westedge | PC: Kyoko

[ the tiger sounds like the most manageable. he will later learn that is not true, but also, being a tiger sounds manageable. ]

Too bad you couldn't trade. We didn't have abilities in ours, just a bunch of weapons. [ thanks. ] That sounds a little bit like a steep learning curve though.

You didn't have your psychs either?

I had another life's memories added onto my own, so I did know how to use it. [ This is too many lives to keep track of. ]

Oh, no, we did. But we tried not to use them too much because the last time we did when Nahri became the town's doctor eventually people got scared and drove us out of town. [ calmly said. ]

We learned a lot of other skills over those years though. So it was like...we didn't start our mission with another life's memories. We just lived that life and made those memories on top of our other ones. Does that make sense? Yours sounds a little more muddled.

[ Humans can be afraid of what they don't understand. She decides this makes as much sense as anything else could. ]

Do you remember all those skills now?

I feel like every time I go out on a mission somebody's doing their best to add more to my memories. I had enough when it was just one life.

[ the thought gets a noise of confirmation. yeah. they sure can. that was half the problem. ]

I remember...more of them than I thought I would. And more than I'd like. Definitely more than I'd like in some cases, but I'm going to guess if I don't do them often those will fade, too. [ he does not elaborate on what those might be. ] Do you still remember the memories you were given from your first mission?

[ also isn't this now twice that she and kazuki have gone on the same mission wait a minute. ]

[The K-names have to stick together... maybe?

Kyoko isn't so nosy that she'll push into what those skills might be.]

I do. They're still clear. [That little apartment, the comfort of a home. Wolfwood and coffee. the unfortunate fate of her detective agency. Having to work at the game company. Falling off a building.

The next life. Perfect. Her agency thriving. Wolfwood as her partner. That little apartment. Wolfwood at the balcony and trying to rip a choice away from her. The feeling of cold metal in her hands. Clearer than I'd like.]

[ he just...frowns. ]

...I'm sorry. That's even less fair than I thought. [ how does a person just fix that? ]

I'll need to write them all down. Just to make sure which ones are really mine.

That's actually not a bad idea. As long as you have somebody who can help you crosscheck the list. I don't know if I'd trust myself to fully remember everything about which is which right away.