head cleared right away.
Ash, who was closing his eyes, started to open them gradually as his pain started to ease down. 'Her red eyes are now back to normal…lifeless white eyes looking at me, but it felt like it wasn't...I wonder what she is seeing at the moment?' He was lost in his thoughts looking at the woman in front of him, but what she said next changed everything for him.
"It's alright now...just throw all your pain onto the ocean."
"Wha-..ugh." He grabbed his chest from pain as he was hardly breathing. He struggled to speak, "J...just...huff...huff...huff...w...who the...gulp...hell are you?"
Her words made his chest tighten, a throbbing pain surged from his heart as an unclear vision appeared in his head,he fell to the ground his vision blurred, and he passed out...
A while later he started to regain his consciousness slowly; his vision was a bit foggy, but he seemed to have seen a long silver icy-haired woman surrounded by butterflies seated on the window in an open-back silver mermaid gown. It was like a winter night; snowflakes were surrounding her as if winter was only at the place she was standing on.
He couldn't see her face but was so mesmerized by the scene, he rubbed his eyes frantically, but when he opened them again, he saw Serenity was sitting there, crossing her legs, deep in thought, looking at the sky. He got confused.
'Was it just my imagination?... What was that just now?'
He looked around him; he was still at the restaurant. Lying on the ground with a white fur scarf was under his head. He started getting up slowly; his head was still pounding.
"Ugh...What just happened?"
"Are you awake?"
"How long have I been out for?" Ash said while rubbing his head.
"An hour maybe…"
Ash looked at her eyes, realizing she is not using any magic on them, and he asked her,
"How can you be so sure?"
She turned her face towards him, saying,
"I have a strong sense of time; don't worry about it.... More importantly, how do you feel now?"
Ash got up from the ground; he leaned on the chair beside him to help him stand.
"Much better, even though my head is still pounding. What have you done exactly?"
She tilted her head, asking, "What do you mean?"
"Your hands, they..."
He kept staring at her hands, thinking about what he just experienced:
'When she touched my head previously, it felt clear and calm, unlike the usual chaos...it felt so good, actually.'
After thinking for a while, Serenity finally realized what he meant.
"Oh!...you mean that...it's nothing. I just used my magic to create a barrier in order to isolate your magical powers away from your soul powers, which prevented them from colliding with each other, and that was supposed to calm you down. It should have at least."
"..." Ash was stunned for a moment; he had never heard of such abilities. "Is it even possible?"
Serenity said her words bluntly as if it were common sense.
"Just because you haven't seen anyone doing it doesn't mean I can't."
"How does it work?" Ash asked.
"Come closer, and I will show you…"
Although he didn't understand what she wanted, he walked towards her anyway.
"So what should I do?"
She extended her left hand open towards him, saying,
"Hold my hand."
He was stunned by "Seriously?!"
He was stunned by her request, but recalling what happened before, he thought, 'Back then she touched my head, so maybe it requires being close or something...I have no idea. Let's just hold her hand and see what will happen next…'
Once he held it, her hands glowed, and a pair of crystal butterflies appeared floating on the back of both her hands, waving their wings slowly, and his headache disappeared instantly.
'Those butterflies...' He felt a deep connection along with a familiar ache the more he looked at those butterflies, but she cut his train of thoughts, asking him,
"How do you usually get by in such a situation?"
He snapped back to reality and looked at his hand, saying, "Uh…that, just...bear with the pain…till it's finally over..."
"That's sad actually," Serenity said.
"Not as much as you think; it's not usually this painful."
"What's the difference then?"
"Words…"
"Huh!??...what words?" She asked in confusion.
"Throw them into the ocean."
"So?...what are we getting onto here?"
Ash seemed to have a lot on his mind, but he explained himself in hopes he might get an answer for his questions.
"I seem to have heard those words somewhere, but when I tried to remember, the situation just got out of control, and I was out, as you just witnessed."
"This usually works, though."
"Usually?!" The word caught his attention; he was waiting for her to continue, but only silence was awaiting him.
"..."
Serenity was in deep thoughts, staring at Ash, hands supporting her chin. He felt as if she was looking through him, not at him, especially when her expression looked so emotionless after her eyes turned white. He was in a daze till she finally spoke.
"I want to ask you about something; just tell me if you don't want to answer."
Ash kept holding her hand, but instead of standing, he sat on the window beside her, saying,
"Is it my turn now?"
"Actually, I just want to confirm something from you."
"...just ask if I can answer; I naturally won't hide anything."
Ash had an oddly familiar bad feeling about what was coming next, and she certainly didn't disappoint him.
"You said it...let me ask you...have you ever used forbidden magic?"
"Careful there, lady...this is no joking matter." He spoke in a hard tongue; his expression was so serious as he looked at her. In his mind he thought,
'If someone said something like this to me, normally that person would die on the spot, but with her...why is it so different, I wonder?'
After thinking it through, Serenity realized the situation, so she changed her words.
"Let me rephrase my question then…have you used any kind of magic with a special side effect...losing part of your memories, for example?"
Ash looked at her in confusion. "Where did that come from?"
"Because from what I know, you should be dead."
"!??"
Hearing the word "dead" sent a chill down his spine. He never expected to hear such shocking words coming out of her mouth, although unbelievable, it helped him confirm something important.
'We did meet after all, and this meeting brought a disaster'
He swallowed his fear and asked her ,"What do you mean dead?!..."
"..."
Being met with her silence, he knew she wouldn't talk any further, so he resolved to answer her previous question.
"Although I can't share details with you, I can tell you this...I indeed have an ability with a chance of something like that to happen, but I have never actually used it before because the risk isn't worth it, but...after today I am starting to think otherwise."
He kept his gaze fixed on her, thinking intensely, 'What exactly happened between us?...And how come I remember everything but only her?...Only memories related to her are missing from my head?...So many questions, with no answers, making me feel lost and helpless.'
A sudden cold on his cheek snapped him back; he turned to his cheek.
'Why is it suddenly cold?'
Serenity placed her hand on his left cheek, gently brushing his hair away.
"It's alright...you don't actually need to remember; just consider it an unimportant memory from long ago and let it go."
Ash turned his head to face her. "You're the one saying that, knowing full well that it's easier said than done..."
"I can't seem to object to that."
His words seemed to have hit a nerve after thinking carefully, 'I am actually someone who's waiting to collect corpses by the end of the day ... maybe I am the type to hold a grudge. Who am I to stop him at this rate?'
Ash's confusion built up to the point where his mind couldn't collect the pieces together anymore.
"What exactly happened in the past?...and why the hell did you say I am dead?"
"Let's just say it was an unfortunate encounter…"
Serenity retreated her hand slowly from his face, but he grabbed it and tightly held onto her other hand.
"That's more than enough of a reason to make me insist even more... What exactly did I forget?"
Serenity firmly replied,
" I don't want you to remember…"
"Why?!"
"Because it's painful," Serenity said.
"Pain?!...wha—"
Ash realized her eyes seemed full of anger and sorrow, and that she bit her lips till they bled. Upon seeing her like that, he thought, 'Maybe those forgotten events left me with no memories, but it's not the same for her. I assume it has left a deep wound on her...if I keep pressing any further, I might end up hurting her...and strangely enough, I can't seem to bear to.'
He quickly let go of her hand and held her in his arms, gently patted her head, and asked for forgiveness.
"I am sorry...I shouldn't have pressed the matter any further...I am sorry again…"
Serenity hugged him back, holding his cloth tightly.
"Don't worry about it; if I were you, I would've done the same."
Ash let go of her and knelt on the ground, removing his eye mask. Right at this moment, each of them was looking at the other with his true eyes.
"I won't ask you about it anymore...I promise."
Serenity spoke with an icy, biting tone, "Don't treat me like a little kid. I am seriously not...although you said you won't ask me, but I know you're going to investigate me when you're back, and I won't allow it."
He got up from the ground and sat beside her on the window again; with a firm and serious tone, he said,
"You don't actually expect me to sit down and do nothing when discovering that something terrible enough to make you think I died happened to me and I just happened to forget about it, do you?"
Serenity raised her head, facing the ceiling, saying in a helpless tone,
"That's why I said I won't allow it... let alone the fact that investigating me is like walking on fire. You do know who I am, after all, but that's not the issue in here. This investigation will open a hell of dangerous enemies. I am not sure if we can walk out of that mess alive."
The more she talked, the more determined he became. "Then what?...You realize you actually made me even more curious saying all that...You don't think you can stop me, do you?"
"Sigh...I know, and I wasn't even trying since I know how stubborn you can actually be; if you want to know something, you won't stop till you actually know."
He smiled mischievously, nodding in agreement as he said,
"You do know me well."
"More than you imagine."
"So what's your plan for me?" Ash asked.
"Easy, let's make a deal..."
"What kind of deal?"
Serenity expressed her fears if he investigated, afraid he might get hurt.
"You see, searching my information won't lead anywhere. If it was easy, maybe my parents would have known me better than this, but I can't risk it with you...if you actually happen to find something, you might trigger a disaster without knowing it."
After thinking about her words carefully, he realized the events of the past may be worse than he thought. To avoid unnecessary troubles, he decided to accept her deal.
"What's the deal?"
"Easy...I assume after today we will meet a lot, so here is my deal...Every time we meet, I will tell you about our past for only one minute. After exactly 60 seconds, I won't say an extra word. How does that sound?"
"Sounds good to me."
From what he saw from Serenity till this moment, he reached a certain point of understanding about her personality, thinking, 'I am not exactly confident in investigating her tail; she must have been very careful not to leave any lead behind. Her unusual magic, eyes, and even her physique will make it even harder for me. I am actually in favor.'
"So what is the information for today..."
"Information, huh...let me ask you first, do you like these butterflies?"
"Does the time start from now?"
"Answer this question, and I will start counting."
He looked at the butterfly on her shoulder; after thinking carefully, he delivered his opinion clearly.
"Well then...If it's about those butterflies, I would say they are unusually attractive but useful with special abilities...What about them?"
A faint smile appeared on her face upon hearing his words, and she said,
"Sure enough ... you never change ... same question, same opinion."
Ash asked in confusion, "Wait, you asked me the same question before?"
Serenity leaned on the wall behind her, releasing more butterflies around her, and smugly said,
"You see those attractive butterflies as you describe them...they were gifted to me by you."
"What?!"