World Tree MUSH

    A reality-warping magical oddity has been dealt with. People have been saved. A great big worm has been scared off. In short, business in Rome went about as well as it could possibly have gone.

    So why does Yumi look so troubled?

    After the battle in Seattle, she'd been on cloud nine over all the people they saved. Happy just to know everyone was okay and things would be just the tiniest bit brighter. That's the kind of person she is; happy just knowing people will be alright for another day. So this... this definitely isn't like her. Walking alongside the chocobo with her hands in her pockets, eyes slightly downcast, lost in her own thoughts.

    Rydia is an observant girl. She noticed something was up. Yumi is not normally one to be so sullen, that is the small Summoner's job.
    There's a light jab to Yumi's shoulder. A tap for attention as Rydia tugs on her avian steed's reins to slow him to a halt. And then she hops off.
    "It's you're turn to ride." She says, motioning Yumi for the saddle and tugging her wolfos fur cloak a little tighter about herself.
    "You have something you want to talk about, Yumi?" She asks directly. No beating around the bush for Rydia of Mist.

    "Huh?" Yumi looks up, surprised. "Oh, ah..." She laughs a slightly embarrassed laugh. "Well, I... if you're sure." A moment's hesitation, mostly out of worry for Rydia, and then the older of the two swings herself up into the saddle, sitting carefully. She hasn't been in it more than a second or two before that question comes.

    There's a brief side glance, and then a little nod. "...yeah. I..." She pauses, trying to gather her thoughts. "...that orb, that... whatever it was. The thing sucking up space and making those beetles. I /felt/ it. I didn't just see it, or hear it, or feel whatever it was doing to reality. Or... 'felt' maybe isn't the right word. I sensed it."

    Rydia is fine walking. Though she keeps hold of the reins to guide the chocobo once Yumi is mounted, and the journey back resumes, she's already listening intently.
    The situation with te orb and the beetles was certainly a strange one, but it's something Yumi SAYS that makes Rydia peer upwards curiously. "You 'felt' it?" She asks, making sure she heard that right. "I don't know what it was." She admits. "But I got lucky finding it, I didn't feel it or anything." She notes. And Rydia is usually a girl who is in tune witht that magical kind of thing. Which might be why she's looking at Yumi with such a burning curiosity. "Are you sure you're okay?" She asks with more concern than any other seven-year-old could possibly be capable of.

    That's a question that takes Yumi a few moments to answer. "No, I... I'm not really sure at all. I've never really sensed any kind of magic before. I'm not sure what to make of it." She turns, and looks over her shoulder. "...we're far enough away I can't feel it anymore. I could only /barely/ feel it on the outskirts of the city. If we hadn't started getting closer, I don't think I'd have noticed." Eyes back on the road, looking around the chocobo's head. "I'm... I don't know what this means for me. /About/ me."

    And you didn't say anything?" Rydia asks on learning that Yumi had felt it on the outskirts of Rome. The girl's nose scrunches, but then she bites thoughtfully on her lower lip. "It could mean a lot of things, I guess." She does muse.
    "Maybe you're just sensitive to that kind of thing- it could be as simple as that, or..." Or something else.
    "You said you don't remember anything from before the time you woke up, right?"

    "I didn't say anything because I didn't notice it," Yumi replies. "It was just some odd feeling, I thought I was just a little anxious. Then we started getting closer, and it... started getting stronger." The chocobo seems to be guiding itself along well enough without her help, so for now, she rests her hands on the saddle horn. "I... well, that's... /almost/ right. I don't know the first thing about myself from before. Who I was, where I was from, what I did..." She pauses, realizing there's another entry to add to the list. "...what I am." Yumi lets out a soft, brief sigh.

    "I woke up only knowing two things, both of them names. One of them was mine, Tachibana Yumi. I know that name is mine the same way you know yours is Rydia. I don't know how I know, but I know." A shake of her head. "The other..." Here, the orange-haired girl stops, a frown finding its way onto her face. "...The other is Mei. Sakamachi Mei." Even just saying that name, the faintest hint of bitterness seeps into Yumi's tone. Animosity. It's a note that neither Rydia nor Zelda have heard out of her.

    This is the first time Rydia has heard Yumi talk about this in detail. She had known that Yumi had awoken with no memories, but she had not heard before to what extent, and the smaller girl's brow knots thoughtfully as she glances up with almost a tiny look of pity. But she listens and...
    It's the tone of Yumi's voice as she breathes the second name that catches the Summoner wholly off guard. Yumi, gentle, cheerful, brave, and helpful Yumi Tachibana had never taken such a venemous tone of voice before in Rydia's presence, and it's actually unsettling.
    "Maybe... Maybe it'll all come back to you sooner or later." She murmurs at first. "If not... Do you think that other person- Mei- might have had something to do with the way you are now?" Maybe that's why there's that animosity there, it's the best thing Rydia can infer in the moment. "Still... You felt magic, Yumi. I wouldn't have expected that from someone from a world where there isn't any. Maybe it means... Something. I don't know."

    Yumi closes her eyes for a moment. "I'm not really sure. But that's my best guess. I'm not... I don't like this. I don't know who she is, or what she did. But just thinking of her name bothers me. And... and it bothers me that it bothers me." Those eyes open again. "...and I'm not sure what all this means, and that bothers me too. A couple days after I woke up, when I met Zelda. She and another person, they told me the crater I woke up in had magical residue all over it. And now I find out I can sense... I don't know. Not magic in general, but that specific kind of magic? Maybe it was just that particular disturbance?"

    Once more, there's a frown. "...maybe there's magic in Natsuto after all. Or more likely, I'm not actually from Natsuto. I have more questions now than I did a week ago." No wonder she's so wrong-footed. She's always been pretty easily bothered by all the questions about her situation.

    "There has to be a good reason you don't like her." Rydia muses. "You don't strike me as the kind of person to dislike something without an actual reason." The girl says, before her shoulders lift into a shrug.
    "I only know what little about magic my mother taught me, I'm not like Zelda who's had years to study it. I don't... Know anything that could make you forget everything... Or cause enough damage to leave a crater, but I don't doubt it's possible. But I wouldn't bet on it just being one time. It's bound to happen again. ... Maybe your body is slowly starting to remember something your mind can't right now. But I don't think this is going to be an isolated thing. It never is."

    "It never is," Yumi agrees. "I guess I've got some talking to do with Zelda next time I see her." She shifts a little in the saddle, settling in for the long haul. "Until I can talk to her, I'm going to try not to think about it too much. Easier said than done, but... well, I can't keep walking forward if I keep looking over my shoulder, right? We've got stuff in the here and now to worry about." It dovetails with something Zelda told her... or rather, Hylia. 'Keep moving forward and you'll find your answers'. "Do you want to stop and get something on the way back? I saw a restaurant we could try, I'll cover it."

    Keep walking forward. It's a sentiment that Rydia turns over in her head quietly as she walks beside the chocobo as it plods along.
    "You'll figure it out, I'm sure." She muses eventually. "And I'm around whenever you need me so don't be afraid to ask if you want a hand with anything, alright?" Added afterwards. But her mind wanders somewhat.
    "Huh? Oh. Yeah sure." She aggrees to a little pit stop.