“Watch out for the dragon!” “It’s over there!” “Take it down!” “Are you kidding?! That thing’s made of pure fire!” “I don’t care how you do it, JUST TAKE IT DOWN!”
   
All over the town people were shouting and running around. Some were trying to flee while others were scrambling for any weapon they could find. After all, there was a dragon made of pure fire roaming the sky. It was breathing fire and appeared very threatening to everyone, yet if you looked closely it wasn’t actually setting things on fire. Not that the pirates paid any attention to that, they just wanted it dead.

Estella just grinned, after all Lucia was doing a great job being a distraction. “We have to hurry to the harbour! It won’t keep them busy forever!” she hissed to her friends.
   
“I’m going as fast as I can, but I can’t exactly run without sounding like an orchestra. I explained this beforehand, right?” Lorelei replied calmly. She was trying her best not to move too much, but there were still a fair amount of twinkles originating from her body.
   
“Ssshh! Let’s just keep going as fast as Lorelei can then,” Julia said. Her bandana must have fallen off somewhere back in the pagoda as her black and white pigtails were out in the open once more.
   
“A-are we really going the right way? What if we come across a pirate? Will Lucia rea-” Tilli asked anxiously as her hair was switching colours constantly but Estella interrupted her.
   
“Tilli, please! Just focus on walking,” she snapped. When this mission began, Estella was very eager to take on the leading role, but it was all far more of a hassle than she thought at first. Tilli was scared easily, Julia could be very headstrong and Lorelei as it turned out was quite hard to read (Then again, Estella suspected Lorelei herself probably didn’t even know how to read herself). Estella had to keep all of these things into consideration while also seeing this mission through till the end. Her mothers were counting on her after all. No, her team was counting on her!
   
The squad was sneaking through the narrow streets of the town, occasionally hiding out when a group of pirates would cross the street. It took them quite a while but by the time they finally reached the harbour, they were happy to see that it was practically deserted.
   
“Just a little bit more,” Estella whispered to her friends. She took a quick glance back and forth before motioning for the others to start walking. They were actually going to make it! Their boat was still docked up ahead, and Lucia was still far too much of a threat for any of the pirates to look their way. Things were going well!
   
Or at least, Estella thought so right up until the moment they got closer to the boat, when she noticed somebody sitting on the side of the ship, one leg dangling down the side.
   
“What in the…” Estella cried out, halting her friends.
   
“Took you long enough to get here,” the strange woman said. Her sleek raven hair was done up into a pony-tail that reached down quite far. She wore a bright red bandana, knee-high boots, and some rather loose-fitting clothes that draped over her body relatively loosely, leaving her shoulders exposed. That said, it seemed that her sleeves were rather bulky.
   
“That’s our ship! Get off of it or I’ll knock you off myself!” Julia threatened, balling a fist.
   
The woman eyed Julia with a grin, showing off a golden tooth. “Heh, big words, coming from someone that’s completely surrounded,” she sneered before gesturing behind them.
   
“S-s-surrounded?” Tilli whimpered as the four of them turned around slowly. Sure enough out of the docks around them appeared a group of about a dozen pirates, their weapons already drawn. They grinned and laughed as the girls realized that they were indeed surrounded now.
   
Lorelei stared at them before turning to the girls again. “I’m sorry, I was not made for stealth,” she sighed apologetically.
   
As the groups stared at each other Julia summoned her great Chronoshield and got into a battle pose. Estella’s meanwhile felt her legs trembled, her plan had been going so well. How could she not have foreseen that things could go so horribly wrong so quickly?
   
That’s when behind her, she heard a loud thud. It seemed that the pirate woman had jumped off the boat and onto the docks. This caused Estella to quickly turn around again, standing back to back with Julia. Next to her, Tilli was having a mental break-down while Lorelei acted as calm as ever, though she did ring her iron bells nervously.
   
“There’s so many of them! What are we going to do, Estella?!” Julia called out behind her, but Estella was nailed to the dock. She was at a loss for what to do here. Was this the end of the line??
   
“I suggest you girls stand down,” the pirate lady smirked as she held a hand over her pistol holster.

That’s when she noticed something. It was a sound. A sound that rang familiar. Ticking? Frowning, she noticed that the soft ticking was coming from this pirate woman. What was going on? Estella looked the woman straight in the eyes, who raised her eyebrows for just a split second. Perhaps… sitting down was indeed the right call here.

“Girls… duck,” Estella hissed.

“Wha-” Tilli stammered next to her.

“Just do it!” she cried out as she dove to the ground. Behind her, she could hear Lorelei’s bells and Julia’s shield hitting wood as well. Just as she had done so, the woman grinned and got out her pistol. She then pointed it at the group of pirates and shot. As she did so, Estella could just barely see a magical clock appear out in front of the gun, imbuing the shot with magic.

“What the…!” one of the pirates yelled but his sentence was cut short. For a second, Estella thought that he had been shot dead, but when she looked over, she could actually see that the pirates had been captured in some kind of time dome. None of the pirates inside moved, causing Estella to surmise that time must have stopped for them.

“Whoah,” the girls sighed in awe at this.

“That’s not going to hold them forever. Get on the ship and fast!” the pirate woman yelled.

Estella looked up again. She had to know more about this... but no, the pirate was right. “You heard her, let’s go!” she cried out as she scrambled to stand up again.

“What in the world is…” Julia started as she too got up.

“Tilli, snap out of it!” Estella yelled at the girl who was still lying on the floor, her arms covering her head.

“I’ll do it,” Lorelei said calmly as she pointed her arm directly at the scared girl. Shaking her arm once, she unleashed a small cacophony of bells that sure enough shook Tilli out of her daze.

“Ah! I’m sorry!” she cried out. She then raised a confused eyebrow and wanted to point to the frozen pirates but Estella interrupted her again.

“Just get on the ship, ask questions later!” Estella shouted, who had already climbed her way into the boat. It didn’t take long for the others to get into the boat as well, though Lorelei did need some help from Julia.

When all seemed ready, the pirate woman got out her sword and used it to slice through the ropes that kept the ship docked as if it were butter. As soon as it was loose, she too entered the boat again. Somehow… they had made it out of that situation.

As the ship was slowly sailing, she looked back to the docks, her eyes narrowed. Those goons would break free soon, but for now they were incapacitated. Sighing, she turned around, only to be faced with a rather pointy golden blade right into her face. “Whoah,” she gasped in surprise.

“You’re going to explain yourself right now!” the girl holding the blade sneered. Behind her, the small wimpy girl was cowering while the pink-haired one was steering the ship. Meanwhile, she got an eerie stare from the odd pale woman...

She laughed. “I guess I deserve that. The name’s Natsuki.”

“And why are you helping us?” the girl called Julia interrogated.

“Because I want you lot, to help me,” Natsuki replied.

“Help… you?” the scared girl stammered.

“With what?” Julia asked, still keeping her blade at the ready.

Natsuki let out a sigh. “One of your accursed DLC’s did something to me, and I want none of it!”

“It… what?” the pink-haired girl said, turning around and raising an eyebrow.

“You heard me, Pinky,” Natsuki said. “Call it payment for my services.”

“Pinky?! How dare-” the pink-haired girl started by she was interrupted.

“What was this DLC?” the pale woman asked.

Natsuki eyed Julia for a moment, wondering if she was going to let her grab the DLC as she reached down into her pocket. She got out the little box that started it all. “Here you go, Snowflake,” she said as she handed it over.

“My name is Lorelei,” the woman spoke before inspecting the little box. Natsuki winced as she opened the box, but was relieved to find that nothing was happening. “It’s a marine chronometer,” she said moments later.

“A what now?” Julia asked.

“I don’t care what it is, I just want it out of my waters! I know you’re time folks, I saw you sneaking off to that old shrine,” Natsuki demanded.

“What exactly did it do to you then?” Lorelei asked calmly.

Natsuki was about to answer that question but that’s when she noticed that the wimpy girl was pointing to the docks behind her. Turning around, she saw that the pirates were no longer frozen alright, and they seemed to have gotten over their confusion. Much to Natsuki’s horror, they were now actually running towards one of the larger docked ships…

“Blast it…” she hissed through her teeth.

“Estella, we have a problem!” Julia cried out.

“Oh, for clock’s sake!” the pink-haired woman apparently called Estella snapped.

“Faster! Faster! Faster!” the wimp cried out.

“We can only go as fast as the wind takes us! Your panicking isn’t helping anyone, Tilli!” Estella replied. It was very clear that none of these four women had any sailing experience whatsoever.

“Let me handle it then,” Natsuki groaned as she grabbed a hold of the rope keeping the sail in place.

“Hey, wait you!” Julia snapped, once again holding her blade up to Natsuki’s face. Damn, that thing looked sharp…

“I think we can trust her, Julia! If she betrays us now, she will get a cannonball to the face as well,” Estella called out. Well, that much was true. She really wasn’t looking forwards to sinking.

“Well? You heard her,” Natsuki snapped.

“Fine…” Julia sighed, lowering her blade. Natsuki didn’t want to show it but she was actually quite relieved for that. With that said, she fully went to work, releasing the ropes and using all her strength to pull the sail to the right. After all, that way it would catch the most wind.

“Pinky, steer to the left!” she called out.

“Este-... oh never mind. On it!” Estella replied, doing as she was told. Sure enough, this caused the sail to bulge out and get a full blast of wind, causing the boat to speed up significantly! A good thing too because behind them, she could see that one of the bigger pirate ships was starting to head out as well. The Gallon would have a slow start, but once it got going it would certainly catch up to them, unless they somehow outsmarted them. A grin appeared on Natsuki’s face. What an incredible mess of an escape plan this was turning out to be.

“LOOK!” The wimpy girl called Tilli cried out all of a sudden.

“What in the…” Julia joined.

“What are you two…” Natsuki snapped, wanting to tell the two off for not being any help when she noticed what the two girls were looking at. “By Lacy Bones…” she muttered as a set of gigantic tentacles had shot up from out of the waters and had wrapped themselves around the pursuing ship. “A kraken?!”

Everybody on board was looking stunned as the pirates were prevented from going any further. That was at least until they noticed that somebody had risen from the waters right in front of them. She looked rather mer-like, and her blue hair gleaming more like tubes than anything else.

“Sorry we’re late!” she called out.

Next to Natsuki, Lorelei gasped. “Cousin Rylla!” she said. Even though it was as monotone as everything else she said, it sounded more relieved somehow.

“Hey Lorelei, long time no see!” the mermaid cheered.

“Rylla! You’re out of your well?” Julia gasped.

“Well yeah, Julia! I can leave my well whenever I want. I just… forget I can do so while I am in the well,” Rylla replied, trailing off a bit at that last part. “Anyway, I noticed you guys were in trouble and that shook me out of it. We came as fast as we could!”

“Wait… that kraken is yours?!” Natsuki asked.

“Ocky’s not a kraken, he’s an octopus,” Rylla replied. “But yeah, he’s ours! He’ll keep the pirates from sailing out any further, so you guys can get out of here.”

“Rylla, I… thank you,” Lorelei said, kneeling down. “It’s good to see a familiar face again.”

“Wait until you see the others. They’ve missed you, Lorelei!” Rylla nodded.

“So you’re Rylla?” Estella asked.

“Indeed, Estella! Ah, but there’s no time for pleasantries. You must get out of here fast! Ocky can’t hold them forever,” Rylla winked.

“Yes, you’re right! Let’s go then, team human!” Estella called out.

As the others got back to working on the ship again, Natsuki was just left highly confused. What in the world had she gotten herself into?


As their sailboat left Furukyo behind, everyone could finally breathe calmly again. There was no way the pirates were going to catch up to them anymore, all thanks to the help of Rylla and of course that fire elemental that Natsuki came to learn was called Lucia. How they had gotten the help of a fire elemental like that was beyond her. Fire elementals were known to be fickle after all.

Julia was still keeping a very close eye on Natsuki. Not that she blamed her of course. It was wise to be wary of a pirate. Especially one that pretended to be an enemy. Of course, she did so to fool the pirates that had come to chase the girls more than anything, but still.

Natsuki had come to sit on the rear of the ship, looking out across the sea. Off behind her, she could hear a conversation happening between Estella, Julia and Tilli.

“I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have come on this mission… all I’ve done is panic,” Tilli sighed.

“That’s not true, Tilli,” Estella replied. “Your help has been instrumental. It was you who found Lorelei after all with your teleportation skills.”

“Yeah indeed! I’m sure Kaidyn’s going to be proud of you,” Julia cheered.

It all sounded like a bunch of hoojoo to Natsuki. Names she didn’t recognize, terms she was unfamiliar with. It was for this reason that she wanted this to be over and done with as fast as possible so that she could sail the seas again like she used to. She let out a sigh and turned back to the waters again, when someone came to stand next to her.

Natsuki looked up to Lorelei, raising an eyebrow. “What is it?” she asked.

“You never told us what it was that the chronometer did to you,” Lorelei replied.

“Was beginning to think you guys had forgotten,” Natsuki snorted.

Lorelei sat down next to her, her bells ringing and gonging as she did so.

“Doesn’t that ever get annoying?” Natsuki asked.

“I have been the Keeper of bells for 1231 years, 6 months, 15 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 57 seconds. I’m used to it,” Lorelei deadpanned.

“... What even ARE you?” Natsuki asked glancing awkwardly at her.

“A time elemental,” Lorelei answered. “One of fiv-... no, one of ten now it seems. I must admit, having woken up only today after a thousand years of slumber, I feel scared I guess. The world is so different now. My old homeland is invested with pirates and samurai now. On top of that, I don’t really… know any of these people yet.”

Well, Natsuki wasn’t really planning on listening to elemental’s life story, but oh well… “Right, whatever” she muttered. It’s not like she could do anything about it.

“I apologize. I came to ask you a question but then I proceeded to talk over you,” Lorelei continued. At least she was polite about it.

“You’re fine,” Natsuki said, mostly to return the politeness. She sighed then. “The clock split in two and infected my weapons. It then also tried to do the same to my body, but I was able to close the damn box in time before it could do more.”

“So the transformation was not finished,” Lorelei surmised.

“And I don’t want it to! Look what it already did!” Natsuki grumbled as she moved the top of her sleeve to the side somewhat to get a good look at the upper part of her arm, where a gear was clearly spinning around her arm, making a ticking sound that absolutely drove her nuts. This accursed gear, and its mate on the other arm were a constant reminder of her own foolish curiosity. She had stolen the damn DLC off of some rich guy that sailed too close to her waters. Of course she wanted to know what it was, but she regretted opening the thing ever since. Why her, while didn’t it affected anyone else?!

“Let me see the weapons,” Lorelei interrupted.

“Hmmpf, right,” Natsuki grumbled, getting out her sword. It had a clock on its hilt now. Something it didn’t always have. She had considered just getting a new sword, but for some reason she could not get rid of it. Same for her pistol for that matter.

“Local time,” Lorelei mused as she inspected the thing.

“And here’s the gun,” Natsuki spoke as she got it out as well. Behind her, she could almost feel the eyes of Julia piercing through her. It too had a clock on its hilt, but it told a different time from the one on her sword.

“Temple time,” Lorelei nodded.

“Wha?” Natsuki asked.

“The two clocks are unsynchronized for a reason. One clock tells local time while the other tells the time at a fixed location, which is that of the temple of time. At least, that of the old one. It’s supposed to help you navigate while out at sea. Only by bringing these clocks together will you know how far east or west you are,” Lorelei explained.

“Okay, right, all fine and dandy, but I don’t want this happening to me,” Natsuki emphasized again.

“We can undo the changes caused by DLC’s back at the temple, but… the DLC reacted to you for a reason. It sees you as its rightful owner,” Lorelei said.

“Yeah, so?” Natsuki asked.

“My advice would be for you to keep it and let it continue its changes,” Lorelei said matter of factly.

“Yeah no, absolutely not,” Natsuki groaned. “Just undo it once we get to your temple and I’ll be off again.”

“Right…” Lorelei said, staring down at the waters below. “Will you at least see what the rest of the transformation entails for you before you make your final judgement?”

Natsuki frowned at the time elemental. For someone who seemed so disinterested and distance in her composure  and voice, she sure was persistent. “If it gets you out of my hair, fine. So long as it doesn’t change my bloody mental state.”

“I promise you that if it does, I will personally see to it that you are restored,” Lorelei said.

Natsuki wasn’t quite sure whether to find that reassuring or not. Sighing, she got out the marine chronometer. “This’d better be good,” she muttered to herself before closing her eyes while opening the box. Instantly, the thing started glowing again, as it had done to her a few months back when she first found it. Her instincts told her to close it again, but no… she had to see this through to the end now, if only so that Lorelei would be satisfied.

Sure enough, as before, two asynchronous clocks came out and gathered on each side of her. Behind her, she could hear the surprised gasps of the others but they were soon drowned out by the sounds and sensations that Natsuki was now beginning to feel. The two gears around her arms were starting to tick louder and way more noticeable than before.

When Natsuki opened her eyes to look at what was happening to her body, she found that actually… she was alone? Lorelei, Julia, Tilli and Estella had all vanished? “What in the name of Lacy Bones is going on?!” Natsuki called out, but nobody answered. She was alone.

Quickly, she stands up to see what was going on, but she soon found herself to be losing balance. Just barely she was able to prevent herself from falling into the water below, instead falling back onto the deck. “What the…” she cried out as she tried standing up again, but once more she falls down. She was not dizzy or anything, but it really felt like she was being pulled to the right for some reason. Looking down, she could see that there was a difference in the way her right and left gear were spinning. Sure, Lorelei had mentioned how they were asynchronous for a reason, but something definitely seemed wrong on her right side. It was jamming somehow, spinning much slower than the other one? Or was it that her left gear was spinning way too fast?

Natsuki looked down at her weapons. Her pistol was always kept on her right while her sword was kept on her left. Nothing had changed about them, but she could still feel that something was wrong. It was as if something was missing.

“Ugh, why is this happening…” Natsuki groaned. “Lesson learned, never listen to time elementals…”

She rolled over to lie on her back then, pondering her situation. What could have caused the pistol side to go so slow? Was it the shot she had fired earlier? Was that causing the imbalance? Then how was she going to rebalance herself?

“... look into yourself…”

“Wha?” Natsuki gasped. That sounded like Lorelei’s voice, but she was nowhere to be seen.

“...You need to find balance. You need to let the connection through…” the voice spoke again.

A connection? Between the gears? There was no way to connect them! Her arms did not bend that far! Besides, there was nothing to connect. They were out of balance and out of order! There was nothing to…

A moment of realization hit Natsuki then. Perhaps Lorelei’s explanation from earlier wasn’t useless after all. There WAS a connection. What was it she said again? Only by bringing the clocks together can one know how far east or west they were. Perhaps that was the connection she had to let pass through her. Closing her eyes, she focused, concentrating on both gears. She had always rejected any sensations coming from them but now, she was actually letting them through. Letting them enter. Letting them flow.

The sensations Natsuki had feared and rejected… they were actually not all that unpleasant. Was this what the time elemental felt? Was this the feeling of time passing through her? More and more, she felt like the connection was passing through. That ballance was being restored.

Her left side was slowing down bit by bit. “Local time,” she whispered to herself.

Her right side was speeding up slowly but surely. “Temple time,” she mused as Lorelei had done.

And just like that, as both gears turned at equal speeds, yet at different times, the realization hit Natsuki. The feeling of time passing through her… it was incredible!

She instinctively knew now...
She knew the time…

She knew where she was...
She felt it...

She knew when she was...
She felt it...

She knew balance...
She felt this incredible connection.

She...Felt… Time...


As the daze was slowly ebbing away, Natsuki could hear voices. Distant at first, but they were slowly becoming clearer. More familiar.

“Is she okay?” came Tilli’s worried voice echoed.

“She should be, yes,” Estella spoke.

“I really hope you’re sure about this, Lorelei. She’s still a pirate,” Julia said.

“The DLC belongs to her. She should be given this chance. As members of the church of time, we believe that everybody deserves time,” Lorelei said calmly. Her voice sounded a lot closer than the others for some reason.

“I… well… yes, you’re right,” Julia sighed.

Slowly, Natsuki opened her eyes then to find Lorelei’s face rather up close. Only then did she realize that she was actually resting her head on the elemental’s lap. She groaned and rubbed some of the sleep from her eyes then.

“Welcome back,” Lorelei spoke.

“Ugh… thanks,” Natsuki said before slowly sitting back up again. The others were looking at her intently, but that didn’t matter too much to her at that moment. Instead, she looked back to Lorelei. “You knew that was going to happen,” she stated.

Lorelei looked down for a moment, seemingly ignoring Natsuki’s statement. “How do you feel now? Do you still wish for us to remove the effects of your DLC?”

Natsuki sighed. After what she had felt back there, it was pretty hard to argue with herself about that now. “Alright, Jinglebells. You got me,” she muttered.

That’s when something happened that neither Natsuki nor the others expected, Lorelei actually cracked a smile. She quickly wiped it off her face while everybody stared and gasped, but it had certainly been there! It… actually caught Natsuki off-guard and she felt herself becoming beet red as well. This… REALLY wasn’t the trip she was expecting it to be alright. But then, that may not have been a bad thing after all. Her newfound appreciation for time, the true connection between her two halves that had manifested itself and of course… a surprising new friend. Yes, things were indeed going to be very different for her from now on, and she was strangely into it.