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Chapter Text

It is a beautiful day today and everyone in Rigbarth knows it, they are all out and about and so is Ares. Walking around and greeting everyone, he has met almost everyone today except for one person, Reinhard. As Ares is doing his daily rounds near Lake Melody, where he can see the entirety of the town, he sees Reinhard, who is sitting down on the sand looking to the lake. Ares walks closer and closer to Reinhard, who has a sad look on his face, he also doesn't notice Ares' presence.

"Reinhard?" Ares asks, Reinhard then quickly turns his head around to face Ares behind him, "Oh Ares, sorry I didn't see you there" Reinhard said shocked at his presence. There was a far away look in his eyes, he was focused on something else, not him, not his surroundings, something in his mind. Ares decides to move closer and sit down next to Reinhard and looks to the knights face, "you seem to have something on your mind, do you want to talk about it?" He asks Reinhard who was looking Ares then looked to the lake with an odd look on his face, it wasn't of sadness nor happiness, something in between. "I wasn't always Lady Beatrice's bodyguard as you can guess, I was once a member of the royal guard like many others" the way Reinhard talks has a mixture of nostalgia and sadness, of a different time, of a different Reinhard.

"Back when I first joined I was excellent at swordsmanship, though like many new recruits I was still inexperienced as well as nervous, though there was one person who was different. His name was Micah" Reinhard said the name with a smile on his face, like he actually saw Micah standing across the river. His voice held a greater nostalgic sense than before, more of a cheerful tone. "Micah joined the royal guard the same time I did, he was unlike me in a few ways, he was decent with a short sword though excellent at hand to hand combat, though he was nervous about being a guard he soon overcame it and fitted in with the more experienced guards quickly. We became friends fast and helped me fit in" at this point Reinhard's mood had greatly increased, no more sadness though Ares knew that there was going to be an explanation to why he was upset earlier.

"We became very close friends and during that time, Micah had taken the blame for me a few times for mistakes I made and I protected him from some of the older guards who where ready to take down some of the more weak-looking guards, now don't get me wrong, he could totally fight for himself and could easily beat up anyone though the issue is he didn't look it. He looked similar to you now that I'm thinking about it" Reinhard said to Ares, who blinked and Reinhard decided to explain "you both have blond hair and blue eyes, your both similar in personality, you're around the same height, look like a breeze could knock you over" Reinhard laughed at that a bit. "I mean that to no offence, as I know your combative ability. Micah got a lot of comments about not belonging there, so I stood by him and looked at everyone who even looked at Micah the wrong way". Ares looks at Reinhard, his eyes had changed so they were more closed and it looked like he was remembering being around Micah, the smile on his face grew.

After a bit of silence Ares realized that Reinhard had gotten lost in his memory, so he decided to bring up the topic of Micah and not ask about his glum mood from before right from the get go. "If I may ask, who was the better fighter? You or Micah?" Reinhard then snapped out of his memories and gave the question some thought "hmmm... were both fairly evenly matched, though I'm the better swordsman out of the two of us, though if he used his hands, he can easily grab me and slam me to the floor" He said and laughed a bit "really?!" Ares said shocked, Reinhard had said that Micah was good at hand to hand combat but he didn't think he lift up Reinhard with ease muscle, armour and all. Micah was a powerhouse.

"Yeah, it was quite terrifying whenever he did it as he can easily throw a large enemy till it hit a wall" Reinhard added, Ares thought about what Reinhard said before saying, jokingly "do you think he could lift Murakumo?" "Oh easily" Then both of them had a little chuckle before they both looked to the lake then out of no where, Reinhard's smile grew into a frown and the sad look came back to Reinhard's eyes. The knight gave a small sigh and began talking again "as much fun as I had with him, Micah wasn't a royal guard for long, after a bit, barely a few months, he was given a mission to defeat four very strong monsters and never came back".

Ares blinked a bit at the bombshell that Reinhard gave him and looked at the knight "what do you think happened to him?" Ares asked gauging a response, Reinhard stayed quiet for a bit which made Ares think that he made the wrong decision to ask that. "Well..." Reinhard started "I think he is still out there" he said looking towards the edges of the lake, "maybe he completed his job and wanted to leave the guard, maybe he got lost, maybe he lost his memory, I don't know what happened to him. But I can still feel like he's alive, somewhere..." Reinhard then put his hand over his heart as a smile came over his face and his features softened.

They stayed quiet for a while, both thinking about Micah, Ares with the information Reinhard dumped onto him, and Reinhard thinking about their many talks and experiences with Micah, was looking into the ocean wondering the previously mentioned possibilities. As Ares was thinking he realised something "hey Reinhard, you said that Micah was sent to fight four tough monsters, correct?" the knight then nodded "and if Micah is as new to sword fighting as you said he was... then why was he chosen to fight? It makes no sense" that thought was always around Reinhard's mind, the why to why Micah was chosen. Sure the newer members of the guards were send to fight a tough monster, though that was only at the end of the year and when they we're more experienced and their higher ups were sure they wouldn't die trying.

"I am truly unsure, though his hand to hand combat is amazing, there's some larger monsters you can't simply pick up, no matter his strength... " Reinhard said as he stopped talking and focused more on his thoughts.

As they both though about this, they missed the sound of footsteps until it was behind them. "Um... Reinhard?" The person asked, unintentionally scaring Ares and Reinhard, they both quickly looked behind them to see Beatrice behind them. Reinhard then stood up and faced the princess before moving closer to her, though still retaining distance, putting his thoughts about Micah to the side "Lady Beatrice, is there a problem?" He asked, Beatrice looked sorry and shook her head "n-no, there's no issues. It's just that..." She stood there and thought for a second thinking about what to say, before saying "I think I can bring to light some information about why Micah was made to leave to fight the monsters".

Reinhard and Ares look shocked at Beatrice, Reinhard looked in complete awe and his face begged Beatrice to continue and she did "well... a few years ago when this happened, the head if the royal guard needed to send somebody to tackle those monsters and put together a list. Which included Micah though due to his inexperience, he was at the bottom of the list of candidates. After a few days of deliberating, they decided to choose Micah through closed doors as they had apparently found some 'Interesting Information'".

She stopped and looked at Reinhard as his face was full of emotions, sadness, anger and mostly confusion. "Some... interesting infomation..." Reinhard repeated, Beatrice nodded though said "I never heard directly what this information was.. I only know that it has something to do with monsters and Micah... not being 'fully Human'". Reinhard looked more confused and sat down and looked at the ground below him. "Not being fully human?" Ares repeated very confused "did they mean that he was a earthmate?" he added, Beatrice looked to the side and apologised, "I... I didn't ask at the time what they meant but it didn't sound like he was a earthmate, it sounded like he was part human similar to a were-animal though he never had any ears or a tail...". Ares looked at Reinhard and said "it sounds like they were using this "information" to blackmail Micah to fight the strong monsters, whatever information it may be. Do you know what it could be?" He asked, Reinhard though for a bit before sighing and saying "we we're only friends for a few months but we still told each other some secrets", he then put his hand on his chin in thought "I talked about my lack of taste and Micah said that he easily became impacted by rune energies" Ares eyes opened wider and gave Reinhard a gaze as if to say "Explain" and he did "He gets sick easily if his runes are disrupted, he had a fever from a small decrease of runes" Ares looked confused at that "that definitely throws earthmate out of the window, I've not heard of a race being that highly effected by runes" everyone silently nodded to that, most races were effected similarly to disruptions to their Runes.

"Though" Reinhard began again, "there were a few odd things about Micah that I noticed" he said his eyes falling to the ground in immense thought. "Firstly, he had an odd rune ability, one that I have never seen before, it was circular and was purple with silver elements in the shape of a star and it never left his side, when sleeping or sparing, he always held that one rune" Ares looked baffled by this, same with Beatrice who said "Maybe we should ask Lucas or Heinz about it, it's possible they may know what rune it is" and they all nodded and Ares made a mental note to go to The Crystalabra and ask about it.

"Secondly" Reinhard said taking Ares out of his thoughts "He seemed to understand monsters" he ended bluntly, Ares thought and thought about how he could understand the farm dragons and asked "which monsters? I can understand farm dragons so if it's a particular type of monster it may help us". Reinhard was again in thought before saying "I saw him openly communicate with Woolies and a silver fang" Reinhard stated, then Ares said, hoping for a lift in Reinhard's mood "what happened", Reinhard looked to Ares before before going back into thought "Myself and Micah were sent to clear out some Woolies who had been causing havoc in the wild, they had been causing trouble for travellers" he explained "when we got there I started fighting the woolies as well as Micah before a wooly bahed a bit and Micah looked to understand and asked me to stop fighting, I trusted him and put my weapon away and Micah talked to the wooly, in English mind you, though the wooly responded in bahs. Micah then told me that the woollies were being attacked by a silver fang which used to protect them, and were acting out on travellers to try and grow stronger, as all of the nearby monsters could easily hurt them, he asked me to help him sort out this quarrel between the monsters and just seeing that look in his eye made me trust him and we went. When we went to the wolf, Micah talked to it again and the silver fang responded back, they had a full heated conversation for a few minutes, sometimes Micah readied himself to fight or the wolf would ready it's claws to attack us, though after they talked Micah explained that the wolf's pup had gotten injured whilst playing with the woolies and was scared that the woolies was injure it's pup more and attacked them to keep them away, Micah had convinced the silver fang to talk to the woolies again. We then, in company of the wolf, went to the woolies and the two types of monsters became friends again." As the story came to an end Reinhard's smile came back, just listening to Reinhard talk about Micah sent the two listeners into the past, of those fleeting memories of Reinhard and his partner, "Micah explained later explained that he can understand monsters, he asked me to keep his understanding of monsters quiet which I already had the intention to".

Just listening to Reinhard's story about Micah seemed to slow down time, they were in a peaceful silence with Reinhard, with his eyes closed, in his memories and Ares and Beatrice imagining the two knights having this must trust and friendship with each other.

"Where they any other oddities about Micah?" Beatrice asked, she was sorry that she had to take Reinhard out of his nostalgia but if they could gain any more information, it could help them out a lot. Reinhard then snapped his eyes open and the thought again "hmm... oh!" he said somewhat surprised, Beatrice and Ares eyes were on Reinhard waiting for Reinhard to divulge what information he remembered. "The day that Micah left, only a few minutes before he left, he took me aside and talked to me about a few things, how he had to go and deal with this, how sad it was that he couldn't spend another night with each other-" Beatrice and Ares noted how Reinhard's cheeks reddened slightly "-how he couldn't wait to be back and be sparing, and how when he comes back how he had something important to show me, something special that he could only show myself..." his cheeks reddened more again and he stopped talking before snapping himself out of his trance and completing his previous sentence "...t-though he was shouted by the royal guard captain and had to leave". Before anyone could ask Reinhard said "I have no idea what he was going to show me, though it did seemed to be something truly secretive, that he only shared with those he trusted completely..."

The three of them were stumped on Micah, Who he was, why he was chosen and just about everything about him. Reinhard sighed before looking to the sky and closing his eyes slightly, Ares looked to Reinhard who had a sad expression a sad expression on his face, 'what can I do?' was his only thought before Reinhard began saying, under his breath "I Hope you're okay.... I hope you're well... Micah..."

---

"Ahhh..." Micah exhaled and brushed the sweat off his forehead, he had just finished watering his field and was ready to go outside. It was a beautiful day today so everyone was outside, and Micah was ready to greet everyone.

Though before he left his farm a headache started, it was massive and felt like someone was hitting him with a hammer repeatedly, he grabbed his hair in an attempt to make it stop though it didn't it kept growing and growing with no way to stop it until, suddenly, it felt like Micah's head exploded and some memories flowed into his head though they were sparse and confusing, himself talking to a wolf with a young man next to him, himself walking along a long road, and himself talking to the previously mentioned young man. It the memories they were a few seconds long, and he got barely any context for them, the wolf said that it would go and talk it over with the woolies, the walk could have been to a city, possibly, it was a big walled off location, and in the last memory he was telling the man that he had a secret to tell them.

He ungripped his hair and looked to the ground. This had been happening for the last few weeks, some sparse memories from his past came into his mind, he didn't know why they came, there wasn't anything to trigger his memories, either anything similar nor a orb like the other main four memories, perhaps Aquaticus, who had stolen his memories, is giving them back in small segments, Micah doesn't know. Though the man in his first and last last memories, had been seen in his other more recent memories, the man, who was his age, in guard attire, taller than him by a fair bit, with light brown hair with orange tips, a part of his hair was pulled into a small ponytail, which grew a bit in between memories, and lastly, his eyes were a warm orange colour. Though when Micah thought about this fellow guard, either his features of of what they have done together, his heart began beating faster, though Micah didn't know why.

Micah sighed, the many memories like puzzle pieces in his mind are scattered and he wants to put them together, though he is very happy with his life in Sharance he still want's to know information about his past, who were his parents? What did they look like? Where was he from? What was his childhood like? What has his time in the royal quard like? Who is this other knight what was his relationship with said other knight? Is knowing such information such a bad thing to want?

He stopped living in his thoughts and slapped the side of his face to wake himself up. He then looked to the outside of his farm and began walking out, his hand on his heart, 'whoever this person is...' he thought, his heart is still beating fast, his skin a bit flush as well, his heart still remembered this person whilst he didn't, 'I need to find them' he finished his thought, as he stepped outside and the sun blinded him for a second, though a second later, he regained his sight and looked to Sharance to began his normal routine of greeting and helping the townsfolks, though before he left he looked to the sky and saying "I will find you".

Chapter Text

A brown orange hue took over the sky as Ares walked home for the day, he had an insightful day with Reinhard and his thoughts was now focused on what Reinhard said about his friend Micah and his visit to the Crystalabra a few minutes before. He had visited the Crystalabra to ask Lucas and Heinz about the odd rune Reinhard had described his friend had: a circular purple rune with an odd silver pattern on it, the two workers had different information to give him, Lucas said that a rune like that belonged to a race of human's that weren't completely human and had the ability to transform using the purple rune to do this though Heinz said that any races that uses runes in that manner had passed a good few years ago, such as half humans half monsters. 'Could Micah be half human half monster?' Ares mused as he wondered past the restaurant and bakery, lost in thought with only the most recent information swirling around his mind 'Beatrice did mention rumours about Micah not being "not fully human" and that he had something to do with monsters... so could he? But Heinz said that that race had been extinct for years'. A sigh could be heard from Ares as he crossed the bridge to the SEED building as he saw Cecil walk by it to go up to his house, in seeing the young man in love with mystery, he realised something and ran past the SEED building but before the field's he's planted and looked to the street south of the SEED HQ and a certain building. Terry's detective Agency.

Ares ran down the street quickly approaching the agency, perhaps Terry could look into Micah's disappearance and some information could come to light even if it's a tiny shred of information. Ares came up to the door and stopped in front of it and opened it up, Terry was sitting in one of the chair's reading a piece of paper before he turned his attention to the open door "Ah Ares its nice to see you" he said offering his hand to the chair opposite him, seeing Ares heavy breathing from running as well as his clothes being somewhat out of place and guessed that Ares needed to talk to him immediately. Ares did walk in and close the door behind him then walked to the chair and sat down, Terry put his papers to the site and looked to Ares "So what can I do for you?" He asked in a calm manner to the other who thought for a bit before saying "Have you ever worked on a missing person's case?", Terry didn't expect that question and blinked before giving a response "well... I worked a bit on Misagi's case though you sorted that one out quite fast" referring to when Ares first came to Rigbarth "Though apart from that I haven't, why do you ask?" He gave a questing look to the young man who fidgeted and looked away from Terry's gaze. "Well... I... where do I begin..." Ares muttered somewhat loud unsure of how to ask Terry for help though decided to start at the beginning.

"I was talking to Reinhard earlier and he talked to me about an old friend of his from a few years ago, who he formed a strong relationship with in the Royal Guard. Though one day his friend disappeared when asked to take on multiple large monsters." He explained the basics of Micah's situation and hoped that Terry would find interest and start looking, Terry was in thought while Ares was talking before asking "And you want me to look into Reinhard's friend's disappearance?" "I... I was wondering if you could look into Micah's - Reinhard's Friend that I mention - disappearance... It just sounds odd like the higher ups were trying to get rid of Micah and Micah himself sounds odd, having an odd rune that belonged to a seemingly extinct race, an odd reaction to rune energy and he could talk to monsters..." Ares replied giving more information. Ares wanted to meet Micah, if only for a minute though more importantly, he wanted Reinhard to reunite with his friend. Terry sighs as he reaches for a notebook and writes something down, before looking to Ares "Now you've gotten me interested in this case, this Micah character sounds intriguing. I will look into it though there may not be a chance that I can find him, It is a few years old so some evidence may have been missing and if the higher ups at the Royal Guard had attempted to make Micah disappear for good then there may be a cover up and even more information maybe muddled and missing. Are you okay with that chance?"

Ares looked to Terry and nodded "I'm okay with that, I just want some information about Micah to be found" he said with a sad smile. Ares then spent the next ten to twenty minutes giving Terry all of the information he has about Micah and his disappearance, though skirting around the parts about Beatrice being a princes, and answering any questing Terry had to the best of his knowledge. "For as long as you can, can you not ask Reinhard." Ares said bluntly, he knew that not asking Reinhard for information was going to harm the investigation somewhat, he knew that Reinhard would be afraid of Terry finding out about Beatrice's royalty and he would ask Terry to not look into it as he would want terry to look into something else and say that Micah was okay as a memory with that bittersweet longing on that face that Ares hated looking at, though he had only seen it today, the expression broke his heart as Reinhard looked to have lost what he adored. Terry sighed again "You've not making this easy for me you know?" he said with a somewhat annoyed expression, Ares gave a apology before Terry started to say something "Though I guess that makes the case more hard and it won't be as easy as finding Granny Yuki's glasses on her head" he said with a smirk.

Terry then stood up and walked to his desk and put his notebook down, before turning to Ares "If I even have a shred of information or a lead, I'll let you know" he smiled, Ares stood up and thanked Terry "Thank you for looking into this, I really mean it" He said with a happy look on his face he walked to the door and had a hand on the door nob and turned it, he gave one thankful smile to Terry before opening the door and leaving. Terry smiled and walked to the windows and saw Ares walk to the SEED HQ before his eyes were distracted by the clouds, Terry stared at the large grey clouds before commenting to himself "It looks like it's going to thunder tonight".

---

A crash of lightning brightened the skies of Sharance though non of the residents saw the fearsome lightshow except for one who had just woken up, though not from the lightning or thunder but from his memories. Micah shoots up in his bed and pants from his dream which he truly believes is one of his old memories, the thunder murmurs in the distance to which Micah looks to the widows from his bed then gets up to make some hot milk as he thinks about the memory he remembered. He puts the hot milk into a cup and moves it to the table which already has a notebook on it, he sits down and grabs the notebook he had been using to record his fractured memories and turned a page, the previous one having the memories from earlier in the day with the wolf and wollies, a walk to a city and himself talking to the other man. Just thinking about the other man made Micah flush slightly and his heart beat increased, he moved his hand to his heart and hoped he could find out why he felt this way to the man, how important was this other man to his past self. He then takes the pencil which was by the notebook and starts dating and writing his memory down.

Spring 04

I was talking to the man with the short ponytail who has appeared in a few memories before, we were by the side of a building away from other people and it was just the two of us. Though he towered over me, I didn't and still don't feel threatened by him... It's more... Protection I feel from him. We were having a conversation as apparently I was about to go somewhere and take care of some strong monsters (Perhaps this is before the memory from the crystal at the Sol Terrano Desert?), this is how the conversation went:

Ponytailed knight: "Why do you have to go Micah?"

Myself: "It's from the higher ups, I can't say no. My hands are tied."

Ponytailed Knight: "But you're not ready for this, you're going to die out there! It's four powerful monsters against you, You're gonna get hurt..."

Myself: "Hey have some faith in me! I know and I'm scared to, though I have faith in me and my strength even if I can't defeat them, I'll do my best to stop them. They have hurt multiple people, I need to do something."

Ponytailed Knight: "But still... I'm gonna miss you quite a bit, you better take care of yourself!"

Myself: "Don't worry, I'll be fine. It's the monsters who better be careful! Though I will miss you to Reinhard."

Micah's eyes widen at the name he put down unknowingly, he moved his pencil to the side as he looked at the name 'Reinhard...' he thought, faint memories arrived into his mind of him and Reinhard talking, laughing and being close, sitting together, himself with Reinhard asleep on him, sparing with each other, improving with each other, caring for each other like no other. Though he couldn't remember the environments or the exact conversations, it was like an unfinished painting of two lovers, who were fully completed though lived in a unfinished land of uncertainty and emptiness, though the warmth and love of the two was the only thing that mattered. 'Reinhard' Micah thought again, his checks flushed and his heart beating, he felt a connection to his old self, like they had touched and they both felt this feeling of warmth, of an old love, he sat there and just stared at the name 'I.. I need to...' he thought though his thoughts were everywhere. He wanted to tell Raven, who he had talked previously about with his memories and learnt more about his monster side, though she was away at Selphia (though there was also the fact of the storm outside as well as the fact that it was late at night). Raven goes to Selphia quite a bit though when she comes back she often comes back with two travellers who come from Selphia one who is an Elf called Margret and another who is a Dwarf called Doug, though he had only talked to them a few times.

Micah sighed and sipped from his somewhat forgotten drink of hot milk, before walking to the window staring out to Sharance and the storm ahead. He initially though of how the storm would effect Sharance, his crops and the others in the town before his thoughts drifted to Reinhard and if it was storming where he was, as well as wondering if he was in a location if he was warm and dry, or was he perhaps training in the rain fighting against the bullets so he could protect those that needed protecting.

"I just... hope you're okay... Reinhard..." Micah's cheeks flush.

---

'It's been a few days, yet I've heard nothing...' Ares mused as he did his patrols around Rigbarth, it was nearing midday. Ares was wondering about Terry's search for Micah, though Terry hadn't told him anything yet when he had made his daily visit each day though Ares didn't want to press for details since Terry did say that there may be issues with finding Micah. Though Ares thought of an odd character he gave directions to earlier today, when he was watering his plants. A woman who was around his age came from the road by the blacksmiths, she had bright red hair, blue eyes and a soft pink coat, she came strait to him and asked for directions for Terry's detective agency in a bit of a cold way. He gave direction then thanked him before walking strait to the agency. 'Could she have any information?' Ares thought, he was coming to the detective agency on his patrol so he could ask. Ares walks across the bridge to the SEED building and walks to the road leading to the detective agency and went strait down it, looking around seeing if the red headed girl was nearby or was still in the detective agency, it had been a an hour or two.

Ares walked up the stairs to Terry's agency and whilst walking to the door he took a quick look though the window and saw Terry and the woman talking. Ares then stood in front of the door and knocked on it, usually he would just open the door but Ares knew that certain people like Terry preferred him to knock, especially if he was with a client, "Come in" said Terry and Ares opened the door and walked in. The woman looked strait at him with a certain coldness, which was similar to the way she talked, whilst Terry looked to Ares with that grin he usually carried but it felt somewhat different a bit more joy than usual "um.. I hope I'm not disturbing" Ares said, Terry said he could come in, though he felt like he was intruding. Terry moved closer to Ares though still maintaining distance before saying "No you're not you're actually the person I wanted to see Ares", The woman in pink looked to Ares more at the mention of his name, more intense, "I have some information on Micah that I think you would like, a lot actually, more than I expected to get" he mentioned that last part a bit quieter than the rest. Terry the moved to a distance in-between Ares and the woman before looking to the woman "Raven, this is Ares-" he then turned his head to look at Ares "Ares, this is Raven" Ares looked at the woman and decided to introduce himself "It's nice to meet you Raven" giving a nod of his head and raven said just gave a blunt "It's nice meet you too".

"Well Ares" Terry started "Raven here has some information about Micah that you would find quite interesting, though it's funny that we got here in such a short time" Terry said and Ares looked at him with a question on his face and Terry decided to elaborate "Well you know Margret and Doug yes?" Ares nodded "Well I gave them a description of Micah and they said it sounds similar to a friend's friend that they have only met once or twice though Raven brings him up from time to time, So I asked them that when they see Raven to ask her to come here and thankfully she did" he said with a happy look on his face and looked towards Raven. Ares looked the Raven with some hope in his eyes, it was quite a short time that they had found someone who has such a close connection to Micah, though it seems almost to good. "I just want to ask... can we be sure that this is the same Micah we're after" Ares said, Terry and Raven looked to him before Raven decided to speak up "The Micah I know will be the same as the one you know, but there may be some major differences aside from the description of a young man with blond hair and blue eyes, same height and general personality as yourself Ares, though with a good combat ability and a purple rune he takes around everywhere. Though I can be almost sure they are the same, they may be different in some areas, is that okay with you?" Raven looked at Ares strait in the eyes and Ares looked right back "...Yes. yes it is. A friend of mine has been looking for years since his disappearance and wants to find him, he doesn't want him for his memory's as they were only friends for such as short time though they had made a deep friendship that may have gone beyond that if they stayed together. He was drawn together by his personality which has stayed the same from how you describe him, so no matter the change I want Micah and my friend to meet again". The room was silent after Ares gave his speech which he was happy he gave, Raven kept her eyes on Ares and remained silent for a bit more before asking "You're doing this all for a friend?" generally curious more than anything her facial expression had softened from the coldness he initially had, some with her tone of voice "Yes, I am" Ares responded seriously "I see..." Raven said, a soft look overtook her face "you're just like him" she adds.

Ares was going to ask who the "he" she was referring to was before Terry decided to ask Raven something "How can you be so sure that the Micah we are referring to and the Micah you know are the same though are the somehow different?" he asked, Raven looked over to Terry and asked "You're getting your current information from someone from a few years ago, correct?" they both nodded before Ares decided to give a vocal "Yes". Raven was quiet for a bit, before saying "Well... when I met Micah for the first time..." cutting herself of, wondering if she should tell them about what happened to Micah, they didn't know him and the friend Ares' mentioned could be faking his relationship with Micah so they could find Micah and take him back... one of her only friends... "..." she said nothing for a bit, the men in the room were quiet and were patently waiting for Raven to continue. From how Ares described his friend their relationship was similar to how Micah described a old friend who was in his memory... 'could they be one and the same' Raven thought, Micah described the brief memory's as brief moments of delight even if he didn't remember the entire day or even conversation. "...When I met Micah for the first time... he had amnesia." She said bluntly observing the expressions on the two's faces, Ares' was in complete shock but Terry's was in understanding of what she said before, how he could be different yet the same at the same time.

"Amnesia..." Ares said, in a understanding way, the same condition he has, his face drastically softened at this news. Terry decided to take over this conversation "Has he recovered any memories currently?" he asks with Raven giving an answer fairly quickly "Yes, though only a few. From what he has told me: he has retained a full conversation with his father from when he was a small child, one memory from when he was employed, and another two right before he had his amnesia. Though he has told me that when he gained these memories he couldn't see anything though he could hear the conversations in them. These memories come from about a year ago though more recently he has been gaining more memories with visuals though they have been only a few seconds". "Where there a difference in how he gained these memories?" Terry asked "Yes" Raven started "The initial four that I mentioned came from him touching a crystal-" "A crystal?" Terry interrupted, gaining a memory from a crystal is very odd though he swore he had heard of a tall tale about a Native Dragon doing the same, though he couldn't remember which one though it was also a tale with no source. "Yes a crystal" Raven said finishing her sentence "The rest have been coming from no where in particular, he would be doing chores and get a sudden headache and gain small snippets of his past", this left Terry speechless, unsure about how the memories were being returned to Micah.

Ares didn't know much about amnesia or how to recover memories though decided to ask Raven a question about Micah's, "Could there be a theme to the more recent memories? like something that appears in all of them?" It was a vague question though those usually get the best results. "Well... Micah says that are mainly from the time he enrolled in the Royal Guard, though some come from before this" she explained, Ares nodded before asking a question before he even thought it through "does he remember anyone from his memories?" he said very straightforwardly to Terry it was obvious he was asking about Reinhard but to Raven she couldn't know. Raven sighed as she racked her memory of the instances of Micah telling her his jumbled memories before remembering what Micah said to her "He did say that a certain person kept on appearing in a few of his memories, Micah described him as taller than him - probably by a head - though around the same age as him, He had light brown hair with orange tips which was fairly long and brought to a pony tail in the back and lastly described his eyes as a warm orange". Terry and Ares just stood there with their mouth agape slightly at the description "that sounds exactly like..." Terry said before Ares finished it for him "...like Reinhard!" "Reinhard?" Raven said her eyes narrow in a questioning gaze looking at Ares in particular who looked to describe Reinhard to her quickly "Reinhard is a friend of mine, actually the friend that I mentioned earlier who was looking for him for a while, he is a guard for a lady around here though he was once in the Royal Guard beside Micah".

Raven looked in thought at this as well a Terry who had decided to record all information down just in case, though Ares was still looking at Raven and decided to ask her something, "Raven... do you think you could bring Micah here. Even if he can't completely remember Reinhard I want the two of them to meet. " Raven looks up and stares at him for a bit her face plain though her mind was mulling it over "fine" she said before standing up and facing Ares "I'll ask him to tag along with me and we'll come here though you have to get these two to meet up" she said giving Ares a task who nodded and gave her a big smile "I will". Terry finished writing down all of this before moving to Ares and saying "I didn't think we would find and meet Micah in such a short time" with a small smile it was generally impressive that they had seemingly shut this case in less than a few days "though I will keep the case open and do some digging, there are a few loose ends that I would like to chase" Terry then turned to Raven "thank you for all the way here Rigbarth Raven, we couldn't have done this without you" he ended with Ares giving her thank you as well, "Thank you Raven" he said with a big smile on his face, "...you two are really similar" Raven muses under her breath that Ares barely picked up. Her voice picked up as she looked to Ares said "Though before I go... I would like to meet Reinhard", Ares thought and realised that it would make sense for you to meet the person looking for your friend, and the one he possibly remembers. "Of course" he said in response and gave a quick thank to Terry and promise to come back later, before leaving with Raven in tow.

They left the Detective Agency and started to walk to the the SEED HQ and Ares wondered where Reinhard could be presently 'He often went to the pond and stared out into the water when he didn't have anything to do, though he often went to the Serendipity general store or Lackadaisy, or could he be at the smithy or even the bathhouse...' Ares was lost in his thoughts and just kept on walking ahead with Raven to his side. They got to the SEED HQ and stopped, Ares was still thinking about where he could be and thinking about what he usually did on days like this though Raven said something that brought him back to Rigbarth "He looks similar to the friend Micah described" she said under her breath, Ares looked at Raven then to the direction she was looking at and saw Reinhard there walking towards them on the bridge. As Reinhard came closer he greeted Ares "Good Afternoon Ares it's nice too see you" "You too Reinhard! You seem to be in a bit of a hurry" He responded, these two went back and forth for a bit somewhat forgetting Raven was there "Ah yes I am on my way to the blacksmiths, I have asked Darroch for a small lesson in blacksmithing though I was at Serendipity too long looking all of the different apples and picking the best one" he said with a bit of a nervous laughter "only you could spend too much time looking at apples, by the way what type of blacksmithing lesson are you going for?" "I'm going to one for maintenance on a sword, so I could keep mine well taken care of" "Ah I hope that goes well, I shouldn't keep you waiting if you've currently late" "ah yes I should go" Reinhard then looks to Raven "Ah sorry for not introducing myself, I am Reinhard it's nice too meet you" he nodded to her, she looked at him in silence before saying "Raven, it's nice too meet you. You should probably get going" she reminded him. He then looked shocked and gave a short thanks before moving around them and ran to the blacksmith.

Ares then looked at Raven before she said "I'm off, I'll go bring Micah. I haven't spoken to him in a few days..." she mused before walking off with Ares walking a few steps behind her and asked her "but.. you said you wanted to see Reinhard..." he was a bit confused at her, he expected her to interrogate Reinhard about his and Micah's relationship. She stopped walking and turned to look at Ares and explained "I've meet him like I've asked, I learned about him from you're description of him and I've gotten some information from Micah's memories. I have made a decision that he doesn't have any malicious intent.... He just want's to see Micah" after adding that, she turned around and looked at the blacksmith that Reinhard had just walked into. She turned her head and looked to Ares "Is that a good explanation?" she asked just turning her head to him "yeah... thank you for trusting my word and for doing this..." he said with a small smile on his face, before that smile widened "remember to stay longer next time!", Raven turned her body a bit before a small smile was on her face she nodded before walking away. Starting her long journey back to Sharance 'I wonder if Micah has remembered anything else?' she thought to herself as she turned her head to the side, she was currently looking over the entirety of Rigbarth 'Micah would like this view' the thought before she started walking again.

---

"Than you for asking me to come along Raven!" Micah chirped as he and Raven across the Gadeus Grasslands, Raven nodded as they kept to the path as it seemed most monsters wouldn't touch them (though the ones that did got a good one two by Micah). In Micah's eyes, Raven had just come back from nearly a week away from Sharance and had asked him if he wanted to go to this town she had found, Micah hadn't visited any other place since he woke up in Sharance so it was nice to get out of the town. They had been traveling for the past few days and had visited a few other towns on the way, though not the elusive Selphia that Raven often visits and where Doug and Margret come from, during this journey, Raven had told him a bit about this town: It had a fairly big tree though not one that can compare to the Sharance tree, a huge bathhouse that could be seen anywhere and a nice and calm beach. Though Raven herself felt terrible for not telling Micah the truth, that the man he had seen in his memories, is there. She could tell that the who hunt for Micah was secretive or at least they didn't tell Reinhard that Micah was found, she didn't get why though chucked it up to a surprise. Raven looked to Micah, who had his usual smile on his face as he walked to the town where one of his old friends was though didn't know... how was he going to react? Micah had said previously that we would want to meet the man and see how he was, though was that it? would he want to get more information about his past?... Raven didn't know though she didn't know how to feel about it.

"Oh yeah!" Micah said, looking like he had just remembered something and turned to Raven, his casual smile was even wider and he was clearly excited, she remained silent though looked to him intently, showing that her attention was on him. "while you where away visiting Rigbarth I remembered something... I remembered more of that man I saw, and it was a full conversation this time" Micah said, clearly holding onto what he remembered though just waiting for Raven to ask him what he remembered, and Raven caved and asked "Did anything important happen in your memory?" and Micah nodded "I... remembered his name". Raven stopped in her tracks and looked to Micah who walked a bit longer than Raven before realising she had stopped, she decided to ask "well what was it?" she said with slight disinterest, though this was faked as she had to pretend like she didn't know what it really was nor knew what was going to happen in Rigbarth. "It's... Reinhard" he said, the way he said the name carried a sense of care and his cheeks flushed slightly, Raven looked to him in her usual neutral face before it shifted into a small smile though she didn't know what to say except to look at him with a sense of happiness 'he... really cares for Reinhard' she thought. Micah had just realised that he had been blushing though had looked away from Raven as he reminisced about Reinhard, he calmed down before looking to her and said "w-we should keep on moving, otherwise it's going to be the afternoon before we arrive there" he turned around and started walking, Raven followed him quickly until they were walking alongside each other as they did before. Raven looked to Micah and noticed that he still had some blush on his face.

They had excited the Grasslands and were now walking towards Rigbarth though Raven just remembered something to tell Micah "I'm unsure about how they are about monsters, so stay safe" she said in a coded way, Micah thought about that sentence a bit before be realised that she was saying that he shouldn't transform as she didn't know how they would react. "Okay." he said in a reassuring manor, with what could be described as a serious expression on his face, Raven had only seen it a few times. Micah's face softened before his face turned into one of confusion and decided to ask her a question "Hey Raven... didn't you say that the owner of the Inn and bathhouse was a were-animal?" he tilted his head to Raven, she sighed and said "They don't transform and only have animal appendages like ears and tails its a good bit different to us" looking to Micah before realising that he's never seen a were-animal to his memory so Raven was about to apologise for saying that in a slightly tired way before Micah said "Oh okay, I'm glad they can live in towns with Humans and the like" 'always seeing the brighter side to things' she thought as she focus her attention to ahead of her and noticed that the slopes that lead to Rigbarth were ahead of them.

Micah moved faster than Raven as he noticed a clearing and went to it and looked out in wide eyes, the town was a lovely little place, as Raven had described: it had it had a big tree, currently a cute pink colour that were also on the tree's below it, he looked forward and could see the sea, he just looked into the crystal ocean as he was only aquatinted with the pond by Carlos' resort 'I'd bet those siblings would love to see this' he thought, he then could see a large building which had a bright red roof and two golden statues on it... it really was big. Micah then looked to his left and noticed that there was a lake there, he felt like something was there, it was like a tugging of his chest... but wasn't forceful... he couldn't describe it... It was just... calling him. Raven moved to beside him on his right and looked over the town as well before saying "Welcome to Rigbarth".