The Volanten River flowed ever so gracefully, for a place in Standart, the city of the ordinary.
Nate stood atop one of the hills overlooking the river below. High enough to see the sun shine through the reflection of the water, the image was clear as a mirror.
Aliana, Brandin, Nate, Cloey, and Manson stared beyond the river's left and right sides. Nate in particular pondered where the ball would flow to.
"Guys, I'm pretty sure that I saw the soccer ball here," Cloey claimed.
"Man, this stinks," Nate heard Brandin complain. "And to think that I actually came here to do this stupid search for some dumb ball."
"Dumb ball?! It's obviously more than that!"
Aliana came down, stomping her feet in frustration over the repeated complaints from Brandin.
As always, Nate is sometimes amused by Aliana's tendency to vent her frustrations on Brandon while treating others with kindness and patience. It reminded him of a memory from far back when they were all together at their old elementary school. Quad Four was just basically himself, Manson, Cloey, and Sam. Aliana and the others would soon become acquainted with them after many classes together throughout the grade escalation.
When Aliana was young, she was extremely energetic in every way possible, and that aspect of herself could apparently rub off on others. No wonder that's how she was able to convince others to do something that they wouldn't want to do in the first place.
"That ball accomplished more things than you ever did in your life! I've held on to it for basically all my life, when it was given to me by my brother."
Cloey attempted to mediate between the two, while Manson tried his best to hold on to Aliana before she could pound Brandin into a pulp.
Cloey held her hands up. "Guys, we need to focus on the objective at hand. Aliana's soccer ball is the thing we must have absolute focus on if we are going to find it."
"Aliana, calm down! If we have to help find your ball, then let us find it before it gets really lost," Manson said urgently.
Nate thought that Manson really wanted to spend his own time alone in his house with his own specific hobbies, and that made him more determined to find the ball now that the job was forced upon him.
He was really trying to make Aliana focus on finding her ball rather than on unnecessary things like bothering herself with the antics from Brandin.
"Manson, let go of me!" Aliana argued as she tried to get out of his way to reach Brandin. Nate wanted to help out with restraining her, but reminded himself that it's best not to try to physically get involved with Aliana too much, or else he might get hurt in the process.
"Don't you remember the plan you told me about before? The way for us to efficiently help out when we arrive, right?" Cloey pleaded, noticeably distancing herself from her.
Aliana finally calmed down after the urging of both Manson and Cloey.
"Oh... right. I did lose myself right there, right? Well, I'm not angry anymore — let's just go find my ball and hope for the best."
She then turned towards Brandin with a controlled glare, like she was trying to control him with her eyes.
"...But I'm not done with you yet, Brandin. We'll finish this later when we all try our hardest to search for my soccer ball."
"Yeah, like, can we go actually do that now?" Manson said with an impatient tone.
To be honest, it is exhausting having to stop every once in a while for Aliana and Brandin to argue with each other, which even Aliana noticed.
"Alright then, we're going to really try to plan out for the search this time," Aliana announced as she grabbed onto her jacket tightly to show some type of way to present herself as someone with resolve.
"Brandin and I will have a close eye on each other. Manson, Cloey, and Nate — you three will form your own group and head down the bridge next to Vivid Forest, and try not to get lost since the path there isn't all that certain somewhere there."
"Yeah, yeah..." Manson had sighed. "It's not like we're kids or anything. We're practically the same age, you know."
"Whoa, wait, hold on a second!"
Brandin pushed through to enter the conversation.
"Why don't I go with Cloey and Manson? Why do I have to be stuck with her?"
He points towards Aliana, causing her to glare at him once again, with Brandin cautiously stepping back.
"Because Brandin..." Cloey spoke softly as she put her hand over his shoulder. "Don't think of this as a punishment; think of this like a bonding exercise for everyone to partake in. It's like to deepen our friendship, but so much deeper that you could actually cry."
"Uh, weird thing to say, but I guess the thought counts, right?" Manson said.
Nate Elfirm cleared his throat, with something he had to say for the whole group to understand.
"I believe that we have ourselves an understanding of what our plan is, and possibly an understanding of each other... I think."
"You said it, Nate, we got this in the bag, guys!" Aliana blurted out while hugging both Cloey and Manson tightly, with the former chuckling out loud while the latter tried to escape his perceived chokehold.
Glad that we're finally getting to a start. I was wondering when we were gonna start this search for the soccer ball.
Nate could only smile internally at his friends talking amongst each other. But it was disheartening to know that Sam and Sheila were not there with them. Sam said to be on a break after a game of baseball, while Sheila went to deal with her own things in her private life. Maybe both of them shouldn't be present, as they potentially make the situation more chaotic than usual.
But yet the feelings of anxiety crept towards his back. Nate felt that the incident at Vivid Forest was something not to ignore, and that his group was going to investigate the river near the forest's border, which might be potentially dangerous.
Maybe it won't be like that, not that anything dangerous has happened in this city for years now.
Nate and the group all said good luck to each other and went on their separate ways, with the search for the missing soccer ball.
The day went by as usual, with just the odd case of a very few people walking by the riverside. It's understandable, given that a recent construction project, which was finished just months ago, included an alternate sidewalk route for easier access next to the river.
As such, it is the perfect way for one individual to take advantage of those who are unlucky enough to fall for a tactic of theft.
Such is the thief who attempts to steal. An act of thievery committed against a man with a pocket lined with a wallet full of cash.
The thief rushed towards the man. Fast enough for the man not to notice his wallet was swiped before he even knew it. The thief cackled to himself as he counted the amount in the wallet.
"Looks like I got a good haul this time. Man, getting some money here in the Volanten River somehow gets easier every day."
The thief walked over to the other side of the path just to make sure the man wouldn't notice him. The thief would've walked away with an addition to his worth if he hadn't bumped into two individuals with uniforms who were in his way.
The thief stumbled from the impact and stood nervously at the sight of two cops looking down on him.
The officer with the cap over his bald head lifts the thief by grabbing his collar, his face close to his as they continue to stare at each other, with the thief not even daring to speak out of place.
The officer with the cap finally spoke.
"The name's Officer Grudge. Are you the guy who's been recently pickpocketing people around here? If so, then I wonder why we didn't catch you earlier, cuz you just stole that guy's wallet right in front of us."
"Honestly, though, what were you even thinking?" said the other officer with the blonde hair under his police cap. "You could at least try to make an effort not to get caught."
"This here's my trusty partner," Grudge offhandedly mentioned. "Officer Cris Bluefield. He always reins me back whenever I try to do something unnecessarily serious, and that would be bad for both of us if I did do something unnecessarily serious, wouldn't it?"
The thief's breath appeared shallow as the officer tightened his grip around his shirt collar. It was as though the mere presence of any kind of authority made him instantly submit himself to the ground.
The thief attempted to barely form words himself.
"P-please, don't hurt me. I don't want to get into trouble..."
Grudge narrowed his eyes, his eyes black as coal, staring into the thief's eye with such precision.
"Hey, thief, what's your name?" The officer said, with not even a change in his expression as he asked the question."
"It-it's Phil... Phil Rackings..."
"Listen here, Phil. The thing with stealing is that it eventually leads to conflict. It's kinda similar to the idea of physical fighting, you know, with how one person started the fight, causing the other person to fight back. Now then, who do you think is exactly in the wrong in that situation? For me, it's basically everyone present at the fight. It doesn't matter whether you're the perpetrator or just a bystander; the very idea of conflict itself happening is shared equally with everyone."
The thief was wide-eyed, trying to process what he was trying to explain to him. Bluefield remained neutral with his eyes glued to the skies above, the thief not knowing if he heard his partner's speech of conflict.
"Some might say that this means of thinking is flawed, and I can see why. So for today, I'll give you a chance... Phil," Grudge murmured with his mouth right next to the thief's ear, as to make sure he would be able to hear everything he said.
"Give up your way of thievery and walk on the path to normalcy. It's what this city's all about, then I'll forget what happened here, and nothing unnecessarily serious will happen, you got that, Phil?"
The thief nodded in fear, without even uttering a syllable, fearing that the police officer would change his mind.
Officer Bluefield suddenly stopped gazing endlessly towards the sky and turned to Grudge. "Hey, Grudge. Are you done, pal, because we need to go to the station at this point in the day?"
"Yeah, yeah, just one more thing to get the point to Phil here."
Already grasping Phil's shirt collar, Grudge spun him around as he shouted in fear, before launching the thief into the Volanten River. A large splash formed as Phil entered the water.
"Come on, Grudge, don't you ever give these guys a little break. I mean, it was funny seeing him in the air, but we're not sworn police officers just to play around," Bluefield stated to Grudge.
"It was just something for him to remember after I gave that speech to him."
The two officers walked away. Chatting to one another as if they hadn't even met Phil by the river. And then they were finally gone.
A few bubbles floated from the surface, where Phil gasped for air as he emerged from the water, coughing while trying to swim to the Volanten River's side.
"Those corrupt police officers! What is their deal with them!? I can't believe it!"
Just as he reached for a physical surface to grab onto. A piece of rope suddenly appeared around his arm, and more ropes came out of the water, pulling down Phil as he thrashed in the water, panic-stricken, trying to swim upwards to avoid drowning.
"Crap! Wh-what is pulling me! I need to get out. Let me go! LET ME G-"
Phil couldn't even finish his sentence before descending into the water to meet whatever it pulled him down there.
Moments after Phil got pulled down in the depths of the Volanten River, a group of people walked by the side of the river, nearly close to the water. Nate Elfirm and his friends came by, searching through every area in the river as they possibly could.
The wind flowed through the air as the water currents pushed through with considerable strength. Nate could only think about how it is the ideal spot for one to sit down. Just for his group of friends to relax, talking about how their day was and what awaits them in the future.
Before Nate could reminisce more, the sudden gasp next to him caused him to snap back into the present, where Cloey covered her mouth in shock over what she had seen on the surface of the river.
An old, brown shoe floats along the currents of the river.
"I remember that shoe..." Cloey softly let out. "It's from that guy we passed by a few minutes ago — it's really the same shoe as his."
"Cloey, what's the matter — what's gotten into you all of a sudden?"
Manson stepped forward, trying to piece together exactly what Cloey said.
"Don't tell me we have to go in the water? I'm really not in the mood to go swimming in the autumn. Like, what if the water's cold, and we could get sick and all that?"
"N-no, maybe I'm just being a bit worried, but I feel like something happened here. If this guy's shoe is just here, maybe an accident happened here before we arrived."
Nate grimaced at the thought of an accident recently happened in the river. "Don't think so morbidly like that. Cloey, I'm sure that just some other shoe, and that there is probably nothing serious that happened here.
"..."
Cloey stared deeply into the shoe before turning away with uncertainty in her motions.
"Maybe, it's just some shoe after all," Cloey murmured faintly, which Nate had heard.
"Well, let's go then, we don't have time to waste around here."
Manson turned towards the right of the river and directly pointed at the bridge. The only connection between the two sides of the Volanten River, a rickety old wooden bridge whose rocky foundation withered away with the flow of time.
"Aliana and Brandin decided that they should stick together and search the part of the river near the city, and we are searching in this part of the river near Vivid Forest. We all decided to meet up at that bridge, whether or not we find the soccer ball, you got that."
Nate nodded to his explanation of their plan. It's quite simple to follow, really. Cloey could only look into the shallow waters before agreeing.
"Then it's settled. I'll go ahead, Nate, while you stay with her here. We need to cover as much area as possible before we run out of time," Manson stated.
Manson departed from the two of them and went to the other side of the bridge and further back. Nate thought to himself that he could tell Cloey about the mysterious green crystals he found at Vivid Forest, and possibly help her regain her memories of the past event.