Memory Lock Start

"Anima! What do you want for breakfast today?" Mom asked me.

Huh...?

Mom...?

Where the hell am I? Why is my Mom here?

I slid out of my bed, with my staff falling to the ground as the blanket was pulled off of my legs by my little sister.

"A-ni-mah." She said. Shima was really young, maybe about three years old, but I don't get it... why do I see both of them?

I sat up out of bed and rubbed my head. It hurt a little, maybe it was the bright wallpaper in my room, but it felt like I was locked in a nightmare... It feels like I haven't truly woken up in so long.

Shima grabbed my finger and pulled on me to force me out of bed. With her tenacity, it was hard not to listen. I decided to push myself out of bed and followed my sister down the hallway.

I looked around, confused by my surroundings, and analyzed the pictures on the wall. There we were, my older brother, Liam, Shima, my parents, and I. We were at this park... or something. Why don't I remember that?

"So, you gonna spend the entire morning waking up, or will you tell me what you want?" She asked me.

"Um... whatever you're making for everybody else. I'm fine with whatever." I told Mom. With a smile, she flipped over her pan and turned her back on Shima and me, going back to whatever it was that she was making. It smelled like bacon... and a distinct smell of home is what I smelt as well.

The last thing I remember, I was walking over to Papiya's house. However, this wasn't here. How did I get back home? This was Earth, wasn't it?

I looked over to a glass on the edge of my table and tried to move it with [Dismanip], but when I tried, I felt... empty. It was hard to explain, but the mana I had gotten used to had dispersed from my body, and I was left without it on Earth.

What do I do? Is this Papiya's game? Are these people fake? I had no idea what part of this would be a game. How do I prepare for that?

"Mom, what year is it?" I asked her as she had her back turned cooking.

"Two-thousand eighteen? I feel like that's a weird question to ask. Are you doing a crossword or something?" She asked me.

So, it was two years before I was sent to the other world. Let's see... what happened two years ago that I remember?

I finished middle school... I think. It was around two years ago. I was more confused about why the TV wasn't working.

It was static, followed by somebody's voice explaining something complicated.

That's right, there was this game that was slowly destroying the world. A game we didn't like talking about in my family, and the lady on the news must've been discussing it.

I turned from the tv in my living room, which was blocked by a half-wall from the kitchen, and sat at the table.

Everything here felt real... it's surprising this was all an illusion.

I looked at Mom and Shima, realizing how much I missed this. I had been without my family for a long time, what felt like a month now at least. A month... it wasn't even that long... but knowing I died and I could never come back is what stunned me the most.

This was it... this is what I could experience. My memories, exactly how they happened. I can't have any new interactions with my Mom, I can't get information out of her besides what I already knew. This is why Memory Lock would be such a challenge. I need to escape from here. I don't want to relive this memory anymore.

I looked all over my house. Everything was where I remembered it to be, and if I was unsure about something, it was blurred out, like it was censored.

Several spoons were blurred out, but others weren't. The counter was blurry, but not completely missing, and the clothing Mom was wearing was getting to the blurred-out point.

I stepped toward the hallway leading to my room and took time to look at other pictures.

And I was right.

They were blurred.

But I was in them. I remember them, so why was I blurred? Something was amiss here... This game has flaws.

I wondered what the point of this game was. Why would I be given an ability that gets me Pretorian Genes for playing this game? What's the catch?

I had a million questions, but I was alone, and nobody could answer.

However, as I looked at my family, I think I began why this is so hard to leave.

I died in a car, smashed to death, and I thought that it was it for me. I was put into another world against my will, and taken from my family.

But here, I had my family again.

So... this is why Memory Lock was so hard. And I was starting to feel it too. I didn't want to leave this place. I wanted to sit at this table and have breakfast with Mom and Shima for the rest of my life.

I want to talk to them about my adventures... would they understand?

Mom finished up breakfast and took a seat at the table, eating whatever it was that she made, which was also blurred out.

"I had a really interesting dream last night." I decided to start the conversation like this. Hopefully, I could get her to listen like this.

"Oh yeah? Let's hear it." Mom told me. She twirled her spoon in a bowl and smiled while feeding Shima.

"Well, at first it was a nightmare. I was saving people from an accident on a bridge, and then this pole smashed into me! Then, I was sent to another world! There, I was a Hero. I had this cool staff with powers! There's so much for me to tell you!" I began my story as The Third Magic Hero, once again.