The Most Important Gear

Chapter 3

"i think these two have made their objection to that idea fairly clear, don't you? and they're your friends, so i guess you'll be siding with them," scaramouche deduced.

"yeah obviously," paimon yelled. "nahida don't listen to him!"

"let's put that discussion to the side for now, we still have time. today can be a trial run, where we go from here will depend on how well we manage to cooperate today."

"alright. then i'll do what we agreed," scaramouche said.

"good. go now and keep in touch," nahida said.

scaramouche nodded, "may i have a few moments to discuss something with {name}?"

"of course," nahida said. "take your time. i have some things to discuss with the traveler."

you gave him a questioning look but still followed him so you two were out of earshot of the traveler. "what is it?"

"you love me, right?"

"where's this coming from," you asked him. "of course i do... i actually have doubts about you."

"me? what about me? ... of course i love you."

"it's what you said earlier," you said. "that human relationships are about using each other. is that how you view us?"

he sighed, "most of them are. however... i don't view you like that. ugh... this is going to sound so sappy, but you need to hear it. i could never use you like that, not after what i've gone through and how the sages used you. i care about you too much to do that to you. please believe me on this."

"if you say so," you said, then gave him a chaste kiss on the cheek. "you've made your intentions clear from the start, so i'll believe you."

he nodded, "thank you. but... if anything were to happen... just remember that."

"what could possibly happen," you asked him. "unless you're going to change things and tamper with it." scaramouche didn't respond, making you worry. "kunikuzushi, don't tell me you're going to do something like that."

"i'm not sure what i'll find when digging around," he said bluntly. "if i come back and things are different, then just know that i love you, alright?"

"... alright."

"i'm going to go inside irminsul now," he said, cupping your cheek and giving you a peck on the lips.

"be careful," you said. "and don't fight with the traveler!"

he rolled his eyes, "alright. i won't. you can stop nagging."

then, he was gone. when you looked over at nahida, the traveler and paimon seemingly were still having a chat.

"hmm, paimon's still worried about this idea," she said. "is there anything we can do to help?"

"i was going to ask you to supervise the balladeer on my behalf while he carries out the task i assigned. even though he only has a fraction of his full power left, that's still a fraction of a former harbinger. if you could accompany him, it would put my mind at ease. of course, i'll be there to help guide you through irminsul from the outside."

"got it. i'm glad to be able to help," the traveler agreed.

"great, thank you. prepare yourselves, i'm going to transport you to irminsul."

then, paimon and the traveler disappeared. you walked over to nahida, "nahida, there's something i have to say."

"of course," she said. "what is it?"

"the balladeer... it seems like he has ulterior motives based on what he told me. is there a way we can back up our memories?"

"back up our memories? is he going to change something in irminsul?"

"it's a possibility, so i'd like to be safe."

"i understand. let me do that really quick. hmm... it seems like the traveler and the balladeer have started."

"alright," you said.

"come here {name}," she instructed you. you walked over to her and she reached up and touched your forehead. "i'll make a copy of it."

a green light emerged from your forehead, and nahida extracted an orb that was your memories.

"i've extracted all of your memories up until this point," she said. "even if the balladeer were to alter anything, this will still exist. i've also already acquired a copy of his memories from the sage's backup."

"okay," you said, feeling more calm. "thank you."

"of course! i want you to feel assured that everything is under control," she smiled. "now, i must direct the traveler and the balladeer."

"mhm," you said. "i'll leave you to it."

nahida nodded and she began to direct scaramouche, "good, you made it. are you ready? then please begin. preparing to access cognitive currents. establishing waypoint... the rest is up to you. if you discover anything at all, make sure to share it with us."

you got a notice on your gps device that your robot was coming over to the sanctuary, so you excused yourself and went to go greet it at the door. "hey there {robot name}."

it hummed happily, opening its new back compartment and showing you some food that it brought over. "you brought foof? how thoughtful of you! did you bring enough for nahida as well?"

your robot hummed again, opening the compartment that had nahida's food inside. you decided to let your robot in, and it happily scurried over to nahida who was deeply concentrated. "she's busy right now, so let's just wait."

"...hello? can you hear me? traveler, paimon, balladeer, what happened just now?"