Author Notes:
This fan fiction is a take on what I view that the series has taken a turn into, but should not really be taken literally. The views and the meaning of this fanfic may be different to one another, but that’s fine too. That is all I wish to really point out. Also this fic may seem slow and a bit rushed at parts, and for that I apologize.

Disclaimer: I do not own Tottoko Hamutarou, nor any of its characters. They are copyrighted to Ritsuko Kawai.

This fic also contains a few themes from the Monster Rancher/Monster Farm series. I also do not own those themes, and they are copyrighted to Tecmo. This fic isn’t really a crossover however.

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They say that The World was once a tranquil place, a highly inhabitable place, and a safe one… They say that it was here where many a grand adventure may have taken place, and where dreams and wishes came true. There was no suffering or bad will, for there merely only existed the wholesome peacefulness and of utmost respect for everyone and everything. They say that in The World, everyone who lived here was happy and healthy along with their land. They say this era of serenity had lasted for almost forever, and that there would never come a time when people would speak with disrespect or ever do any sort of bad deeds on one another…

Today, that is just a legend. A myth long gone by. Now it is almost hard to believe.

Now The World was the complete opposite of that. It was a barren wasteland where no man dared to live. The trees and grass told in legend ceased to exist and were replaced by great chasms, harsh deserts, erupting mountains, and seas that roared with tremendous force. Very few animals lived here, and many of them were poisonous snakes and starving vultures who would swoop down immediately whenever they saw their prey, and every time they ate the fresh corpses of those recently passed away, and would peck away at their flesh and drink their blood in a frenzy. Then they would noisily fly away to find more food, still not satisfied with their latest meal. We have seen many skeletons laying around, dented with heavy beak pecks, during our dangerous travels. As for plant life, I have only ever seen one or two cactuses here, somewhere in the huge World.

And yet no matter how dangerous this place is, The World, it is still home to many treasures. When there used to be a larger civilization here, the people of yore had many goods. Some were valuable, like jewels and golden coins. Others were tawdry, such as clothes that have turned into decaying rags, or spices that have gone stale. And yet, these all had some value of some kind. When you live in The World or along its just as poor boundaries, people have to use what they’ve got just to survive. Nothing can grow here, and traveling to other parts of the land would just be a waste of time, for we do not know where the other worlds are, nor do we know if the people out there prosper or not… No, we just take anything we can find, and sell it for some little money and spend it wisely. However, many people are still overcome with the thoughts of greed. Those who venture out here with the intention of looking for gold, best be wary. Many other people came here too to look for treasure, and many of them were bandits waiting in the shadows, waiting for their right moment to attack and kill people, just to steal their goods.  No, our life here was not a good nor safe one, but it was all that we had…

And just who are we? Our names did not matter in this cruel world of injustice, poverty and avarice.  We are just a few of the many in The World; we are just two lowly travelers, also looking for goods to satisfy our need to survive. No one called us by anything, and we called ourselves nothing. It was just the way we were meant to live. But names were never important in The World, only the will to survive mattered. Everyday, we would wake up in our little, wooden shack and dress up in long robes to protect us from the common sandstorms. And then we would head out to find things to sell, we would both brave the great dangers that constantly awaited us. My friend and I.

We were crossing the great desert today, dressed in our usual long rags that rapidly flowed in the wind as they always did. A harsh sandstorm was blowing against us not too long ago, hindering our progress and covering our tracks as soon as they were made. No footprints could dare to exist more than at least two minutes out here, and thus no one should rely on footprints alone whenever they wanted to backtrack, that would just be foolish. You need a very good sense of direction when in The World. Many an inexperienced traveler has gotten lost here, only to die at the end. But we have done this since we were just children, we knew how to survive the hardships here…

It was now dusk and even thought the howling winds have stopped for now, we could still not see the stars and moon in the mocking sky. Every time we set out into The World, we would travel for the most of the day and return home by sunset. Now it was passed our curfew, but we cared little for that, for we had a certain destination on our minds, and we had no intention of stopping.  I was leading the way, my old body limped with every step and I was forced to use a walking stick to aid me. Indeed, I would be an easy target for bandits to attack. My friend who was silently following me was luckier, he was not wounded but he was constantly sick with illness. Even if we did have enough money to buy medicine, it wouldn’t matter, for medicine and doctors do not exist out here in our home, The World.

But we were not the ‘only ones traveling’.

Strapped onto my heavy back, was a large, brown disk. It was made of stone and was far too hefty for words to describe, but I had still managed to carry it, even with my limp. This kind of disk was rare in The World, but everyone knows about what kind of object it was. Myths say that in these strange disks, contains spirits in slumber. The disks could be found in all sorts of strange places, but were always well hidden. No one was sure where these disks had come from, but many said that the disks may have originated during the point of time when ‘the peaceful World turned into this harsh climate of despair’. I however, do not believe in the legend that ‘The World was once a safe and friendly environment’, I only know of its great dangers and depression, and believe that it has always been this way. Although, I do believe that the disks do contain spirits…

…For I have unlocked them before.

Somewhere in The World, existed a great stone shrine. Just like the disks, no one knew where it had came from or when it had appeared, but it existed and that was all that mattered. Inside this shrine, one would find a vast, bare space within it, and it would have a circular indent that showed where to place one of these disks. Then one would go to the altar and would be able to ‘open’ the disks, thus freeing and reviving the spirits within. This shrine was well known to the experienced travelers, but it has only ever been used a very few times since its discovery, for these mystical disks were exceptionally rare. Those who managed to find even one were very lucky indeed. As for us, I suppose we are remarkably lucky, for we have found two disks before in our lives. But when we had gone to revive those disks, they had both only revealed the remains of someone dead. This has happened before to other people too. But if you do unlock something more worthwhile, people can supposedly sell it for a large sum of money. We could really use that money ourselves…

But there were other kinds of disks too. For some reason, whenever the corpse or skeleton of someone was left undisturbed for quite awhile, it will turn into a disk itself. However that disk will be surrounded with indestructible vines that can never be snapped off. As such, those disks are duds and can never be opened. On our travels, we have seen thousands of those kinds of disks, more than the skeletons that lay on the sandy ground. Even now, we were passing by two of those kinds of disks. But we ignored them and continued on, going to that very shrine to open this disk that I carried on my back.

Where had we found this disk? In the noon, we had stumbled upon a long tunnel underground by accident. It looked like it was left undisturbed for centuries, and we had both decided to go under where it had led us to a great burrow. But it was not just any kind of burrow, for it was strangely furnished, yet clearly abandoned ages ago. It appeared to have once been covered with soft carpeting, and its walls looked like they had once been painted. There was rubble of dirt everywhere, but we could make out what appeared to be overturned chairs and a broken round table in the darkness. My friend could even see what seemed to be a slide. But underneath all of that trash and debris, was the very disk that I was carrying on our back. We had found it in the noon and had immediately set out for the shrine. To think it was now dusk, we had certainly been traveling for an awful long time just to get to the shine. Our journey tonight may seem pointless, but our lives were always threatened every day, so we may as well make the most of it…

That’s where we were now, still traveling to that faraway shrine. But we were getting very close to the shrine, that I knew. I could even see it from over the horizon, we were almost close. I looked over to my friend, who was starting to look more tired than I, he was even panting. But that didn’t surprise me, for he was still ill and it was getting worse everyday. Our heads and drained faces were both thickly covered in our ragged robes like a mask, but I could still see his fatigued and sickened eyes beyond them. I wondered how much longer he would live, and he was the only friend I could trust in this horrible world. But if he were to die, well, that’s just life… 

We were now passing in-between many large stones, obtuse in size. My friend was beginning to cough more loudly and groan, but we could not help but ignore it and push on. Even my friend would not want me to stop for anything, he would not have that, and I couldn’t agree with him more. No matter the circumstances in life, we must always continue until our very last breath…

But then suddenly, I had stopped in my tracks. A strange feeling of insecurity had overcome me and my senses; something was not at ease at all. My ears began to twitch and my nose sniffed the sandy air in alarm as my friend came up to me. He did not look the least bit worried, which also didn’t surprise me; people who are sick cannot sense things as well as a healthier person can. It was not clear why, but it was a well known fact.

“Chi dah? Moh dadee sah?” My friend spoke to me in his language. In The World, only one or two languages are ever spoken. My friend’s language was the most common, however I was one of the very few who also knew English. My friend had asked me, ‘My friend? What is the matter?’

“RAAAGH!!” A cloaked rodent from behind a rock closest to us had screamed.

He had jumped out from behind the stone, carrying a gigantic club in his right paw. In a rage, he had quickly rose it into the air to strike down upon us, his victims. My friend had turned around to face the alarming man, but it was too late. His club had came crashing down in that very split second, and had smashed against my friend’s head, and a cracking sound could be heard as my friend’s body was forced straight into the sand below. He had not seen it coming…

I did not move, did not flinch. One might be shocked and speechless at such a brutal attack. But no, this was not the first time that I have seen an attack like this. In this terrible World where murders, attacks and robberies are common, one must always expect this sort of thing. Expect the unexpected. As such, these events do not scare me. No, not even this fateful attack against my friend had startled me… I just watched on with my dull eyes, both at my friend and the bandit.

The thief was skittishly searching my friend’s body and clothes, checking every pocket and packets that were tied around his belt. He cussed several times in anger and deep frustration.

“There’s nothing on ‘em…” He spat in disgust.

He then looked up and noticed that I was quietly watching him, and he give me a look that spoke of ‘what are you looking at?’ mixed with death threats. Apparently he had not seen the disk that I was carrying on my back, nor of anything that looked like as of worth him and his greedy thoughts. He growled angrily back at me, but had then noticed something approaching from the distance, another sandstorm was brewing. Swiftly the bandit proceeded to rip off some of the raggy robes from my friend’s body, wet with blood that was oozing out of his head wound, his ears, eyes, nose and mouth. The attacker had then ran off in a hurry into the great unknown, trying to escape the fast approaching sandstorm.

I looked down at my friend, obviously dead. Perhaps it was better that he were to die a quick death than a slow, painful death that illness was. Still, it disappointed me that he was to die, and yet it was bound to happen. They say that when one died, they would go off into a beautiful and serene afterlife, one without danger, sickness and sorrow. That is also hard to believe, but like ‘the legend of The World when it was wholesome‘, it was tradition to also believe in this afterlife…

I held my paws together and closed my eyes, facing the body of my friend that I’ve had since our treacherous childhood.

“Rauto lam sah, twohhap dee doh… chi dah,” I prayed in the language of the inhabitants of The World. It was a common thing to say when one close to you was to pass on. It meant, ‘Into the celestial plains, be free and nourished… my friend.’

By the time my prayer of hope that he will rest in peace in the afterlife had ended, the sandstorm had came in, sending grains of sand to scratch painfully across my face. It was blowing against me from the north, which was also where the shrine was located. With my paw clutched tightly around my hiking stick, I limped off towards the north. There was no time for mourning, no time for grieving, for my time may come soon one day as well… Countless people will die everyday in The World, it was a fact of life and something that everyone had to accept, even if death had took the life of the only person in The World you could depend on. And as I pushed on, determined to get where I wanted without hesitation, I could hear the loud squawks and heavy wing beats of vultures flying high above me, flying down to my friend’s body to feast on him…

…

O’ cruel World of despair. O’ cruel World of greed. O’ cruel World of the devil. Wherein be our stronghold?  Wherein be our hope? Wherein be our liberty?…

Many miles had passed, and all I could think of was that saying. To think, this World so harsh and cruel to its inhabitants, and yet we still create many cultures for it, many of which spoke of sadness. It was strange, to me at least. Inventing such follies and passing them to generation and generation, what purpose would that bring? Yet it was part of tradition, and my parents would always remind me of it. That was long ago, when I was just a child. Then they had passed away when I was still at a young age, and in their memory I had remembered all of their sayings, hymns and stories.  Then shortly after, I had met my friend and we lived together. He too was alone when he was but a child. But now I am all alone, but it was up to fate that one of us was to be alone one day in life. But lone or not, I will push on to survive.

Then at last, at the edge of the desert out in the endless nowhere, was the disk shrine that was known to so many but used so little. The shrine was vast, but not very tall. It was adorned with strange statues and pillars surrounding it, many of them destroyed and crumbled away. However a few of the statues, especially those aligning the stone steps that led to the entrance, were still intact and took the appearance of angelic and demonic hamsters, all singing a glorious hymn. Yet their fading expressions still looked just as depressed as The World around them. The statues all led up to the great wooden gates of the shrine’s entrance, engraved with the cravings of fossils and lizards. Such carvings were also seen on the revivable disks, including the one on my back. I wondered how long it had been since my friend and I had last been here. We were both going on age, or at least I was now, and the last disk we had found was when we were teenaged. Now we had found our third, and yet, only I would be able to see the results. The sandstorm was still blowing violently, and I decided to wait no longer. I climbed up the large steps towards the towering, wooden gates. They took a lot of strength to open, and were especially hard with my limp and the extra weight on my back but after some time, both gates had slowly swung open and squeaked loudly. I limped inside and turned to close the gates behind me. They creaked again and closed with a loud bang, which echoed throughout the interior of the shrine…

I slowly turned around to face the shine. It was large and still with empowering silence, just as I had remembered it to be. The shrine was always kept clean and for some reason, it was constantly illuminated with candles and torches lit with green flames. These flames, candles and torches almost seemed everlasting. They would never extinguish, would never melt away and will never burn away. These flames, along with the shrine and the disks, were not of this world almost, and yet they were. But many did not care to try to explain this phenomenon, for no one cared about learning anymore in this age of dread. As such, I cared little for knowledge too unless it was sensible.  Knowing how to survive in The World was one thing, but discovering why and how things worked had no purpose these days. Still, the shrine was always being lit by these flames, important as the shrine would be extremely dark without them.

I limped further down in the shrine, towards the great space that stood before the altar. My walking stick constantly made thin clanking sounds against the stone floor as I moved, further breaking the silence within the stillness. I limped passed the candle holders and the shrine walls that depicted carvings of disks and more hamsters, and I went down the smaller stone steps to the very center of the shrine. There it was, the circular indent where one would put a revivable disk in. I felt a great presence of unseen spiritual and magical energy by just merely approaching this indent, a force that probably contained all of the strange abilities of this shrine and of the disks. I carefully knelt down and un-strapped the disk from my back, and gently placed it into the indent. As soon as I had put it in, I could feel the energy suddenly grow stronger.

I quietly left the disk in its place, and its invisible auras, sighing with relief that I had lost that weight I had to carry, and weakly limped up the stone steps to the tall stone altar. My walking stick went clank with every step I made. Even as I left the disk, I could still feel its growing power, awaiting to be awakened. I could recall that even the disks that held nothing but skeletons had such a mystical power as well, and as such it would seem that the disks themselves was what held that energy, and not the contents within. The disks could only be described as a sort of a crystallized form of energy, even though they did not take the form of crystals. And in the end, it would seem like nothing can properly define these disks. But there was no time to think about such things, for I knew there was no point in doing so and that it was nightfall. They say dangers are greater during the night, and thus I had to hurry if I wanted to return home as soon as possible…

Finally, I had reached the tall stone altar. There was a small stepping stone before it to allow those who are too short to still reach its top. On its smooth, stone countertop, there was a flat stone slab that looked somewhat loose. This was actually a button that one would push in this ritual. No one was sure how anyone managed to figure out how the shrine and disks work when they had discovered the shrine, but somehow they had and the knowledge of doing so had spread along with it. But point is was that the people knew how to work it, and so do I. My breaths became deeper as my old muscles began to tense up with focus. I was standing on the altar, facing the wide space and the disk that lay before me. It may have been many years since I have done this, but I had not forgotten.

I placed my walking stick against the altar, allowing it to lean against it, for I did not need it in order to perform the rest. With a final deep breath, I reached out my paws and slammed them against the stone slab button, pushing it down with all of my might.

“Unlock!” I spoke out to the disk and its space.

All sources of sound was drawn into the disk as it slowly but surely began to glow brightly in blue, yellow and purple hues. At that instance, it began to hover in mid-air and started to turn itself clockwise. It kept on turning until it had began to spin fully around and continued, going faster and faster with every second, and began to make furious static sounds as it twirled.  It was starting to spin so rapidly, that jolts of light had started to bolt around, spinning along with the disk. And the faster it went, the more swift these jolts of yellow, blue and purple became.  I shaded my eyes and looked away, feeling my robes flash around with the gusts of wind being produced by twister of light.

…Then it had ended. The winds and the jolts had abruptly stopped, and no longer could the thunderous crashing of the disk be heard. I opened my eyes and in awe, stared at what had been ‘unlocked’.

It was no skeleton like the other two disks I found had produced. No, rather there was a living being instead. A hamster, an orange and white one, was sitting within the indent where I had placed the disk earlier. He was looking around in total bewilderment, gazing upon the walls, the floors and even giving me a single glance, and occasionally scratched his large ears in confusion.

I was amazed. To think that I had actually revived a spirit from a disk, and not just the remains of one. I would have never expected this, and yet I was always told to expect the unexpected, but now that saying only seems to apply when you’re out in The World, where danger awaits for you at every nook and corner. I was not sure how to react to this, should I approach him or stay where I was? The hamster seemed to show more interest in trying to figure out where he was, and never did got up from where he sat. All I knew was that I was astonished.

But then I noticed that the golden hamster appeared saddened by what he had saw, this shrine. And still I wondered what to do. But then I had felt my body suddenly move, almost on its own. I grabbed my walking stick and found myself approaching the hamster, and stopping at the foot of the stone steps. My clanking of my walking stick seemed to attract his attention, and now that we were closer, I got a better look at him. He appeared to be a young hamster, almost like a child but he was not. And his expression, looked greatly disappointed and depressed, almost on the verge of crying.

I was about to take another step further, when the young hamster had spoken to me. “Where… where am I?” He muttered, and stared at me for some answers.

I was a little startled, and it took me awhile to find fitting words in my head. Still, the hamster seemed very patient, a rare trait in most The World inhabitants these days. “This… is the disk shrine…” I told him.

“Disk shrine?” The hamster began to panic. “What?… Th-that can’t be right!”

Briskly the hamster had gotten up and had ran out of the space, slipping right passed me and almost making me trip. He ran all the way to the large wooden gates and powerfully began to push at them, opening the gates with another drawn out creak. But then, he stopped. His eyes had grown wide as he saw The World outside, the barren wastelands and the deserts.  His body shook as he just stood there, not knowing how to comprehend this personal discovery of his…  And then he had sadly looked away and closed the gates behind him, keeping the sandstorm outside of the shrine. His body was still trembling and eyes began to swell up. I clutched my walking stick closer to me and approached the young hamster, no longer bothered by the sounds my cane made against the stone flooring. When I had reached him, he had shield his eyes into the palms of his paws and had fell to his knees in defeat, and had started to cry, albeit quietly but it had echoed among the walls of the shrine.

An awkward, long pause of silence between the two of us had followed, and I dared to say nothing. This wasn’t the first time one would cry when they realize just how truly horrible this World of the dead was, and then they would brave up, becoming nearly emotionless and focus on more important matters; survival. And yet, it did not seem to me that this was the reason why he was crying.

And for some reason, the hamster boy seemed intriguing. But it was not that there have never been any reports of a disk revealing a hamster before and that this was the first case. But rather this hamster as an individual seemed interesting. But I knew this interest I had would not last for long. Eventually, I will have to leave him, regardless if he were to die out here or not.

“My… my friends… have you seen them?” The hamster boy had suddenly inquired, speaking between sobs.

“…What?” I muttered.

“My friends… Boss, Oxnard, Bijou… everyone… are they’re here, out there?” The hamster said again while wiping away a tear from his eye.

“I do not understand.” I merely said. He was a rather curious sort, I thought to myself.

The hamster’s gaze lowered to the cold floor before him. “I came from… that disk, right? Then, my friends are in… disks too…”

“Disks, you say?” I asked. “Are there more of you, in disks?”

“That’s…” The hamster tried to speak, but his throat was beginning to choke up with tears again. “What… my dreams told me… I think…”

“I hear them… my friends, their voices…” He continued. “They are asleep… in disks… That’s what, another voice… told me in my dreams…”

The hamster stood up and approached the gates. He leaned his head gently against them, listening to the sandstorm hollowing outside. “So… it is true… I just thought it was a figment of my dreams…”

“If… if this is a… disk shrine, then…” He sobbed. “What my dreams said… are true…”

I blinked in sheer confusion. Just what was he blabbering on about?

“T-Tell me…” The hamster boy approached me. “What is… your land like?”

“The World,” I answered him. “It is a land of dread and the dying. It is not a suitable place to live, and yet, it is all that we have…”

“Then… our Utopia really is dead…” The boy cried.

“Utopia?” I asked him curiously. Never had such a word ever been used in The World, or at least not in ages. And yet, I knew what it meant. In The World, ‘utopia’ was used as a figure of speech to define forgotten dreams that will never come true. That alone fitted The World perfectly, for The World shall always be a dying place. It was an upsetting fact, but something that all of us had to deal with.

“This place you call… ‘The World’…” The boy sadly explained. “It used to not be like this…”

“As the legends say.” I recognized. “But I do not believe in it. The World has always been this way…”

“No, you’re wrong!” The hamster exclaimed, and coughed a bit as his tears stung his throat. “It was never this way… it was never supposed to be this way…”

“I… still do not understand.” I couldn’t help but say. What nonsense was this? “What are you talking about?”

The boy closed his eyes, trying to relax his nerves before replying.

“In the past, this land used to be a paradise…” He described. “In the Utopia, everyone was a friend. Everyone was always right there for anyone, and there was happiness and good health all around. It was such a beautiful life, and everyone thought it would never end…”

“That is what it was like to everyone in the Utopia. But to me… and my closest of friends, it was something more…”

I kept silent and listened intently to his curious words.

“There used to be a Clubhouse, wasn’t there?” The hamster boy continued. “Me and my friends, we would often go there, for play dates, meetings and to just hang out… We were a large group of friends, the closest of friends…”

“Boss, Oxnard, Bijou, Pashmina, Penelope, Howdy, Dexter, Sandy, Stan, Maxwell, Cappy, Panda… and Snoozer…” The boy named them almost flawlessly.

“We would always have many adventures, we would always have fun, and we would always solve each other’s problems. I… I loved them, and they loved me.” He said. “I would never want to leave them…”

“Our world was so adorned with love and friendship that we began to call it a Utopia… A Utopia just for hamsters alike.”

“And yet, it slowly began to end…”

“One day, something happened. Something unpredictable.” The hamster boy sat down and told me his tale.

“One day, people started to care less about each other, and thought lesser of us, the hamsters who originally brought the Utopia together…” He explained. “At first, it was a small number. The people, our people, started to grow distant from each other…”

“As the people slowly grew apart from each other, they had also left the Utopia. We knew things had to come and go eventually, but then it started to affect everyone. Everyone had suddenly grown distant, and had fled the Utopia. There was less love and caring in the land…”

“And then, it had happened. Everyone was gone, almost as soon as the whole ordeal had started! But not us, not my friends and I. We stayed, stayed as long as we could… Having no one but each other…”

“But then, another thing had started, something far worse. We were growing distant ourselves.” The boy placed his face into the palms of his paws as he said this. “First it was Pashmina and Penelope. Then Sandy and Stan. And it kept on going; everyone was leaving each other…”

“And then, only I and my most closest of friends out of all of them, Oxnard was left.” He cried. “But then, it happened. We grew apart ourselves. The Ham-Hams were no more…”

“I remember it clearly now. I the last one standing in the Clubhouse, and suddenly I had realized just how much I truly needed my friends. How could it have affected all of us?”

“And then… then…”

“Go on.” I urged him.

The hamster took a deep breath and stood up, facing me. “I don’t know how to explain this, but I saw lights of blue, yellow and purple. And suddenly, I fell asleep and had strange dreams… I kept hearing voices, of my friends and of another voice, who kept telling me that we were… disks…”

“That voice, it told me that all of the world thrives on love and friendship. It told me that my friends and I were the core of it, the center of all friendship and love in our Utopia, for ours was true. But when ours ended, the world around us began to die…”

“And as a result, the world tried to… preserve our friendship and love, by turning us into disks. Not just me, but my friends too…” The boy sadly said. “I’ve always thought that I was dead and lost, I didn’t believe what that voice told me. But since you’ve revived me, I believe it…”

“Friends come and go…” I told him, thinking about my old friend that I had lost not too long ago. “In this World, it is a sad fact of life…”

“I realize. But not true friendships, those cannot be lost.” He had told me, wiping away more tears. “Even now, I can hear them, my friend’s voices calling out to me…”

“You really are a curious sort.” I observed. “Tell me, what is your name?”

“My name? My name is Hamtaro.” He replied. “Of the Ham-Hams, or so I used to be…”

He glanced back down at the ground. “Used to…” He sadly muttered.

“I’ve… often wondered why this had to happen.” Hamtaro said, continuing to describe his inner vibes.

“To think it all started with the others who knew us. Maybe they were the first to grow distant from us, and forget about us, we who were the supposed center of friendships. And then, they forgot how to care… Yes, that seems about right, they forgot us and thus forgot how to care like we did…”

“…We are the forgotten, never to be remembered unless someone stumbles upon one of us by accident…”

Hamtaro looked up to me. “And yet, you stumbled upon me, didn’t you…”

I solemnly nodded, and a pause of silence followed the both of us.

“I… yearn for them, my friends…” Hamtaro spoke. “You do not know where my friends could be?”

I nodded no. “Sadly, no. There are said to be hundreds of disks in The World, and this shrine has only been used very few times. Your friends may be out there, but they are probably well hidden among the sands and dangers…”

“I… I see…” Hamtaro muttered.

“Um… sir?” He asked me.

“Yes?” I patiently answered.

“Thank you… thank you very much, for finding me, my disk…” He said. “But I have another thing to ask. What is your name?”

I kept silent, unsure if I should really address this hamster my ‘name‘. No one had ever asked me for my name, for names were not important in The World. I stared back with my watchful eyes, trying to decipher his expressions and quirky movements. Still, he patiently waited for my answer.

“…I am The Man with No Name…” I finally told him.

“Do you really have no name?” The young Hamtaro asked me. But I kept silent, and he seemed to take the hint. He had a puzzled look on his face, wondering if I really did have no name or if I wish to not disclose it with him.

“Then may I at least see your face?” He asked. “You don’t look well with those rags around your head…”

I paused.

“I… my face…” I stammered. “My face does not matter…”

“Please don’t be shy.” Hamtaro said. “You seem nice, you listened to my story. I trust in you… I promise not to laugh…”

…Trust… This hamster trusted in me? For certain I thought that my now deceased friend was the only one who could have trusted me. Did this young hamster really did care about me; enough to say that he trusted me? Suddenly I began to rethink things about this young hamster. I began to feel bad for him, something I thought my emotionless mind would never accept. Perhaps he really was some sort of ‘core of friendship’? I did not know what to make of this, nor what it meant. Maybe I too was starting to care for him as well…

“…Alright…” I said under my breath, and gently moved away and untied the cloth that covered my face. The open air felt cool and fresh as I undid my mask of cloth.

Hamtaro was looking at me, peering at my flattened fur of creamy beige, at my black eyes with brown rings, my bare patches of skin from where there used to be fur, and at my twisted whiskers. Many hamsters looked like me, in need of medical attention. My fur was always falling apart, and grew back at a very slow rate. Still, I cared little for my appearance, but I wondered what he thought of me.

“You are a very good looking hamster…” Hamtaro said, ignoring my facial flaws. “Your face should not be covered like that…”

“It needs to be. The sand outside is very perilous.” I told him as I tied the cloth around me again, firmly but not too tight.

“Oh…” Hamtaro murmured, he proceeded to listen again to the sandstorm outside. 

I wondered. I was just about ready to head out into the night again, but should I really leave him like this?  I was unsure of how to comprehend these feelings of caring and concern. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced these emotions before, even when I had my old friend with me. Perhaps he and I were not true friends, if I did not feel these unknown emotions towards him. Maybe I’ve never had a friend to begin with… until now. I pondered on what to do.

Then I had remembered about the messager bag that I always carry over my shoulder, which I used to carry things in case of serious emergencies.  I quickly opened its flap and rummaged through it, finally finding what I was looking for and I took it out.

“Here.” I said, and threw them onto the ground in front of the young hamster.

Hamtaro looked down and saw that they were white, yet dirty, rags of robes; similar to the ones that I wore around my body and face. He gently picked them up and looked at me.

“Put these on, you’ll need them.” I advised him as I placed a paw on the wooden gates, signifying that I was ready to leave the shrine.

“These clothes? Am I going with you… into the?” Hamtaro asked me.

“Into The World?… Yes. I cannot leave you behind.” I told him. “Now hurry. It is nightfall, and greater danger lurks during the night.”

Hamtaro quietly nodded and quickly slipped on the robes. He seemed to know how and I did not need to aid him. When at last he had finished, we both nodded and together opened the tall, wooden gates, revealing the huge World before us, and we had set out.

“Wait, Man with No Name…” He called out to me.

I stopped. “Yes?”

“…Thank you very much again…” He told me.

I smiled, my first real smile, hidden underneath the cloth. “Yes. And I thank you… too…”

Gusts of wind were no longer blowing, strangely. Even the night sky oddly seemed a lot clearer than it ever was, and for the first time in my life, I saw the moon and stars. They were twinkling back at us with their simple yet beautiful dimmed lights. I wondered if we were not just imagining it, I wondered if the other civilizations of The World could see these pretty dots in the sky as well. Such things have never been seen before, and I began to ponder… what if The World really only needed friendship and remembrance? Would such things actually heal this land? Maybe not, but ever since this young hamster had came into my life, the sky had never been this clear before…

Maybe if more people remembered about the true friendships and adventures in the past, maybe everything will turn well. Maybe if those memories would generate into more real friendships for this generation, maybe everything will heal… The World could really use that, I thought to myself.

And that, was our tale. To some, it may be the start of a mystical journey. To others, the end of one. Where were I and Hamtaro going? That is up to you. Whether we be searching for more of those strange disks, search for more friends, or recall memories that were once forgotten centuries ago… let that be up to you.

And… as for the message of this tale…

Let that be up to your interpretation as well…

…The End…