Hearing Tike's question, the blond woman immediately rolled her eyes cutely.
"Erza, I told you, this requip of yours is useless at all!"
"Lucy! Don't call me by that name in front of him!" 'Erza' hurriedly covered the bunny girl's mouth with her hand. "We are in another spacetime right now! If people in this spacetime learn our true identities, it will cause huge chaos! Do you understand?!"
"I know!"
The bunny girl named Lucy muttered and climbed out of the wooden barrel with 'Erza.'
The two dusted themselves off awkwardly and looked together at Tike, who had a confused face, trying to squeeze out somewhat natural smiles.
"Little brother, you mistook us for someone else. I'm not some Erza; we are just... just new wizards of Fairy Tail! Yes! New wizards!"
"Right, right, right! We are new here!"
Lucy hurriedly chimed in. To divert Tike's attention, she pulled at her slightly revealing outfit, trying to strike a pose she thought was cute and charming, winking at the little boy in front of her, attempting to muddle through with cuteness.
"..."
Looking at the two women whose acting skills were even clumsier than Lucia's, Tike tilted his head.
"Big Sis Erza, are you playing a game of pretending to be strangers?"
"As expected, it doesn't work!"
Lucy covered her forehead exaggeratedly, letting out a wail to the sky.
'Erza' kneeled directly on the ground, supporting herself with both hands, looking dejected.
"Why did we have to run into Tike, who has the keenest nose? This is really troublesome!"
Just as she was worrying about how to muddle through, a crisp call suddenly came from outside the tent.
"Tike? What are you doing in there?"
With the voice, a scarlet figure burst into the tent.
When she saw the two strange women in weird costumes inside the tent, the expression on her face instantly became as peculiar as Tike's just now.
"Bunny girl... and cat girl... what strange people," Erza muttered softly.
Tike was completely stunned, his mind in chaos.
(What's the situation? Judging by the scent, both of these people are Big Sis Erza? And it's not that seemingly similar but different scent from Edolas, but completely identical scents?!)
"Big Sis Erza, when did you learn Clone Magic?"
Tike blurted out subconsciously, but as soon as the words left his mouth, he immediately realized this answer wasn't correct.
Sure enough, regarding the question Tike raised, Erza appeared completely baffled.
"What Clone Magic? What are you talking about? I've never learned that kind of magic."
"Not Clone Magic either..."
After ruling out another wrong option, Tike sorted out the information before him again. Immediately after, another flash of inspiration struck, and he looked at the adult 'Erza' present with sharp eyes.
"You said it just now; you come from another spacetime!"
The boy pushed the non-existent glasses on the bridge of his nose slightly, assumed the classic pose of a famous detective from a manga, extended his index finger, and pointed at 'Erza.'
"There is only one truth! You and that Big Sis named Lucy are from un..."
"We traveled here from the future."
A hearty voice suddenly rang out, stating his deduction result before Tike.
"Who stole my line!"
Tike turned his head discontentedly, only to see Erza had already lost consciousness and fallen limply into the arms of a boy wearing a black trench coat.
That boy had a scent identical to his.
"You are..."
"I am the future you."
The corners of the black-clothed boy's mouth hooked up slightly as he admitted his identity.
"Tike! Is this something you can say?!"
"It doesn't matter; it's fine to tell 'me.' I still remember what happened at this time, although the specific details have blurred. But it's enough to show that everything happening now is part of the established history."
Future Tike handed the unconscious Erza in his arms to the anxious-looking Future Erza, then turned to explain to Tike.
"Don't worry, I just put her to sleep. The fewer people know about this, the better, so as not to cause too much chaos and impact on the course of history. Hmm... the 'future' 'me' told me the same back then, probably like this."
Tike frowned, his gaze scanning back and forth among the few people, finally fixing on his future self.
"So, you guys came from the future specifically?"
"Although I did have this idea, this time was truly an accident." Future Tike spread his hands, revealing a helpless expression. "As for how we came... it's related to this book."
Saying this, Future Tike took out a diary from his trench coat pocket and pointed to the title on it—Memory of Days Past.
"A very special magic was cast on this book. Anyone who opens it will be immediately sent to the time point they first recalled in their mind when opening this book and will stay there for eight hours."
"The time point first recalled in mind..." Tike repeated the keywords in Future Tike's words. "The reason you came here is that you opened this book and happened to recall the current events when opening it?"
Future Tike nodded slightly, affirming Tike's guess.
"Yeah, we accidentally opened this book while cleaning the guild library. Clearly, I had opened it alone many times before, but only this time did the magic activate. I guess some special condition I haven't understood yet needs to be met to trigger it."
"Opened many times... meaning you planned to come back long ago?"
"That's right."
Future Tike looked down at the diary in his hand, his eyes becoming gentler.
"Mom was so seriously injured at this time. I always thought if I could cure her injuries sooner, she wouldn't have to endure so much pain. You think so too, right?"
"Mm!"
Tike nodded vigorously, becoming somewhat emotional.
"So, has your Healing Magic improved to the level sufficient to cure Mom?"
"No." Future Tike shook his head. "After all, it's the wound caused by that Acnologia. The magic power he left on the wound is very domineering, severely affecting the effect of Healing Magic, making healing exceptionally difficult."
"Then let's go together; I'll support you?" Tike proposed, eager to do his part in treating his mother.
"No, you and I are essentially the same person. The effect of Magia Booster cannot work on someone with the same magic power."
"How do you know without trying!" Tike was somewhat unwilling, staring tightly at his future self, trying to persuade him.
"No need to try either. I said it very clearly; 'one person' won't work." Future Tike smiled, his tone becoming relaxed. "The moment I realized Time Magic activated, I decisively pulled Wendy along too."