The Most Important Gear

Chapter 19

"much better."

you were a blushing mess while scaramouche framed the new photo that he took with you, placing it on your photo wall. in the process, he pushed his in front of the one with you and cyno.

"hey don't push that one back," you complained. "that one was such a good memory!"

"so is this one," he retorted, then moved back to admire his handiwork. "this is much more pleasing for me to look at."

you sighed, "i guess with all the effort it took for you to even get me to take that photo, it'd better be pleasing for you to look at."

"are you not satisfied with it," scaramouche asked you. "i'd be more than happy to retake it."

"n-no it's fine," you said.

"it's disappointing how it's not the original," scaramouche said to himself with a sigh. "but this will suffice."

you groaned, "can i go back to work now?"

"fine," he scoffed. "i was going to grab some ingredients to make dinner, did you need anything in particular?"

"you cook?!"

"i'm not the shogun," scaramouche rolled his eyes. "yes, i know how to cook."

"... the shogun can't cook?"

he glared at you, making you giggle a little at his dismay because he couldn't get you to see the main point of his discussion with you. "sorry sorry. get whatever you'd like, i don't mind eating anything."

"suit yourself," he said. "i'll be back in an hour or two."

you nodded, "alright, see you later."

you heard the door open and close, but you didn't expect for it to open and close again. before you went back to finish {robot name}'s leg, you turned around when you heard it the second time and his lips covered yours in a brief peck.

"i almost forgot to do that," he smirked. "bye bye."

"scaramouche!"

you glared at him, and right before he flew out of the door, he blew a raspberry at you and winked before closing the door and going off to get ingredients.

at this point, it was now evening. time flew by, considering today was an emotionally-eventful day in your eyes - regaining memories, scaramouche making advances on you, and working on {robot name}. you had 6 more days before you could get your memory back, however intuition told you that it was possible to have them back even sooner.

you continued to work on your robot until you heard a very familiar voice in your head.

"hi {name}, i heard from the balladeer that you recovered bits and pieces of your memory. is this true?"

"yes," you said happily.

"that's great news," you heard her say happily. "i'm super pleased to hear about that. are you mentally feeling better? any headaches?"

"i had a headache when i recovered some of my old memory," you admitted. "however... it was a memory with the balladeer."

"with the balladeer? huh... that's odd."

"what is?"

"well... that means you remembered information that was previously erased from irminsul."

"how," you asked her. "is that even possible?"

"well a lot of what's going on right now is far from normal," she admitted. "but... i was wondering if maybe tomorrow you can come to the sanctuary and we can return your memories back."

"already? didn't you say you needed a week to do so?"

"it was for your mental health," she said. "too much tampering can lead to disastrous effects, but seeing as you're recalling more information, i think we can possibly start."

"that was... a lot faster than i anticipated. but, i am eager to recover and sort this stuff out. it works for me, i'll come tomorrow."

"perfect," she chimed. "you can come in at any time. make sure you have a full stomach."

"i will," you smiled. "thank you nahida."

"{name}?"

you walked outside of your tinkering room, looking down the hallway and seeing scaramouche inside holding a small leather bag that looked quite full.

"it looks like you both are busy, so i'll let you both be alone," nahida giggled. "farewell."

"bye..."

"who are you talking to," scaramouche looked over at you.

"it was nahida," you said. "we had a short talk, and we think we can get my memories back by tomorrow."

"so i've heard," he said, a small smile on his lips, then he looked at your hand that still had the handkerchief on it. "let me take this off now. sit over here."

you complied without hesitation, sitting down with him in front of you. he gently removed his handkerchief from your wound and cleaned off the remaining balm with a napkin. "your rash is gone."

"i told you it wasn't anything to worry about," you said to him. "didn't my past incarnation tell you how it worked?"

"well you did," he admitted. "but in all truth, i never really got to see you use it."

"really? that's surprising," you admitted. "now, let me make some food. what did you have in mind?"

when you looked through the ingredients, pulling them out one by one, you realized exactly what it is you were making. there was no mistaking it.