Unlike Kyle, Ray liked games. He wasn't particularly good at them, but he enjoyed playing. That one was an open-world RPG that wasn't too difficult. It was also the first game to get Ray hooked, back when he hadn't been able to see the appeal.

["Now I see why you spend so much time on this."]

I remembered Ray smiling, engrossed in the game with a Joy-Con in his hands.

["This is fun."]

Let's not think about it anymore. I couldn't burst into tears in the home of a senior I barely knew. I finally managed to tear my eyes from the game and let them roam around the room again.

It was a colorful room, packed with things. But what drew my attention were the stacks of games in their dazzlingly colorful cases. I could get a rough idea of what kinds she liked. Standing in the entryway, I scanned the titles. Games stacked like towers. She clearly hadn't been lying about liking retro games; so many were familiar that it hurt a little.

"You like games, right?"

Shu's voice brought me back to my senses a little. Both her hands were tucked into her souvenir jacket. I met her eyes and nodded.

"Yes."

"What kinds?"

"I'm not particularly picky."

"Hmm."

Shu studied me with her sky-blue eyes. What was it? I looked down at her unreadable face. Was she disappointed that I didn't have a favorite genre? That didn't seem to be it. Looking up at me, she gestured for me to shut the front door.

I readily closed it, and the city noise receded. The room suddenly felt cozy. She tucked her hands back into her jacket.

"You still don't have your memories?"

I couldn't hide my surprise at the unexpected question.

"You mean me?"

"Yes. And seriously, stop being so formal."

"Yes, I mean..."

Come to think of it, she'd seen me drop out of the portal. She was one of the people who knew I'd become a Badger in a thoroughly absurd way. So much had happened since then that I'd forgotten.

How much was I supposed to tell Shu? Once again, I found myself in a workplace situation of "Don't ask. Read the room and use your judgment. But if anything goes wrong, it's your fault." How many times had this happened now? After some thought, I answered.

"Bits and pieces are coming back, but I still haven't remembered everything."

"Really?"

Shu sounded matter-of-fact. She scrutinized me again.

"Then did you happen to make games?"

... The unexpected questions just kept coming. I stared blankly down at her, then shook my head.

"I don't think so."

"Are you sure you didn't?"

"Yes. I don't know anything about that. I just like games. I don't have the skills to make them."

I didn't think I'd ever wanted to make one. I didn't particularly want to now, either. I had no idea why she was asking. Perhaps that showed on my face, because Shu tilted her head slightly. She looked deep in thought for a moment, then pulled her hands from her jacket.

"Want to take your shoes off and come in? It's a little cramped."

Was this really all right...? I wondered, but did as she said. Shu walked over to the console and switched on a small gaming monitor.

The spot with the tower of game cases was definitely a dedicated gaming area. If she'd set aside space just for gaming in a room this small, she must have liked games quite a bit herself.

"Have a seat. There's something I want to show you."

I obediently sat down in front of the gaming monitor. Shu handed me a Joy-Con, then slotted a cartridge into the console. I happily watched the game title appear on the black screen.

I didn't know what this was about, but sitting in front of a console felt good. I had a serious problem.

The screen lit up. Soon, a pixelated game title began bobbing in the center.

[FROM E]

I couldn't be sure without pressing Start, but it looked like a pixel-art RPG. The background music had a clear, pearly sound that suited the atmosphere perfectly. I wanted to play it. I stared at the screen, barely resisting the urge to press Start without asking.

Shu stood beside the monitor, watching my reaction.

"Do you know this game?"

"No, not at all. Is it fun?"

"Reasonably?"

That was a vague answer.

"It's an RPG with a pretty short playtime. Looks like a solo developer made it."

"Ah. May I try it?"

"Yeah. Actually, I've wanted to show you this since we met."

Huh? I gave Shu a blank look, but she simply met my eyes without explaining. She didn't seem inclined to explain just yet, either. I supposed starting the game would clear things up. Without asking any more questions, I pressed Start.

The title vanished before my eyes with a cheerful sound. The sparkling letters shrank away, and a green lawn and an old castle filled the black screen. A lot of care had gone into the background. Even in pixel art, it was beautifully rendered. Full of anticipation, I watched the scrolling view settle into place and the protagonist emerge from the castle.

True to classic RPG form, the protagonist appeared with a long sword at his side. He trotted down the castle steps, stopped in the middle of the screen, and looked around before closing his eyes and smiling. Like a typical 2D game character, he bobbed up and down even while standing still. A long dialogue box appeared at the bottom of the screen.

[Hildebert Taleb: Another beautiful day!]

Huh?

It felt as though something had hit me in the head. For a long time, I stared at the screen with my mouth hanging open.

A 2D protagonist with a sword stood on pixelated green grass in the middle of the screen.

Name: Hildebert Taleb.

... What?

No...

What even?

What was this?

For a while, my head was full of nothing but question marks. I could only stare at the screen, unable to bring myself to press a button on the Joy-Con. It was so utterly unexpected that the shock hit harder than seeing Colton had. When I still couldn't pull myself together, Shu pointed at the screen.

"His hair, skin, and eyes are the same color as yours, too."

Chillingly, she was right.

"White hair, bronze skin, yellow eyes."

"... What on earth is this...?"

"That's why I thought you might have made it."

Shu didn't seem as shocked as I was. Perhaps she'd already moved past that stage. I finally tore my eyes from the screen and looked at my two-tone-haired senior. The person who hadn't said a single word on the day I fell out of the portal.

Since she'd wanted to show me this from that day onward, she must have known the game before then. Why hadn't she mentioned it that day? Though I doubted anyone would have taken it seriously if she had.

I carefully went over the day I'd arrived and everything Shu had said so far. Still-vivid memories surfaced one after another. Well, come to think of it... if a senior had just said there was no one named Hildebert Taleb anywhere in Center Core, I'd probably have found it hard to pipe up about a game protagonist with the same name, too...

How had she kept this to herself all this time...?

But wait.

"Did you think I was self-absorbed enough to make a game like this, ma'am?"

I raised my head to ask, and Shu quietly regarded me with her usual unreadable eyes. After standing there expressionlessly for a while, she shrugged.

"I thought it was possible. I don't know you very well."

"I'm not that kind of person."

I firmly corrected her misunderstanding.

"I don't know how to make games, and even if I did make one, I wouldn't create a protagonist like this."

Shu gave a perfunctory nod, as though it made no difference to her. She really was cool in a completely different way from Yun. Turning away from me, worn out by her ridiculous misunderstanding, she fixed her eyes on the screen.

The animated 2D protagonist. He bore the unusual name Hildebert Taleb, and even his appearance was eerily identical to mine. Who had developed this?

The console was the only sound in the studio apartment. She broke the silence that had settled over the cramped room.

"I'll lend you this. Take it home and play it."

"Oh! Thank you so much."

"This is why I invited you to the game store, too."

Shu Diamond explained calmly as she removed the cartridge. Her next words struck me hard before I'd even recovered from the last shock.

"I heard there are more games in this 'From' alphabet series. Apparently, the most recent sighting was at that store in the slums."

* * *

We had lunch. I thought we'd eaten some kind of fusion food, but I couldn't remember exactly what it was. I couldn't remember how it tasted, either. Sitting across from Shu, I talked about the game without even registering whether I was holding a fork or chopsticks.

That game.

As she explained further, it turned out Shu had initially thought I was an addict far too immersed in From E. She'd thought I might have mistaken the protagonist's name for my own, or deliberately lied about it. I gave my senior a sullen look. She'd cooked up a spectacular misunderstanding all on her own.

"I like games, but I'm not that far gone."

"Your reputation made that pretty clear."

Shu readily acknowledged that she'd changed her mind.

"So I figured either you made it, or someone who knew you did."

"It'll be the latter. Though I don't know who."

"No idea who E might be?"

None. Trying to think of anyone whose name started with E got me nowhere. Not Colton, Jaeyeon, Lee Seunghyeon, Kyle, or Ray. Besides, none of them would make a game in a million years.

Maybe playing the game or digging into its code would turn up something? Of course, I could play games, but I didn't have the skills to pick apart their code.

"How about asking Yun for help?" Shu suggested.

I'd been thinking the same thing, and nodded.

"I intend to. Once I've played through it... Thank you so much for telling me, ma'am."

"I told you to stop being so formal."

She looked as though she'd get annoyed if I addressed her by rank again, so I decided to call her Shu.

By the time we finished our late lunch, it was nearly time to meet Walker. We'd agreed to meet at the edge of the slums. I'd been so dazed by the earlier shock that it wasn't until after lunch that I belatedly wondered why he was joining us. Even in the slums, we shouldn't be in any danger with our enhanced bodies. Why was Walker coming?

"Why is Walker joining us? Are you two close, by any chance?"

"He has something to ask you, too."

Shu casually dropped another bombshell.

"Something about taking you to see an acquaintance of his in the slums."

My head was spinning. The memories of Ray were already more than I could handle, and now the past was flooding in. I tried to make sense of Shu's explanation for Walker joining us, then gave up. I'd only really understand once I met him anyway.

I sighed and decided to simply accept whatever came my way, hoping I'd manage to handle the unexpected this time, too. A chilly autumn wind swept through downtown. I walked beside Shu as more and more people in costumes filled the streets.