Anny looked around a bit as she flew up on the floating mirror. The things on the ground kept getting smaller and smaller, and she passed through more and more clouds. If she were to fall from that height, she would likely not survive. However, despite the danger and her hesitation minutes before, she was pretty relaxed.
“Wow… This is so fun, actually,” she thought. “Is this why Clare asks me to lift her up like this all the time?”
She continued going up, until she saw a big cloud formation. She passed through it and saw a couple pillars near the clouds, as well as some white floor. “Here we go, Bubbly Clouds,” she thought, recognizing the location.
Anny jumped from her mirror and made it disappear. She started walking forward and looked around but found no one nearby. Even though it was nighttime, due to its proximity to the atmosphere, Bubbly Clouds was pretty bright thanks to the moonlight, so she could see her surroundings clearly; as such, seeing nobody around, she figured that nobody was indeed around.
Disappointed, she thought, “Ugh… I came all the way here and it looks like it’s empty?”
But as she thought that, she heard something:
“There you are!”
Anny recognized that voice: it was the one that called her there, but it sounded much clearer. She looked towards where it came from, and finally found its source: a purple round creature with a pink and cyan jester hat, wearing a golden necklace, with two odd-looking wings, shaped like claws, with glowing floating hexagonal crystals that kept shifting colors.
Upon seeing that jester, Anny got a bit scared. Staring at him, she said, “Who… What the heck? What ARE you…”
“Oh, me?” the jester started saying. “I am…”
“Wait… Why do I feel I’ve seen you before?”
Anny put her hands on her head. Even though seconds before she felt like she had never seen that jester before, now he looked familiar to her somehow, but vaguely. She was trying to remember where she had seen him before.
“Ugh… I can’t seem to remember why you look familiar…”
“Oh, you remember me now?” The jester’s face turned into a thoughtful one. “Interesting… It’s like Panee suggested…”
“Panee?!” Anny said in shock, hearing that name. “Wait… are you his boss?!”
The jester looked at Anny with a smile. “Correct! My name is—”
“Bye!”
Having learned that he was Panee’s boss, Anny felt that was a trap, and just started running away. Seeing her do that, disappointed, the jester aimed at Anny and shot some arrows in her direction. She got hit by some of them and fell down, albeit not hurt much.
As Anny recovered, the jester got close to her and said, “I’m Marx, Anny! Don’t you remember that I’m basically your father?”
Getting up, Anny heard that, and felt like a memory she had forgotten for a long time had been suddenly brought back. She remembered she knew who Marx was, and saw some quick flashbacks of some event she experienced with him, but she couldn’t truly visualize any details. Scared and surprised, she simply froze, trying to understand what was going on.
Noticing Anny’s reaction, Marx said, “Interesting! So you are remembering now…”
“Remembering what?” Anny asked, still super confused.
“The most important moment of your life!” Marx casually said.
“…What?” Anny could not believe it. “That can’t be!”
“Well, what is your earliest memory?” Marx challenged her.
“Huh…” Anny started to think, and then remembered, “Waking up in Bubbly Clouds, but not exactly here…”
“And when was that?”
“Huh…” Anny stopped to think again, then said, “Around a year ago I think?”
“And how old are you?”
“Huh…” Once again Anny stopped to think, but this time she just said, “Good question…”
“You don’t know your age?!” Marx asked, surprised by Anny’s obliviousness.
“I just never thought about it…” Anny honestly said.
Ignoring the strange answers, Marx continued, “Regardless, think about it: are you one year old?”
“Huh?” Anny found the question odd. “Of course not! That wouldn’t make sense…”
“Then why does your memory only go back one year?!” Marx asked.
“…Huh.”
Indeed, Anny didn’t know the answer to that. In fact, she had never really thought about that: all this time she had just lived her life, not caring about her past. But Marx’s questions, in particular his last one, made her think about it, and she decided to try to piece everything they had just discussed together. After thinking about it all for a couple seconds, she seemed to have finally understood what Marx was trying to indirectly tell her.
“So…” she started saying. “There is stuff from more than one year ago in my life that I just… Don’t remember?”
“Yes!” Marx said, happy to see Anny had finally understood. “And I can help you remember that.”
“You can?!” Anny said, surprised.
Marx smiled. “Yep! I know a lot about you… And you know, it looks like you already experienced some of that recovery firsthand.”
“Oh, so that’s why… that’s why I remembered some stuff?” Anny asked, thoughtful.
Marx nodded. “Yup! And the more I tell and show you, the more you remember.”
Anny wasn’t really sure what was going on, but it sounded convincing. Moreover, he was right that it was odd that she couldn’t remember anything before a year ago, and she wanted to remember. However, deep inside, she was worried, since not only did that whole story sound fishy, Marx confirmed he was Panee’s boss, so he was likely related to his whole capture scheme earlier that day. Even so, Anny figured that listening to Marx’s story wouldn’t do any harm, and she was ready for the worst just in case, so she just decided to let Marx continue talking.
“Alright,” she said, “I’m up. Tell me everything you know about me.”
“Oh, great!” Marx said, happy with that answer. “So let’s start from the start!”
20 Times Kirby! 