That night, when Mary returned to her apartment after spending two days out of town and finished cleaning up, she sat on the sofa alongside Clyde and Casca, who were sitting there frozen in place; she took a seat between them,
"So... while I was away, where did you two go? You went to the rehabilitation center this morning, right?" Mary asked.
"Um... yeah, that’s actually why there’s something I want to talk to you about, Mary," Clyde said.
"Oh? What is it?" Mary asked.
"What if I join the unit that goes outside, just like you?" Clyde asked.
"And me too," Casca added.
"Huh... you guys want to join the military like me?" Mary asked, surprised.
Clyde and Casca didn’t answer verbally, but they nodded enthusiastically with glowing eyes, clearly unwilling to take no for an answer.
"Hmm... all right, but I’ll have to discuss this with Julia first," Mary said.
"Okay, Casca and I understand," Clyde replied.
"In truth, I did join the military, but I’m part of the reserve army, not the active military—more like a mercenary. In the city, there’s a guild that manages soldiers like me, tasked with going outside to monitor conditions, sneaking into farms, sabotaging simulations, and scavenging remnants of the past," Mary explained.
"Oh... so it’s different from Julia?" Casca asked.
"Different. Julia is a sergeant in the actual military branch, in other words, she was born into the military and has been a soldier since she was little. Quite a contrast from me. But if you don’t mind me asking, why do you want to join up and do what I do?" Mary answered before asking in return.
"We want to learn more about the outside world. We got a general grasp from today’s explanation about the Great Transition and the 100-Year War," Clyde answered.
Mary observed Clyde’s face beside her, then shifted her gaze to examine Casca’s face on her other side; "sigh," she drew a breath and leaned back comfortably against the sofa,
"All right, I understand. But please don’t entertain any thoughts of running away to head back to the simulation, okay? You’re human beings, not livestock," Mary said.
"I understand, Mary," Clyde replied.
"I’ll contact Julia after this. If she gives the green light, we can go to the mercenary guild together tomorrow," Mary replied.
"Okay, thank you, Mary," Clyde replied, casting a glance at Casca, who beamed with a wide smile.
"Right... since it’s getting late, I’m going to turn in. I’m still exhausted from being out of town. Don’t stay up too late, you two," Mary said, standing up and wrapping an arm around both of them at once.
"We won’t, Mary," Casca replied.
Mary then stood up and walked toward her bedroom; Clyde and Casca watched her walk until she stepped inside and shut the door. After that, silence returned to the room. Clyde whistled to bring up his holographic screen and tried to look for the message from Celes he had heard earlier that afternoon, but found nothing. Clyde appeared lost in thought,
"Big Brother... where is the orphanage Celes mentioned?" Casca asked.
"I don’t know either... but that last picture and my memories tell me that structure was the orphanage she meant. We just don’t know its location, which is why I want to join the mercenary guild or whatever it is Mary mentioned, to gather information," Clyde answered.
"I hope we get permission," Casca said.
"Yeah... if not, we’ll look for information elsewhere, like... the rehabilitation center," Clyde said.
Casca turned to look at Clyde, who turned to look back at her; she nodded, and Clyde could see hope dawning on Casca’s face, matching the sense of newfound purpose rising within himself in a world that was still entirely new to them. Suddenly,
"Na... na... na,"
Clyde and Casca’s expressions shifted as the echo of a melody rang in their heads, a sudden wave of dizziness washing over them; but this time, rather than panicking and focusing on the pain, the two leaned comfortably back against the sofa, their hands tightly interlocked as they closed their eyes. Though their expressions clearly betrayed their agony at first, their faces eventually settled into a state of quiet peace.
***
"Bzzzzzzzz,"
"Kressssssssk,"
"La... la... la,"
Five children could be seen learning to write with crayons on drawing paper on the floor, sitting in a circle facing one another in a room that looked like a playroom inside an orphanage. A young black-haired boy and a little silver-haired girl sat side by side, looking roughly the same age and older than the others; across from them sat two little girls younger than them by perhaps two years.
Positioned between the four was a blonde young boy who also appeared younger than the black-haired boy and silver-haired girl, but older than the twin black-haired little girls beside him. The black-haired boy lifted his head after scrawling something onto the paper,
"Hey, look! My name is Clyde... number C-1703... read as Clyde," the roughly five-year-old Clyde said proudly, showing off his messy handwriting.
"And I’m Celes... C-3135... read as Celes. Right... C-1703... er... Clyde?" the five-year-old Celes added, displaying her own scrawled handwriting.
"Wow... so you’re Big Brother Clyde and Big Sister Celes, then... What about me? My number is C-4504?" one of the black-haired twin girls asked.
"Hmm," young Clyde and Celes pondered deeply; then Clyde grabbed his pen and wrote on the paper, scrawling something with great effort before proudly showing it to everyone,
"Casca... C-4504... is Casca," Clyde said proudly.
"Huh... how did you do that, Big Brother? But is ’0’ really read as ’C’? Did you just make that up?" a little boy in the middle asked.
"It works... if you do this," Clyde answered, erasing the front portion of the number 0 so it resembled a C.
Everyone burst into cheerful laughter, and Celes stepped forward to pat the head of Casca, who was still giggling,
"So your name is Casca now," Celes said.
"Yay! Yes, Big Sister Celes! Thank you, Big Brother Clyde!" Casca replied merrily.
"Then... who am I, Big Brother?" Casca’s twin asked.
"And who am I?" the little boy asked, pointing to his own nose.
Young Clyde and Celes fell silent in thought once more, then turned to look at each other before glancing at the code numbers on the clothing of Casca’s twin and the little boy beside them,
"Hmm... C-2419 and C-0213," Clyde muttered.
"Ah... I got it!" Celes suddenly raised her hand.
She snatched the pen from Clyde’s hand, pulled the paper toward herself, and using her tiny hand to grip the pen, wrote down two names in messy, overlapping handwriting before proudly turning the paper around,
"Your name is Craig... because C-2419 is read as Craig... and you’re Corie because C-0213 is read as Corie... Aren’t I smart?" young Celes declared proudly, her face smudged with ink.
"Waaaaah... my name is Corie... I have a name... Casca!" Corie exclaimed merrily, hugging her twin Casca.
"Yeah... my name is Casca and yours is Corie! We have names... hooray!" Casca added gleefully.
"Sob... sob... sob,"
They turned to see the little boy holding the paper with messy scribbles, weeping bitterly. The four of them crawled over to him,
"Sob... I have a name... sob... my name is Craig... sob... I have a name," Craig whimpered.
Seeing Craig cry, the faces of Clyde, Celes, Casca, and Corie turned somber; tears gathered in their eyes and their lips trembled until they, too, "sob...sob....waaa," broke down in tears, wrapping their arms around Craig and crying together.
"Bzzzzzzzz,"
"Kressssssssk," everything suddenly blurred and plunged back into darkness in an instant of total silence.
***
"Gasp!"
Clyde and Casca woke up on the sofa, turning to look at each other, their breathing rapid and their chests heaving; both smiled as they noticed that tears were streaming down their faces,
"Casca... before we find Celes, we have to find Craig and Corie," Clyde said.
"Yeah, Big Brother, I remember now... all five of us were together in that orphanage and grew up together... I have a twin... Corie," Casca said.
"All right, it’s time to gather as much information as possible starting right now. Our goal is to go back to those days," Clyde replied.
"Right, Big Brother. I agree," Casca replied.
"And once we’re reunited... we’ll find out who the five of us really are... and why we had no names, only numerical codes," Clyde replied.
Casca went silent, simply nodding with her head bowed, her hand gripping Clyde’s; Clyde understood that Casca was actually afraid to discover who they truly were, just as he harbored that very same fear himself.