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“Thank you for sharing this with me.” You respectfully bow your head a little bit.
“I told you I’m only doing it to preserve his memo…” Jesse stops mid-sentence, then looks sideways. “…it’s nothing.” He crosses his arms and sighs.
“I have a proposition.” You have an idea to give Jesse some closure.
“No, I don’t want to be friends.” Jesse rejects the idea immediately.
“Could you hear me out first?” It’s your turn to frown.
“S-Sure.” Jesse replies apologetically.
“We can meet Mr. Robert Auburn again in the bubble.” You adjust your glasses.
“<span class="mu-i">Don’t play with me</span>.” Jesse dryly responds, looking betrayed.
“I’m dead serious.” You shouldn’t have said ‘dead’. Fuck. Continue talking before he gets pissy at your poor word choices. “He’s here, we can talk to him, I—”
“What are you talking about?” Jesse’s emotions are all gone.
“The Bubble. The one we’re in at the moment. I thought you somehow managed to trespass inside. That’s why Esperanza brought you here.” You’re confused by his response. Did he not notice? “You know we’re in some kind of reconstruction of the past, right? I think it’s 20-something years back.”
One single sweat drop rolls down Jesse’s forehead.
“Don’t tell me you didn’t know?!” It’s your turn to be in shock! Wow!
“I-I recall practicing my powers, I made a mistake and teleported to the top of a mountain… I wandered for a bit, then the Judge found me. ‘You broke the rules!’ she said, then she brought me here to talk to some guy. After that, the tournament began.” Jesse puts his hand on his face. “I went back to the past…? No… You’re making fun of me, aren’t you? It’s impossible!”
“I’m not. It’s the work of an entity.” You don’t like being treated like a liar after all that! “I don’t know what you did to get here, but we’re in an almost perfect recreation of the past. I think this place was built using everyone’s spiritual energy or something. Anyway, when this is over, we’ll be brought back to our actual bodies, right? I’m in the same town where Mr. Auburn is. It’s one heck of a coincidence, let me tell you.”
“Where…?” Jesse can’t process this fast enough.
“It’s called <span class="mu-i">‘Xumenlo’</span>, neat place, has a lot of ponds for some reason.” You should’ve recalled more about Kobashi’s tour, but whatever. “So, let’s meet Mr. Auburn! Are you up for it?” You wiggle your eyebrows.
