The Most Important Gear

Chapter 7

the next morning, the traveler, paimon, and scaramouche decided to head out to try and locate you.

"where should we start looking for her," paimon asked. "hmm... maybe we could try our luck at her house?"

"possibly," the traveler said. "but i feel like she'd be in her study hammering away at a new invention. so maybe the office?"

"the last time we spoke, she said she was running out of ink for her colored kamera that she's been developing. however, i'm not quite sure where we'd be able to find it," scaramouche said. "let's start here in the marketplace, we might be able to find-"

"{name}! nice to see you here!"

the three of them looked in the direction of the voice, and scaramouche narrowed his eyes. "let's go."

paimon and the traveler gulped, then followed scaramouche as he made his way towards the voice where he saw you and kaveh. he saw you turn to the scholar, an excited look in your eyes. "kaveh! what are you doing here?"

"i heard you were looking for some ink for that new kamera of yours, and it just so happened that i ran out of dye for some fabric. why don't we go together?"

"that sounds nice," you smiled, a small blush on your cheeks. "how is your project going, by the way?"

scaramouche couldn't help but grow aggravated at the scene before him. here you were laughing and smiling at kaveh with no other worry in the world, and he felt that he couldn't even be angry considering that this is a situation that he created himself. i was the only one she looked at like that... shit.

"uhh... hey you look pretty angry right now," paimon commented.

"of course i'm angry," scaramouche snapped.

the traveler sighed, "stalking her isn't going to fix anything."

"this is just annoying to me," scaramouche said. "that scholar... he's going to have to go."

"now hold on a second," paimon exclaimed. "you can't just do that! remember? we gave you a new name so you can start a new life, not continue your old one!"

scaramouche scoffed, "fine. why don't you two introduce us?"

"alright," the traveler said.

luckily for them, it seemed that kaveh had somewhere to be, leaving you alone. the traveler and paimon walked over to you, scaramouche following their lead.

"{name}!" you looked over when you heard an unmistakeable tiny voice yell your name, a smile coming on your lips once more.

"oh! traveler, paimon, it's good to see you," you smiled at them, then looked next to them to see an unfamiliar blue-haired male. "looks like you brought a friend. care to introduce us?"

"yep! {name} this is... uh..."

"you can call me kunikuzushi," scaramouche answered for them.

"nice to meet you," you smiled. "i'm {name}, an engineer for the akademiya."

you're still so humble... acting like you're not working directly under the dendro archon herself, scaramouche thought to himself.

"how've you been," paimon asked you. "it's been a few weeks since we last saw you."

"well, after al haitham and you overthrew the sages, i've just been tinkering a lot. i have to go find a new robot core for {robot name} since it ended up breaking last night."

"oh really? that's unfortunate," the traveler said.

"it's alright," you said solemnly. "i'll just have to go to the desert to find one."

"if you need, i don't mind accompanying you," scaramouche said. "it could be difficult to find and traveling in the desert can prove to be challenging."

"thank you for the offer kunikuzushi," you said, a small grin on your face. "however, i think i'll be alright on my own-"

"{name}." the four of you turned, seeing al haitham walking over to where you all were chatting. "oh? traveler, paimon, and...?"

"i'm a friend of theirs," scaramouche said, trying to mask the irritation in his voice. it's this jerk again. so annoying... i wish i could have forgetten about him.

"i see... well, unfortunately i'll be stealing her from you all."

"does she really have to go," paimon asked. "we haven't seen her in a while!"

"i'm afraid it's urgent," al haitham said, then grabbed your hand in his, intertwining your fingers with his own. his gaze softened when he looked at you, "let's go."

you smiled back at him, "alright then. traveler, paimon, kunikuzushi, let's go to puspa café sometime! i'd love to catch up with you all as well as learn more about you."

the last part of the sentence referred to scaramouche, and he couldn't help but feel relieved, as well as a few butterflies. however, he was still pissed off at al haitham. how dare he link hands with you.

the traveler and paimon said goodbye to you, while scaramouche was still glaring holes into the scholar's back. the two of them could feel his angry energy radiating off of him in waves, and both of them grew uncomfortable. however, both the traveler and paimon were more confused than uncomfortable.

"{name} and al haitham were holding hands," paimon observed. "since when were they so close?"

the traveler thought for a moment, and a really scary thought came to mind. he looked at scaramouche, "wait... because of the fact that {name} and you have never met..."

scaramouche scoffed angrily. "i don't like this one bit. i know what you're getting at."

"then MAYBE you shouldn't have altered history, you dummy! now look what happened," paimon yelled at him. "you dug this hole yourself!"

scaramouche glared at the tiny girl, then sighed to try and calm himself down. "this is my worst nightmare."

"trust us, we don't like feeling like you're about to commit mass murder," traveler said, shuddering at how thick the air around scaramouche was.

"i'm not stupid or naive enough to not know what i just saw. in this timeline, that jerk doesn't have me to stop his moves on her... it looks like the two of them might be dating in this incarnation."