Written by Joshua David Tarwater
Special Thanks - @Cutegirlmayra
Illustration - SmilesFPS (SmilesFPS www.twitter.com)
Logo Design - Xenoko (XenokoYT www.twitter.com)

♪ ~ [Another Eden ～時空を超える猫～ ~ Yasunori Mitsuda ~ Another Eden Original Soundtrack]

         “I really can’t believe you,” Sonic somehow managed to smirk, sigh, and laugh at once as he stepped up to the steps of a massive building. One that was built directly into a massive array of the shifting blocks covered in geometric patterns of glowing blue lines.

         But it was not the building that Sonic eyed, but rather the white leotard clad, pink hedgehog girl with a parcel in hand.

         “What can I say, Sonic,” Rosy cheerfully chirped as she waved the parcel about. “Sometimes taking things into my own hands and talking them over does wonders.”

         “Says the girl who literally took someone else’s hand to get what she wanted,” Sonic teased back as he snagged the parcel and walked backwards up the stairs with Rosy chasing after him.

         “Ah! Sonic! Give that back.”

         “Let’s see here,” Sonic playfully mocked Rosy as he cleared his throat and began to read the parcel. “I appreciate you freeing me from the mind control, and as thanks and a sample of my services which I’m sure you’ll be partaking of in the future, here is an address to where you may find out more about Mr. Yoluku. But you still owe me for taking my arm off. It’s traumatizing.

         “Really Amy, how could you?’ Sonic teased and was rewarded with Rosy puffing up her cheeks.

         “I didn’t mean to!” Rosy whined as she defended herself and flailed her arms helplessly. “I know it’s not her fault that she was struggling so much, but still. It’s not like I wanted to take her whole arm off either. I’m so glad it’s fake, even if it did surprise me.”

         “I’m more surprised you went so far just to help someone.”

         Not relenting with his teasing tone of voice, Sonic turned forward as he continued to ascending the stairs. Waving the parcel about, he gave Rosy a sly and mischievous look of his own over his shoulder. “After all, I thought you wanted someone to take your hand.”

         “What…?” Rosy asked confused a moment before stopping, her face flushing to a shade nearly as red as her hair band and shoes. “SO~NI~C!”

          ~Ooh~! I just don’t get it. I can tease Sonic all day long and have all the fun in the world, but the moment he teases me back I get all flustered. Why can’t I keep teasing him and actually get a back and forth going? It’d be so fun!

~Phooey! I’ll figure it out yet, and then Sonic and I can have fun teasing each other all the time! Tee-hee~♥ I can’t wait!~

♪ ~ [海と炎の絆 / Bond of Sea and Flame ~ 海と炎の絆 / Bond of Sea and Flame ~ Xenogears Original Soundtrack Revival Disc - the first and the last -]

Order out of chaos.
Bookshelves and workstations forever in motion.
Rooms changing form and placement at a moment’s notice.
The whim of the shifting blocks that housed the archive.
A daily norm to those who worked and studied there.
A library like no other.
Home to books, scrolls, murals, and Rings alike.

          ~Much as I could enjoy teasing Sonic all day, we were following the directions in the letter Blister sent us. Supposedly she was aiming to help us out after I saved her from Yolk’s mind control. Sonic was wary of it, but I was glad to accept her help. After all, she seems like a nice person to me. Let’s just call it my girlish intuition. Tee-hee~♥

          ~The library Blister’s letter instructed us to was so wild. So much so, I’m not sure how to describe it. I honestly feel more lost here than I have anywhere else Sonic and me have been able to walk through the shifting blocks. Fortunately, the people who work here know how to get around, and when I showed them Blister’s letter with her pirate seal they didn’t freak out. They actually seem to have an idea of who Blister knows here.~

          “All that trouble and you never heard of Yoluku, don’t know the name of the big egg in the sky, or have any idea what the Empire of the Ring is?” Sonic scoffed as a young human scholar with dark hair and skin that nigh matched the hue of the book pages he worked with all day.

         “Sonic, it’s okay,” Rosy tried to calm Sonic down. “Maybe he knows something else that can help us?”

         “I wonder,” Sonic stated eying the scholar with disbelief.

         “Your companion is right of course,” the scholar sided himself with Rosy’s faith in him. “The Engineers take a great deal of interest in technology, especially that which deals in the use of Rings. It is a difficult thing to study with the Orthodoxy constantly hounding them however.”

         “The Orthodoxy?” Rosy questioned, turning her search for an answer from the scholar to Sonic who snorted as he as he took a seat on a passing bookshelf.

         “A bunch of swell guys who push the idea that Rings are taboo,” Sonic explained as he pulled a book free from the shelf he sat on. Rapping the back of his hand against it roughly, a cloud of dust as well as several rings burst forth from the ancient text.

         “Gah!” the scholar shouted and chased after Sonic and the shelf. “Please, be gentler with those! The knowledge they hold–”

         “Can all disappear in an instant if the Orthodoxy and their Machine Knights ever catch wind of this Zone,” Sonic provided a different answer as he caught a Ring and pushed it into the book. As the Ring was absorbed with a twinkling of golden motes of light, he offered the scholar a chance to provide him with something useful. “But none of it has any value to us unless it can lead us to learning something about Yoluku. You don’t go around claiming to be a god and have your best friend flunky run around trying to break a seal on you that no one knows exists without having some kind of history.”

         “Perhaps the answers you seek then lie in the legends of the machine gods.

         “That sounds like it’s closer at least, right Sonic?” Rosy tried to encourage Sonic to go along.

         “Well, if it’s a good enough story it could be interesting at least.”

          ~I don’t know if Sonic enjoyed the tale of the machine gods, but it was enjoyable spending a day with Sonic listening to stories and legends. Tee-hee~♥ I Feel so lucky! I kind of want to thank them for the opportunity, but it isn’t likely to happen. Even if they are good guys yhey might kind of be enemies, since they are friends with the Orthodoxy.

          ~The scholar was really into the legends, probably because the Engineers love machines, so the idea of machine gods really fascinates them. Enough to leave them wondering about if they were built or always were. The legends don’t really define anything, but the part that really caught Sonic’s attention was how mankind lost knowledge of certain types of technology whenever a machine god disappeared from the world. It’s supposedly why the world has such inconsistent levels of technology throughout the ages. It’s hard to think that machines would have that much influence. Though if they were taking from the world by the Rings…

          ~The other interesting bit was how the Machine Knights just showed up and then disappeared. They’re called heroes, but there aren’t any records of who they fought. But they’re supposedly a lot like autogolems. Suits of armor built onto clockwork skeletons. I can’t help but be reminded of…~

         “Ix?” Sonic asked as he and Rosy walked down city streets that occasionally moved a building here or there due to the abundant presence of the shifting blocks.

         “Well, they kind of sound like Ix, don’t they?” “Rosy rephrased her thoughts for Sonic.

         “I guess they are kind of a lot alike.”

         “Sonic, that makes no sense,” Rosy laughed as Sonic nearly contradicted himself. He could only offer her a shrug however and an awkward smile to go with it.

          “Neither did listening to a pirate,” Sonic came up with a counter that mostly fell flat. Rosy was quick to offer a counter of her own though.

         “Just like her having speed like yours.”

          “Speed I haven’t put to use all day cooped up in that dusty old library. I couldn’t even find anything decent to read.”

         “At least the stories about the machine gods were interesting. Now we have something to do while running around collecting Rings.”

         “And now you finally said something that sounds like it’ll be worth my time.”

         “Running?’ Rosy asked, giving Sonic an exasperated but understanding smile, feeling like he had totally lost interest in the machine gods.

         “You bet,” Sonic laughed as he took off.

         “Really Sonic!” Rosy yelled after Sonic before giving chase, losing herself in the thrill of his speed. Something she could only do because of the Ring Bond she shared with Sonic. A bond that assured the Orthodoxy, the Machine Knights, and even their legendary machine gods would be her enemies for as long as she and Sonic ran in the Far Lands under the sun eclipsing Yoluku.