Amitie and the Girl of Love/Ally, the Girl of Love

← A Mysterious Entry!	Amitie and the Girl of Love Translated by: Precise Museum	What's "Love"? →

“For the time being… The danger appears to have subsided, so let’s properly reassess the situation for greater comprehension.” Ringo, who was the first to pull herself together, decisively raised a finger.

“Yeah, good idea,” Arle nodded. Then she addressed the girl who was still anxiously looking up at the sky, “Hey… Can we…ask you some questions?”

“Eek! Yes!” The girl turned to face her, startled.

“I’m Arle! And this is Carby…short for Carbuncle.”

“Gugu!”

Carbuncle pointed its ears forward and did a motion that looked like a polite bow.

“My name is Ringo! Pleased to make your acquaintance!” Ringo announced, suddenly standing up straight.

“Right, I’ll introduce myself again as well. I’m Amitie! My dream is to become a fantastic mage!” I said with a smile, holding up a peace sign.

“I-I see…” The girl responded, “Arle, Carbuncle, Ringo… Amitie,” she repeated, continuing to mumble our names quietly.

Once we had all introduced ourselves, Arle asked her, “So it’s kind of late to ask, but who are you?”

“Ah! M-my name is Ally!”

The girl… Ally seemed to realize that she had forgotten to introduce herself to us. She gave a nervous, but deep bow.

“I am extremely grateful to you all for saving me from that perilous situation earlier! Uhm, how may I express my gratitude…”

“It’s fine, it’s fine! You were in trouble, so we helped! That’s all there’s to it.”

We hadn’t talked that much yet, but she seemed like such a polite, nice girl! I patted Ally on the shoulder and smiled at her since she still looked anxious. That seemed to calm her a bit, and she spoke with a relieved tone—

“Ahh… Lady Amitie. I’ve never met anybody this full of love before…”

…Huh?

Is it just me, or did she just say something seriously weird? Actually, two weird things?

“L-Lady…? Love?”

“Indeed! The compassionate, gentle way you spoke those words! That is what true love sounds like!”

“Uhm…”

Ally followed up her passionate explanation by excitedly clenching her hands up to her face. I found myself backing away from her a little.

S-suddenly, I wasn’t so sure that she was the calm and collected person I’d thought she was…

“Ally, calm down… First of all, can you tell us how you ended up in this situation? It all happened so suddenly, I don’t think any of us can make heads or tails of it so far.” Arle asked her questions, gently moving her hands up and down in a gesture meant to calm Ally down a little.

Ally gave a great big nod, “Of course! Allow me to explain!”

And then, with lots of enthusiasm, she opened her mouth to begin speaking…

“Well, you see! You see…”

“Uh-huh?”

“Well! Uhm!”

“…?”

“Well… Uhm…”

Ally faltered, her eyes wide. Several seconds passed.

“I CANNOT REMEMBER!!” She yelled.

What the—?!

That loud announcement nearly knocked us off our feet.

“Wh-what…?”

There’s no way, right? Is what we thought, but Ally was serious.

“I… I cannot remember anything. I mean, I do faintly recall my own name, that I came from beyond those white gates, and that I must return there at all costs. But, aside from that… There’s nothing…”

“Wh-what does that mean?”

“There is nothing I can recall… I don’t know why any of this happened, or who those two snakes called Ouroboros are…or wh-who I am…”

As she kept speaking, Ally’s anxiety began to creep up on her again. Her voice grew quieter and quieter, and by the end of her sentence, I could barely hear her at all.

“I see, so in other words, what you are trying to tell us is that you have…amnesia?” Ringo said, nervously.

“Am…ne…sia?” I repeated.

“It means ‘to suddenly lose memories you had before,’” Ringo clarified.

“What do you mean ‘lose’? How can you just ‘lose’ memories?”

“Hm, let’s see… For example, Amitie, if you suddenly forgot about Arle or me, the cause would probably be a form of amnesia.”

“Wha?! No way! That would never just happen!” I yelled loudly. But Ringo remained calm, deep in thought with her hand at her chin.

“Exactly. It’s within expected parameters to have memories fade and to forget them. But when memories that shouldn’t be ‘forgotten’ are lost, that’s what we call ‘amnesia.’”

“Really?! But, what if you try really, really hard to remember?! The memories should come back then, right?!”

“No, in cases like these, you are usually unable to retrieve that information with just your own efforts.”

“Oh wow… Then, how do you get them back?”

This “amnesia”-thing sure sounded pretty complicated! But Ringo was smart. If anybody knew how to fix this, it had to be her!

But, with her eyebrows scrunched, Ringo shook her head at my question.

“Honestly, I have no idea how to do that… I’ve heard that one can recover the memories with the right trigger, but no one can know in advance what that trigger for anyone’s specific amnesia will be, so… Hmm… I’m stumped…”

“Oh no!”

But, but, that’s awful! The thought that I could ever just forget about Arle or Ringo made me feel so helpless, I wanted to cry! Once more, I looked over to Ally.

“I am truly, deeply sorry….”

As Ally spoke, her hopeless voice continued to shrink, smaller and smaller. Oh, Ally… Of course she was feeling shaky — anybody would in her situation! And yet, she was still worrying about our feelings.

“Ally! It’s gonna be okay!” I said, gripping her shoulders firmly with both hands.

“Huh?!”

“We’ll figure this out together!” I declared to a confused Ally. “We’ll help you remember as much as you possibly can! And until that happens, you can be our friend— No, strike that! We’re already friends, and we’ll always be friends! So don’t make that face, okay?”

“Eh. Eh?!” Ally stared me in the eyes, then looked around at Arle and Ringo’s expressions, “B-but, I wouldn’t want to be a bother…” she mumbled.

Arle shook her head. “I’m with Amitie!” she agreed with a bright smile. “I also want to help you, and I’d seriously hate it if that Ouroboros-thing kept showing up all over the place terrorizing people. You’d be doing us a favor by letting us help you put a stop to this mess! Right, Carby?”

“Gugugu~gu!”

“Yes, exactly!” Ringo chimed in next to me, nodding her head quickly and deeply, “There’s no way we’ll leave you to solve these circumstances on your own. Please rely on us as much as you need or want to!”

Ehehehehe~ I knew they’d back me up!

Ally gazed at me again. Then, in a tearful, trembling voice, she murmured, “Lady Amitie…”

…Uh.

“Ally… Uhm, can you do something about the way you call me ‘Lady Amitie’…?”

“Oh! What is the ‘something’ you’d like me to do?”

“It’s just, you really don’t need to say ‘Lovely’, like it’s a title or something! Just call me Amitie, please?”

It’d been bugging me a lot this whole time. It felt like nails down a chalkboard every time I heard her call me “Lady Amitie”!

“But! How could I address you so plainly when you have given me so much love?!”

“About that! What do you even mean by ‘love’?!”

Yeah, yeah! That’d also been bothering me. I mean, who wouldn’t be confused if someone you just met started yelling about “love” at you?

Yet Ally didn’t let up. “I mean overflowing love, like the sort that is gushing forth from my heart like a spring!!”

“Th-that’s not an aaaaaaaanswer—!”

That cozy, quiet mood we’d had going on had now turned into a loud fuss.

“Ally…sure is a lot, huh…?”

“She is, well, how to put it… A bit odd, yes.”

Arle and Ringo both gave a strained laugh.

“Is that so?! B-but I am only speaking my heart’s truth! I honestly mean every word I say!”

“I don’t think anyone here thinks you’re lying, Ally! It’s just, well, uhm—?!”

Help! Is anybody fluent in Ally-speak?!

It was weird how hard Ally was focused on this “love” thing. I just had no idea what to do with her…

“…Oh~?”

Suddenly from right behind us, a carefree voice came floating our way.

“I thought I sensed something super strange right next to Ringo’s aura over here, so I popped over for a look… Just what’s got you all like this~?”

“Huh?!” Ringo immediately spun around, then yelled at the owner of the voice. “Ecolo! Where’d you materialize from—?!”

“Heyo~ Ringo~”

A spongy black thing shaped like a person hovered in the air. The top of its head was fluffy like whipped cream and ended in a point, but its arms and legs ended in muddled shapes, so the whole thing looked like a bunch of shadows smushed together. But despite that, it had an actual face, and was talking. What a mysterious being!

“E-eco…? Excuse me, but who might you be?” Ally said, surprised.

“Uhm… That’s an acquaintance of mine. Their name is ‘Ecolo’.”

“Noble Ecolo…”

“It’s, uhm, rather hard to define what they are. But they call themself “a space-time wanderer”, or something like that…”

“A space-time wanderer…?”

“I don’t understand the details either, trust me!” Ringo said loudly. “A…anyway, what you need to know about them is that, although they possess power to the nth degree, they love mischief, and are a tad on the elusive side.” Ringo sped through the rest of the explanation, then turned to face Ecolo squarely. “E… E…cO…Lo…,” she muttered in a low voice, “Don’t tell me, that…this is another one of your… By any chance, probably, potentially, hypothetically… Were you the catalyst of all of this…?”

Ecolo’s arms and legs swayed as they laughed, “Ahahahaha! Rude, Ringo~! You’ve got it a~ll wrong! I haven’t done anything! …This time.”

Ringo gave a quick nod. “The way you said ‘this time’ suggests you are being sincere. All right. I’ll believe you.”

“Yay—!”

“You see, everyone, Ecolo is a chaos machine, but they’re not the type to lie,” Ringo nodded with her arms folded, seemingly having come to a conclusion.

I don’t really get Ecolo’s whole deal. But if Ringo says they’re honest, then I’ll trust that they’re honest too.

“Uhm, so, Ecolo? Do you know anything about what’s been going on? Like, just now, you said you felt something ‘super strange’…” I asked softly from behind Ringo.

“Hmmmm~ Nope, not really! The real question is: Why are you here~?” Ecolo said, gazing straight at Ally.

“D-do you know who I am?” Ally said in confusion.

Ecolo tilted their head to the side. Tilted, tilted…until they spun the whole way back around in the air.

Back to being right-side up, they laughed, “Who knows!”

“What do you mean by ‘who knows’… Noble Ecolo…?”

“How about you just tell me what happened earlier! Maybe then I’ll come up with something~!”

“Hm… In that case, I’ll recount. If anyone has any additions, by all means, feel free to chime in.” With that, Ringo started to explain.

We caught Ecolo up on the situation. About how the sky suddenly went dark and the white doors had appeared. How from behind them, Ally was thrown out and fell down here. About those mean Ouroboros snakes that twisted themselves around the doors. How this super powerful Ouroboros just suddenly up and ran away. How Ally had amnesia.

And how Ally was in trouble, and we wanted to help her.

Ecolo listened quietly, floating about like a little cloud in the air. When Ringo finished with a “And that’s the gist of it,” Ecolo said between several breaths, “I~ see~ I~ see~”

“Did you figure something out?” Ringo asked.

“I’ll tell you what I think I figured out, and only that~!” Ecolo said, spinning another circle in the air. And then, they began to explain. “Those white doors are probably some sort of gateway in space-time! They connect this dimension to another one. And since jumping across space-time usually makes memories go all fuzzy, I guess that’s what happened here, too. ”

“I-is that so…? You appear quite well-versed in the matter,” Ally said, deep in thought.

Ecolo gave another Ahahaha, then said, “It’s ‘cause I’ve been traveling space-time for a very long time~ Ally, looks like you were forced to cross space-time, and your memories decided to hit the road!”

“I see…” Ally’s shoulders slumped dejectedly.

“Don’t~ worry! It’ll all come back to you once you’re back in your own world! …Probably.”

“Don’t just add ‘probably’ on her like that!” I snapped back at the inappropriately cheerful Ecolo.

“But, hey, so, how are we going to get Ally back to her own world? That Ouroboros will absolutely get in our way again… What’s that thing’s deal anyway?” Arle asked.

“I’ve caught glimpses of it in a couple of other dimensions before. It just loooooves hogging all sorts of powerful stuff for itself… Twoself? Well, anyway, they call themself ‘The Demon of Sealing, Ouroboros.’ Even if you take down one head, they’ll always regenerate as long as the other one’s still kicking. They’re a really nasty piece of work~!”

“Yeah, no kidding!” I said, nodding up and down.

“That’s the whole problem here! What are we supposed to do about them?!” Arle huffed.

“To take out Ouroboros for real,” Ecolo lazily replied, “you have to beat both heads at the same time.”

“At the same time…?”

“Synchro Chains should do the trick, don'tcha think?”

“Huh…”

“Gu?!”

Arle fell silent. Carbuncle also seemed taken aback.

Ecolo did a forward flip in the sky, then, “So, anyway! Since it looks like you guys let Ouroboros hightail out of the battle, I’ll do you guys a favor and go find ‘em! Then I’ll drag them back here, so you can finish the job! Sound good?!” they brightly offered, raising both hands.

“Huh! Huh?!”

“Ahaha~ I’m so kind~ ♪ Don’tcha worry, Ringo & Co, I’m on Ouroboros-scouting duty, and you’re on Ouroboros-beating-up duty! Hooray~! That settles that~!”

“Wh— Wait a… Ecolo!”

“See ya later, Ringo~♪”

“ECOLOOOOO!”

After finishing what they had to say, and without paying any mind to our confusion or Ringo’s shouts, Ecolo bent themself into a circle, started shrinking smaller and smaller, and FWOOSH! They vanished entirely as if they had been sucked into thin air.

Gah! Why does everyone just keep showing up and disappearing like that today?!

We were left behind to stare blankly into the air in disbelief. Everyone and everything was deathly silent.

“Uhm…” The first person to open her mouth was Ally. “Uhm, so, if I understood correctly, what Noble Ecolo was trying to explain was that it is indeed possible to subdue Ouroboros, yes?” She said with hopeful eyes, glancing around at all of us.

The rest of us were still speechless. Ally, on the other hand, started smiling excitedly and put both her hands to her cheeks, her eyes sparkling.

“I am so glad! At last, we have a manner of resolving this! We only need to make two, uhm, ‘Synchro Chains’? …with those jelly-like creatures, to defeat both snakes at once, right?!”

“M-maybe so, but…”

“Is something amiss, Noble Arle?!” Ally asked, her eyes still glittering.

“Hmm…” Arle murmured, while staring up at the sky.

I totally understood Arle’s mixed feelings. Ecolo made it sound super-easy, but… Timing two chains to fire at the exact same time is a really big deal! Making a chain large enough to take out Ouroboros already wasn’t easy to begin with, but setting two of those off at the same moment? What even were the chances that we actually could pull that off…?

Arle tried to explain that to Ally, but our new friend just kept pushing, “I promise to do my best to learn… No, I promise I will learn how to properly pop Puyo and be of use in this battle! This is my problem, and I shall take responsibility for making sure it is righted!”

She sounded so determined.

“Therefore! I have faith that with our powers combined, the four of us will prevail! It will all turn out fine!”

“You sure got a lot of confidence in us, huh, Ally?” I said, a bit surprised. I hadn’t imagined that Ally, who had been so uneasy and flustered just a moment ago, would turn out to be so up front and encouraging.

“Yes! No matter what comes, as long as we have the Great Hero and as long as we have love, we shall not fail!”

“Oh… A Great Hero? Whoa, I had no idea we had someone that cool and important helping out! Wait, who are you talking about?”

“It is you, Lady Amitie! You, and no other!”

“Oh, cool! So we just gotta put our faith in Lady Amit……”

Wait, what.

“WAAAAAAAAAAAH?!”

So, there stood Ally, her eyes twinkling like a pair of pretty stars, and her arms outstretched towards me in some big, important gesture. And there stood me, screaming, because I was in total shock.

“Amitie’s a hero?”

“Guuu?”

“Wow. I never knew that about you, Amitie…”

Looks like that surprise was a bit too much for even Arle and Ringo. They just stood there, staring blankly at me.

No no no no no! This has just GOTTA be some kind of big, weird mistake!

“I don’t remember ever becoming a hero! Ally, what are you talking about?!” Totally at my wit’s end, I tried to snap Ally out of whatever weird thoughts she was having now.

But her eyes wouldn’t stop brimming with sparkles.

“I’ve been thinking… Did Ouroboros not say that they must prevent a Hero from foiling their plans to succeed in obtaining the white doors’ magical power?”

“Huh?! I… I guess they did?”

“That Hero must be you, Lady Amitie! There is no other I can think of befitting that title!”

“How’d you even get that idea?!”

“When I was in oh so much peril, you righteously stepped forward and saved me! It was an act of love! An act that only a Hero, a truly Great Hero would be capable of—!”

“E-EEEHHHH?!”

Sure, I’d wanted to help Ally. But, it wasn’t anywhere near the big deal she made it out to be! She’d needed help and had been right in front of me, so how could I have just stood by…?

But Ally ignored my doubts, and pressed on.

“Now that I know the Great Hero is among us, I am not afraid of anything anymore!”

“What if I don’t wanna be the Great Hero—?!”

Arle and Ringo watched Ally get more and more excited as I shot down all her suggestions for a bit. Eventually, they seemed to get why Ally had come to such a weird conclusion.

“H-Hey, Amitie, y’know… If believing you’re some kind of hero makes Ally feel better, then where’s the harm in that? Maybe we should let her think what she wants.”

…HEY, Arle! That’s easy to say when you’re not the one being “hero”d against your will!

“There’s something called the ‘Placebo Effect’, you know. It’s a psychological phenomenon, where being under the impression that someone or something is acting to ameliorate a dire situation actually influences a person’s body and mind in a positive manner, sometimes even to the point of healing them from illness. Amitie, could you maybe try and be that Great Hero for Ally? Just to help her out.”

Ringo—! First: I don’t even get what you’re saying, because it’s all just a soup of big words to me! Second: Nononono, I can’t! I keep saying, I just can’t!

“You guys, I’m just nothing like a Great He— And what’s all that ‘love’-stuff about anyway?! Ally keeps going ‘love’ this, ‘love’ that… What does she even mean by ‘love’?” I said, painfully confused.

Ally replied with utter confidence, “‘Love’ is the power that conquers all!” Then she declared, “No matter how dire the circumstances, under the guidance of the Great Hero’s boundless love, there is nothing to fear! Now then! Let’s all fall in love—!”

…I understood a little bit of that, but… I’m not making this up, right?! Ally’s just a total and utter weirdo!!

“With all our love combined, all our hearts beating as one, we can find the timing we need to bring about those two simultaneous ‘chains’ and claim victory… Yes, I have no doubt! We shall win!!”

“Uhm… Hello there? Excuse me?” Ringo had apparently had enough of going in circles like this. She cut right into Ally’s words. “So, about that ‘falling in love’ proposition of yours, could we, perhaps, get a bit more of a ubiquitous, concrete explanation of what you mean? That’d be much appreciated.”

“Huh?!”

“R-right!” I chimed in, “We need a you-bit-quit-us-concrete explanation!”

Ringo shook her head. “‘Ubiquitous,’ Amitie. ‘Ubiquitous’ as in something common enough for, ahem, everyone to understand.”

“Oh, I see! A-anyway, what’s your plan, Ally?!”

“Eh…!”

Ally suddenly froze, deep in thought. Uhm… A-am I in the clear now…?

“How to explain it… Right now, in the depths of my heart, there is love — a brilliant amount — and I feel like I could burst… But, putting that feeling, that power into words…might be a little too much for me to manage…” Ally shook her head a little.

“Okay then, I guess we can just leave the ‘love’ explanation for another time…” I tried to change the subject, but—

“No! That will not do!”

“Ack!”

Ally absolutely refused to back down.

“Yes, it is true, that this has all been sudden, and that I have no way of explaining right now, but… But! I believe from the bottom of my soul that the power we need to drive out Ouroboros is none other than love! So, let us fall in love, I beg of you all! There is a voice deep inside my very heart telling me that this is what we must do!”

……So, Ally has no memories, right? I guess it makes sense that she couldn’t put what she’s thinking into words right then. But maybe there’s a reason she’s so focused on “love”? Maybe what we need to beat Ouroboros really is the “love” she’s talking about…?

Arle and Carbuncle exchanged looks.

“I don’t think I really get it, but…”

“Gugu…”

“Yeah, Carby’s right. How about we go and look for this love? Love…kinda sounds like it’ll be embarrassing, but it looks like it’s our only lead right now.”

“Gugu, gugugugu!”

Ringo nodded.

“Yes… Given the degree to which Ally keeps insisting on this, there is a high probability that there is actually something to it. And we don’t exactly have any other, better ideas right now. So, at least until we come up with something else, we should probably follow this vector. At least, that’s how I feel about it.”

…It’s not like I didn’t know what the word “love” means at all. Love is when you like somebody or something a whole bunch! Even I understand that much. But I’ve never thought too deeply about what else it could mean. Hm… Maybe Ally was starting to rub off on me a little. Now it was all over my mind too…

“Alrighty then! Ally. Let’s go and find a way to fall in love, okay?” I cheered.

When I finished talking, Ally immediately lifted her head and beamed brightly at me. Okay, so, she might be a little weird, but she’s also very sincere and honest. I was sure my first instinct, the one that told me that she’s a good person at heart, wasn’t wrong. I felt even surer of it now that I was watching her changing expressions.

“Ah! Wait, Ally. Can you do something for me first?”

There was one thing I needed to set straight before we got going.

“Yes! What is it, Lady Amitie?”

“Y-yeah, exactly. That. Please, please, please cut the titles already? Like, not just for me. I promise you, everyone here’d feel a lot better without all that stuffy formal stuff.”

Arle and Ringo nodded in agreement, the strained smiles on their faces looking just like mine.

← A Mysterious Entry!	Amitie and the Girl of Love Translated by: Precise Museum	What's "Love"? →