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[Employee N°XX: “̸̛̥͚̭͎̤̭̑̈́͂̆͗̈́̓̔͆͜N̵̡̢̨͓̭̜͚̩͉̼̫̟̻͉͈̞̟̩͕̎͊̀͜ͅi̶̧̢̛̜͈͔̣̪̻̝̺͇͈̺̬̦̋̑͋̎̑̃͌͒͂͑̓̑̈́͐̋̚͜ͅn̵͍̦̞͆̓ͅo̶̳̘̙̜͗͆̅̈́͛͒ ̸̳̗̫̫͉͎͙̈́̽̂̽͆͑̎̀̇̔̕M̵̧̢̙̝͈͓̪̬͈͔̫͎̌̈́̑̒̎̄̃͆̏̓̐̂͜͝͝a̵͉͕͙̳͔͍͋͂͋͝s̵̡̢͕̬̲͖̥̠̣͙͖̘̫̭̯̳͍̥̣͎͎̽̃̏̿̾͋̍͌̂͑̆͊̓k̷̢͍̈́̔̾͌̓͑̓̈͗͐̍͗̉͆̇̈́̎͝e̶̡͔͓͖͌̈́̍͑͆̑́̏̇̇̅̈́̐͛̀͝ḻ̸̡̬̞͎͕͍̻͍͎͇̟̠̻̓̏́͗͆͆̏̂̈ẙ̸̢̰͍̙̝̹͉͚̮̱̥̲͋͐̂͗̀̑̐̉͗͜n̷̩̮̺̗̝̣͑͆̀̒̉̽̀̋͌̉̓͒̀̏́̕ͅͅe̵̢̧̼̙̤̟͍̠̠̫̖͙̘͈͇̣̘̅͊̏̿̅́͑̍͛̓͋͘͜͜”̵̨̜̼͓̈́̑̏̊͐̅̓̈́̽ “Unknown”
Assigned Floor: “Control”
Boss: Sephirah “Malkuth”]

“So we’re going with him first?” I say to no one in particular, sighing a bit, before realizing something: “Nino Maskelyne? That’s how he was called? Strange… I wonder why he kept denying saying his identity?

When creating the different floors, Angela did tell me that the best way to conserve both an employee and an abnormality, was to fuse the both of them, to prevent the abnormality from going on a rampage and to give an employee some sort of physical body to manifest themselves in.

While I was a bit taken aback due to how much power she acquired in such a short time, I could process all of this information, especially when I remembered just how strong the Light really is. However, when I asked her who my assigned “librarians”, as we now call them, were, a small smirked appeared on her face, as if she was mocking me. This was chilling for… well… mostly two reasons. First of all, I almost never saw her express emotions, and when she did, it never entailed something positive, and secondly I found on my own what was amusing her.

The employees that turned into librarians, are the ones that were assigned to a floor when they died. And according to her, X never made any replacement for the employees, so basically, everyone is here… The only exceptions are a small group everybody knew as the “Miracle Five”, because they were really adaptable and didn’t have a set floor. The main problem is for me. As a secondary job, I was tasked with tutoring new recruits, until they were affected to another department, and well… The ones I had to handle a month before the fall of L corp were… I’d say, difficult is probably the most polite and appropriate term.

Funnily enough they remind me of the first ever employees I had to handle, but in the perfectly opposite way! If the “Miracle Five”, were really serious students, and went on to become essential assets to the corporation, I’d say these four were at their best away from serious danger. Whether it was naivety, lack of focus, cowardice, they just… didn’t have the profile to work there. Sadly, this was their last shot before ending up as rats, so… they did their best.

“Alright… He’s probably the least difficult to handle after all… But Angela, if you pull something like that again, I swear-” My monologue was interrupted by a small pain on the back of my head. Did she really just hit me? Damn that bi-I mean, woman.

Now that I think about it, I should probably settle down, it’s really weird, for me, to feel so frustrated and angry. I should take a deep breath. When Finn closed the door and left me alone to beat this realization, the whole warm atmosphere suddenly changed to something colder. A straight path, looking vaguely like a bridge, no more building, no book, everything I created, gone... I don’t know if Angela intentionally designed the floor to morph this way when preparing for battle, but the change is unsettling, extremely unnerving actually.

“Calm down Malkuth, you can’t control everything. I-It’s fine… Breathe… Breathe steadily and slowly...”

My words are like whispers that almost died down in my throat. Yes, despite X’s help, and my best efforts, I… My control freak side… Never completely went away. I want to change, I thought I did! But… My current hyperventilation confirms what I feared the most when I was brought back. I didn’t heal much of my scars… I simply shifted my attitude from bossy to anxious with a panic streak.

At least I can still laugh, if I’m sharing my fault with someone… That’s actually an improvement, but not something I think is worth sharing, especially with individuals that all have such an iron will. It’s really a personal hell when you start to realize how much better everyone is at something compared to you. The fact that information about my opponent flooding my mind, while I tried to accommodate myself to this whole ordeal, doesn’t help me settle down at all.

[To process with the [FLOOR REALIZATION] program, remembering death is key.
Initiating [Unknown] death recollection…?]

I still wonder why Angela’s power manifest in such a robotic way. Especially since the other times where I could clearly see it, it always had to do with fantasists visuals, and books. But it’s really no matter. To be honest, seeing one of the rookie under my responsibility die a gruesome death, again, isn’t something I’d consider fun or healthy, but if I have to do it… Alright. However as I press the accept button, managing to calm myself and feeling ready to take on the entire world, my stress skyrockets and my consciousness fade, my mind being flooded with information regarding this bizarre employee we nicknamed “Unknown”.
______________________
The patron sleeps, the patron lies.
Here in this bizarre repertoire,
The weirdest was chosen,
The magic show will now open!
_______________________
To be fair I was never keen on hanging out with mere plebeians that would never understand the beauty of magic! But what would a mage be if he didn’t have any audience? “Hey Parfaite! Hey Parfaite! Heyheyheyheyheyhey!” I insist grabbing the sleeve of this girl in my section.

She protests, freeing herself from my grasp. “No I don’t want to see another trick! Leave me alone!”

Of course she wouldn’t! She’s a mortal, and a snake at that! Well… According to the rumors at least, she always seems scared around me, which definitely doesn’t feel good, but what can I do? However I don’t despair and still try to convince her, by bringing the chosen one in the fray! “C’mon I know you like it! Hoon back me up here!”

“Yeah my love, yeah, yeah, everything is fine here. Of course I didn’t forget my toothbrush! What do you take me for? Aw this again? Haha! Sure, I’ll bring some!” It failed miserably… Stupid lovey-dove couple.

...Yeah...Stupid love...

Nervously I turn to the last member of our group.“Eh… Jorge?”

“Magic is a distraction I can’t afford. By the principle of my own inability for comprehension and rational thoughts, I must continue following orders blindly, in the hope of finally finding my place in this society.” What did I even except from this guy…?

“You could have just said no...” is my only response in frustration. However, this seemed like the perfect opportunity for Parfaite to continue taunting me, and I really hate when she gets so mean-spirited! Plus her cackling is really insufferable.

“See? Nobody gives a shit about your magic tricks! Malkuth doesn’t say anything because she’s too spineless to tell you how much of a bother you are.”

...That hurts…

But I won’t let myself be affected by the words of a dumb dingus doofus! Not showing any sign of being affected, I simply respond “Oh okay then! That’s fine! I’ll try to find someone who-”

As I was about to leave, to stay true to my words, she cuts me off, rubbing her arm in discomfort. Her voice still being very loud, now also seemed way more aggressive. “What a creep… Why are you still smiling after what I told you? Can’t you act normal for once?”

Now I’m also cringing of what’s happening, so I try to joke it off! “I mean… People are already thinking I’m a pedophile so I guess it’s fine to act this way!”

As expected by someone of my greatness!… It didn’t work. I’m a way better magician than humorist! The world is lucky I never tried to do stand-up comedy. However before I could say anything else, the voice of someone I spoke to earlier, rises “Yeah plus for such a master of hypocrisy, priding yourself on emotional manipulation, you show your real self, by breaking under pressure, quite a lot around him don’t you Parfaite?”

It’s Hoon!

“Aaaah! I hate all of you!” Whines Parfaite before storming of the room, destroying a lamp on the way, out of pure frustration! Well it sounds terrifying as well as incredibly annoying, if you forget the details that it took her 10 tries to break it before leaving the room, which turned the whole thing into a hilarious sadfest!

My voice is still a bit shaking, over the whole interaction, but the fear is now gone at least.“T-Thanks for the save Hoon… Where do you think she’s going?” I ask looking at the now-closed door.

He shrugs nonchalantly. “Probably going to lick the boots of some higher-ups to get some comfort after that humiliation, maybe one of the Miracle Five? Salem for sure if that’s the case. She’s said to get along really well with him.” Oh yeah them… They are the first ever employees recruited by L Corp and are said to have survived every massive horrors brought to this place with ease. They mostly stay together and don’t speak that much with others, creating a sort of mystic aura around them. In order we have, Dia, a stressed-out guy with unnaturally bright eyes who looks like he fused with a tree, Salem, an extremely annoying guy dressed in an undertaker suit and hat who’s by far the most enigmatic out of the four, Psyche, a girl that barely resemble one with a creepy flower growing out of her right eyes and an umbrella as a weapon while her body looks like an eldritch horror, Oka, the most approachable yet least responsible who’s said to have an abnormally high connection with any abnormality linked to fairy tales or dream due to her narcolepsy and wide imagination, and finally Khanna the most strict out of the four, who long ago made a pact with the crumbling armor and fights exclusively with a “Justice Sword” and kinda looks like an oni with certain angles. Still she’s the most childish but also the most devoted. Due to how efficient they are, all floors have only 4 active employees so that one of the miracle can lend a hand in case of needs at all time.

I guess it wouldn’t surprise me if Parfaite was trying to get the approval of one of them, but it’s sound so surreal that she did manage to earn Salem’s affection… “I mean if we trust everything the rumors say, I’m a massive pedophile, who enjoys doing magic shows to kids, and dance with an invisible ghost.” I jokingly reply.

However Jorge immediately intervenes: “Blasphemy! The whole population of this establishment is aware of the fact that you practice the art of moving your body alone in the corridors!”

God what an ass. “That’s when you decide to speak up Jorge?” I hear a chuckle from Hoon.

“But he’s got a point though, I always thought these facts were common knowledge not rumors!” is what he says before bursting out laughing.

I pout in response to this unwarranted humiliation! “Ah! Come on! Drop that shtick! I believed in you Hoon!… And both of you drop your shit-eating smirks! Or I’ll curse you with Black Magic!” As I say this, I stand proud with a deck of card and a voodoo doll, surely this will intimidate the-

“Or I wIlL cUrSe YoU wItH BlAcK mAgIc!” AAAAAAAAH! I hate when he’s like that!

I take my time to do the most annoyingly sarcastic voice my vocal cords have in store: “You’ll be a REALLY good father. You already mastered the dad jokes.” Wait that didn’t sound very mean-spirited did it? Goddammit he’s stronger than me at verbal jousts! Although it was to be expected! As I have no time for such mortal activities while my real power lies somewhere else, because I am the best ma-

“Come on Unknown we’re leaving, get over here already!” Hoon is now also at the entrance door, with a smirk on his face.

I sigh, admitting defeat: “Alright...”

As we are walking through the corridor awaiting our next instruction either from Malkuth or the Boss-man himself, a small silence settles between us. I can’t really tell if it’s an awkward or comfortable one to be honest, as Hoon quickly says something to break it: “Don’t be fooled by how Parfaites acts around you, she’s a real snake with a silver tongue, but also a massive wuss. And you freak her out.”

I turn my head in surprise, as Hoon’s normally not that keen on trying to comfort somebody, mostly due to a lack of skill at this. And well… what he says isn’t that reassuring. “Do you think I’m that weird?” I ask knowing full-well his response already.

Not missing a beat, he answers: “Oh yeah totally.” Sometimes I wonder how someone as straight-forward as him, on anything, got a wife. Because even if you know he only means well, most of the time, it still hurts to hear it.

“H-Huh well I-...” is my pathetic excuse for a response. The lack of social skill really shows itself in that type of situation.

To cut the awkwardness though, Hoon quickly adds something: “Didn’t say it was a bad thing though. Plus you’re really good at taking care of the ‘kids abnormalities’. So I think your place is-… Hey, what’s wrong?”

This made me cry.

“I-...I-...” I try to form a coherent sentence but the words just don’t come out. I can’t even do some magic to take my mind off what’s making me cry, as memories are flooding my mind, good like bad.

Hoon tries to pat my back to make me feel better. “It’s okay, it’s okay. Don’t cry about that. You’re older than me remember?” That sounded so insincere it makes me snicker a bit.

“You… You’re really bad at this aren’t you?” Hoon’s face redden deeply and he gives me a small nudge.

“Shut up, cheap street performer…” He adds trying to hide his face in his hood. Yes, Hoon is the type of guy, to wear an open zip-jacket with a hood, over his perfectly functional suit, infused with an abnormality’s power, as well as some rags, barely forming a coherent mask on the lower-half of his face, with “menacing” tags on, he painted himself. What a thug, though I guess old habits die hard, according to what he told me about himself... Sometimes I do wonder if his kid will have his sense of fashion. Hopefully they’ll take more about his wife, Mïcha who I’ve seen once. As I thought our conversation was over, Hoon surprises me once more by saying something out of the blue. “A little bit of magic and miracle is possible, if you believe in it, so I think you’ll indeed become the best mage ever.” He winks as he says that. ‘What a playboy too.’ I think to myself suppressing a laugh.

His whole attitude does intrigue me: “Why are you being so nice today? Trying to manipulate me into doing the office’s laundry today?” I ask light-heartedly.

However, my whole mood shifts, and everything become tense when I see him, becoming way more serious, and not cracking a smile or a witty comeback. “I… I don’t know, I just had a feeling that I should say it now rather than later… In this job… Well the first months with everyone were fun, but… That young lad, Joy I think, from the information floor… Like when he died, he was the first death, many of us new generation employees experienced, after all… I remember how drastically it dragged me into realizing our current situation. This is far from a dream job, and we are not safe from dying at any moment… Even the Miracle Five were shaken up. So I felt like this was a good time to say this… After all we’re not like them who perform everything flawlessly, we’re more like the “Disaster Five”, counting our boss, and I wouldn’t be surprised if all of us died quicker than everyone else.”

I’m taken aback by how pessimistic he was. I wanted to tell him that this idea was false, that we would, that he’ll able to take care and raise his kid for the rest of his life… But I couldn’t say that, because he was right… We, of the control section, are doomed. Sooner or later, judging by how inexperienced we are, compared to the increase in difficulty. I sigh but before I can respond anything, Hoon asks me something again, a question that I’ve avoided for so long, due to how difficult it was to reminisce. “So… Before we die, do you want to finally tell me why? Why are you hiding your name, your identity? Who are you?”

An internal conflict is raging inside of me. I’ve never told that to anyone before and I didn’t intend to. This story is both shameful and really painful to remember. But can I trust him with such an information? I look at him, doubt was probably the only thing that my face showed at the moment. I could tell Hoon was regretting asking me that, and was on the verge of saying that I should forget about that question, however I finally know my answer to his question. “My real name is Nino. Nino Maskelyne to be precise.”

As soon as I utter this sentence, I see his face light up in shock. “Maskelyne? You’re a descendant from that famous family of magician?!”

I simply nod.

“I guess that partly explain why you’re so obsessed with magic… But wait, what are you doing here in the first place? Many people were fans of your families, and most people believe the lineage has gone extinct. Shouldn’t you be on stage? You’d earn millions!” It’s amusing how his voice is so panicked at the idea I’m not making cash despite my talent.

I decide it’s a good time to properly explain. “Actually… I did performances on stages. Quite a lot in fact. But I wanted to break free from my parents, so I took a stage-name to prove I could be as good as them without using my family’s name. I even had a partner during that period. We met under completely random circumstances, but clicked off really well despite that. He was way more athletic than me, but I was better at doing illusions and redirecting the attention of people. So he took upon the role of assistant and I was the magician… Despite that we both had equal amount of speaking time, one wasn’t superior to the others. Sadly, our spectacles never took off, mostly because people think magic is now a dead art, that isn’t worth seeing. Nonetheless we continued, and had a blast. However, everything changed when my family, who I was on relatively cold terms with now, presented me, what was supposed to be my fiancee. I needed to produce an heir to the Maskelyne family after all. Weirdly enough, while both of our families arranged our relation, we actually fell in love with each other, and bonded over the many things we had in common, mainly our love for kids and nurturing them. A trait I developed over the course of my career after one time, a child came to me after a spectacle and said he admired me and my friend’s work. He came with his sister, although the two of them didn’t look alike at all, and she also praised us, before leaving. Seeing these two happy awoke something inside of me which made me sweat on my life that I’d make any sad little one I see, happy. My life was going pretty smoothly despite the circumstances, but everything crashed down, when I tried to have a kid with my fiancee.”

Despite the longevity of the my whole tirade, Hoon patiently listened and immediately asked: “Why is that?” So this is it? Is this how I reveal it? I’m shaking and I stutter a lot… But here goes nothing:

“I’m sterile Hoon. I’ll never have a kid I’ll be able to call my own, despite my most profound wish.”

Instead of being shocked like with the other information about my past, he simply kept quiet, and hugged me. I didn’t have much tear left to cry at that fact, since I already did it so many time in the past. My reaction was more apathetic towards the whole story after so many years. “Seeing this, and because I was already a failure for refusing to use my name in a show, my family disowned me and found another successor who died quickly after, my fiancee who desperately wanted her own kid without adoption left me, and because of the stress, my show started to become worse and worse, making the small audience we gathered leave.”

Still being interested, and hugging me tighter, he asked: “And how did your partner react? Did he abandon you too?”

“No, he was a great guy albeit as socially inept as me, although in a more disconnected way, to be honest I had no idea about his past and how he ended up like that. Seeing my distress, he didn’t try to comfort me, but instead talked about his perspective on expectation, and how I shouldn’t blame myself for everything, and wish for redemption or a better future. But instead continue to live on day by day, trying to progressively get my life back together. Despite his best efforts though, I acted like a real asshole to him, and after a violent, and mostly one-sided argument where I berated him like a prick, we both decided to continue in our own direction. This is my biggest regret.” I was shaking life a leaf when I remembered my attitude towards him.

Hoon then started to pat my head and comfort me.“Don’t worry, you may have acted out-of-line with him, but you’re not in the wrong either. Just let it go for now. And simply pray to meet him again, alright? What’s his name by the way? Do you still remember it?” He jokingly added at the end.

I was smiling and answered: “Of course, how can I forget? He’s called Osw-”

[Critical Emergency: Start of the [Indigo Noon/Sweeper] Ordeal!
Weaker Employees are advised to not engage against them.
Don’t let them salvage the corpses.]

As I was about to finish my sentence, this strident alarm bell rings in all of the corporation, cutting the conversation short. With a simple nod and a knowing look, we both go in different directions to try and precisely localize, one of the four spots that they appear in. Boss-man also contacted me, to not engage and also take care of the Scorched Girl who was about to break out of her confinement since I’m the member she trusts the most… I never understood why I got along with her so much specifically, but from what I gathered, she constantly hopes for a better life… And I promised I’d giver her one.

“01000010 01100101 01100111 01101001 01101110 00100000 01110011 01100101 01100001 01110010 01100011 01101000”

I stopped dead on my track when I heard that sound. This is actually the first time, I see a sweeper… Now it may sounds weird, but my family actually lived in a nest but did their show in the backstreets, it was another tradition, as my father described the nest inhabitants as “deader inside than a rotten worm-invested cadaver”. In any case I got some training to deal with the situation, and I could recognize them from a glance. They were going into my direction, in a narrow corridor. No way to avoid this trio, I guess, plus the floor is slippery from the blood of the clerks being killed. Clutching my weapon, the “Fourth-match E.G.O”, I quickly get out of hiding and blast them straight to face.

“??????????”

I can hear in their sound, the trace of human panic, good, they can be staggered. I continue shooting and burning them as I hear more of their strident cries. Although these bastards tank quite well and I need to dodge a lot of swift attacks coming from them. It’s extremely tricky as they are really fast, but I manage to held myself although I got a hand and chest damage. Nothing too big but I need to be careful. I quickly blast at close-range the torso of the first one, a painless death, before dodging a strike and making my way to the second one, blasting him through the side of his head. I’m running out of stamina but I manage to blast the weapon out of the last one, as well as one of his leg. As I catch my breath however, this sweeper lets out a powerful yell, something I’ve heard before. “01001011 01101001 01101100 01101100 00100001” It staggers me so much I forget to shoot for a second, but I still finish the job as cleanly as possible. It was a hard battle but I wo-

“01000111 01101111 01110100 00100000 01101000 01101001 01101101 00101110 00101110 00101110”

I turn around and see another, perfectly healthy sweeper, looking at me. It takes a second to realize what happened, but I suddenly feel a very sharp pain in my back. “Argh! What the-?” This one stabbed me...But where does it come from? I quickly run ahead and fully look behind me. “A-another group of three?...” Normally all four trio are supposed to arrive at opposite points from each other, how did they- “Oh no… The yell...” I realize on my own. It was a distress signal, and now there’s another trio coming for-!

I can’t finish my thought because I hear another sets of boots rushing down the hallway to get me. I stop contemplating and turn around to stop them in their course by blasting them off, but the pain in my back makes me hit only one them who falls to the ground. “Dammit… Not like this… Magicians aren’t supposed to die so pitifully.” Sadly I miss another shot and the other group now is also attacking me. I get hit, slashed, and beaten from all sides. However on the other side of the corridor I see something that gives me hope again.

“Salem! Thank god you’re here! You need to help -ouch- me here!” But instead of rushing to help a fellow co-worker Salem just watches. I try to call him again, and again, and again, my pleas getting more and more desperate as I do so but nothing. I could vaguely see his hand shaking, but nothing more. At some point, I don’t even hear my voice anymore, the yells may have been too loud, but now everything was quiet, despite my mouth being open. Despite my flesh being torn apart, I don’t even feel the pain anymore, and Salem still watches. Maybe Hoon was right, we’re going to die first… Or maybe nobody cares about the five of us. And this was Salem’s cruel lesson to teach me that I should have been more careful… I continue to feel my flesh being extracted from my body, but my consciousness is fading away, Salem still doesn’t move… Is...Is this how I die?

It’s scary to think about dying… I don’t know what’s there after the sweepers finish eating me… And there’s still so much to do… I wanted to see Hoon and Mïcha’s child, wanted to be a cool uncle to him… I wanted to get along with Parfaite better before dying…. I wanted to continue being a reassuring figure to the Scorched Girl...I wanted to see my fiancee again, one last time even if our paths would never cross again…I...I…

I wanted to tell Oswald how sorry I am!…

I feel my face tearing up, before being also extracted by the sweeper…

And with that I take my last breath.

This is how the Magician will die, by making his corpse disappear.
___________________
The Magician is now being eaten.
Now the Patron must face him, that’s a given.
But let’s not quit the Past right away.
Why didn’t the Undertaker, help the Magician, the evil slay?
___________________

I feel horrified and disgusted by the vision in front of me. I can barely move actually. This is the second time, I see a dead person and not the relief of having a time-rewind. Why is that? Since that kid, Joy’s untimely death, our boss has not even once use the R corp’s technology… Despite being quite the abuser of it at the start of the month. Did he abandon? That would be really bad for all of us.

Now normally R corp’s technology is a full-on rewind, and also erases the memories of anyone that is being subjected to it, and they go in great-tandem with W’s corp which I know because I temporarily worked for them. However the five of us have been so much subjected to it, since we never died prior to a reset, that now our minds are being less and less affected by it. We hid it pretty well, but now that the boss has stopped rewinding after the death of someone, we aren’t really sure what to think…

Sorry about that, mate… I had to let you die to see if he would remind and disprove our theory, but now I’m sure of the contrary… Khanna is going to kill me for doing this but it was necessary, and I was the only one capable of bearing such a disgusting sight. Dia would have gotten a panic attack, Khanna would save him anyway, Psyche despite her tough exterior would break down crying, and Oka would save him to show off to Psyche. So I guess testing that theory naturally falls on me… A sudden urge to barf manifests itself when I try to ease myself. I don’t even want to imagine what would have happened if the responsibility fell onto someone else.

“I guess I should take care of them now...” I mutter a bit too emotionless for my liking.

However, before I can get rid of the sweepers, I hear some very specific footsteps. As if a small fire and some ashes were produced with each step. A distorted voice, that sounds like burnt vocal cords, lets out of squeal. “Unknown?” Oh yeah… He was the one assigned to take care of her. She quickly turns her attention to me in distress “What’s going on? I-Is he dead?”

“Yeah… Sorry about that, when I just arrived on the scene, and he was already getting eaten.” I was always good at lying with a straight face. Although I am intrigued… This is the first time I’ve seen an abnormality and an employee display such a strong bond.

She doesn’t respond anything, even then I can see how pained she is, as she walks over the now completely mangled corpse. There’s almost no sound in the corridor, apart from the sweepers eating their meal. She continues to walk over, as the ambiance feels too quiet compared to the atrocity of the scene. But as I think about something to say to the abnormality, a quick and sharp yell is pronounced:

“BEGONE!”

And just like that all 6 of them disappear instantly, in a quiet explosion filled with ash and cinder. Almost as if god decided to erase their existence in an instant. A shiver runs through my body, as I thank the heavens for giving me the skills to be a good liar. With their done, a tense silence now feels the corridor. As a small announcement over the speakers indicates the end of the Ordeal. Few more dreadful minutes passes by, which feel like hours, before the abnormality does anything else. She sits by the corpse, crying ashed tears, as I watch from afar my heart getting mangled, which is followed by her hugging the corpse before it disintegrates. “If only we could have done that when you were alive… This is the promise of a better future…?”

Today we lost another employee, and she lost an irreplaceable friend.

(“Guys it’s been confirmed… Death is now permanent. First with that Joy-kid from information, now this guy from control.”
“Oh n-no! H-H-How are we gooonna handle that?”
“Fuck. Why did he do that? What stops him?”
“Maaaybbbeee~ energy shortaaaaage~?
“Then we’ll need to be ready. And if we make it trough I’ll burn you for doing this.”
“As if we won’t die ourselves at one point. Sometimes I wish we didn’t develop an immunity to T corp’s technology after being exposed so many times to it.”)
____________________________
From a good-willed snake that appears selfish,
To a lady of steel that appears selfless.
From a person that suffered for the greater fool,
To a woman that rendered useless that same greater good.
Skins as while as silk and hair as blue as the sky,
A bit of both, during their time at L corp, had die with a sigh.
____________________________
[Loading basic information for all 39 Librarians…
...
Full List:
-Control Floor: Unknown the magician, Hoon the fallen friend, Parfaite the coward, Jorge the blind fanatic.
-Information Floor: Bong-Bong the monster that fears guilt, Joy the unlucky helper, Shao the musician, Demi the hateful
-Training Floor: Ryn Wetherby the childish pirate, Ael the pretty woman, Knox the failure of a mother, Evangeline the dealer.
-Security Floor: Mïcha the tragic lover, Rémi the kind but alone apostle, Onorio the doctor, Beloved the perfection in imperfection.
-Central Command Floor: Louis the broken hero {And L:{Binah} fanboy}, Iseult the overly formal, LackLand the one with nothing that gave up, Aarang the angel that gets shit done with a shotgun.
-Welfare Floor: Poussey the woman that teaches, Griffn her brother without a heart, Asera the disabled that pushes through, Anastasia the broken innocence.
-Disciplinary Floor: Gregory the old Russian geezer, Narae the vampire…
[ERROR! Data Corrupted! NARAE ISN’T-]
-Record Floor: Ria the way too serious, Logan the forgetful and confused, Eidniuet the blue star-struck. [One spot short in honor of B:{A}]
-Extraction Floor: Plotinus the one who feigns intelligence, Nemesis the blade of justice, Forsetti the self-sacrifice. [Couldn’t find anymore information. Seems L:{Binah} refused to have more helpers]
-Architecture Floor/Miracle Five: Dia the anxious beast, Salem the undertaker, Psyche the butterfly thug, Khanna the extremist moral compass, Oka the dreamer a̷̤̘̐̓n̴̨͓͗d̸͉̿̌ ̸̳̩͛c̶̡͂̅a̴̺͛͒ü̵̥̞̊s̵͖͛e̵̱̾͝ ̴̳̍ͅo̶̹̐̑f̵̹̈̓ ̸͇̻̂t̵̲͐̔͜h̴̲̊͜e̸̲͒ ̶̒ͅͅd̵͒͘͜i̴̢̓s̴̫̕ȁ̶͔̙s̵̩͑̄ť̶̜̲e̸̠̯͆r̶̝̦͛.
More throughout analysis…
...
Additional Notes:
-Hoon’s recuperation is severely compromised.
-Bong-Bong is extremely unstable and dangerous, keep him in check.
-Demi has been killed by another employee, get rid of him to avoid more internal conflict.
-Ryn Wetherby is now permanently linked to two abnormalities. {One of them being what seems to be a whale, the child of Yin and Yang? Can they even have children?}
-Ael seems impossible to completely save due to the shoes’ possession.
-Never bring the question of children to Knox, she’ll be crushed with guilt.
-Mïcha is not herself anymore, only a fragment, don’t hesitate to kill “her” if she opposes resistance.
-Tiphereth needs to bring Louis’ heroism back.
-Louis is also a massive Binah fanboy and crushes hard on her as a coping mechanism.
-LackLand may have lend his body to Greed.
-Never separate Poussey and Griffn.
-Asera can’t use any page unless they allow her to move without using her legs.
-Anastasia is on the verge of insanity.
-Never let Narae alone with someone.
-Ria acts like a surveillance camera at times against his will.
-Plotinus possesses surreal strength, keep them in check.
-Forsetti is now cursed with being the permanent host of the Birds, can still control himself but not talk nor have a visible face.
-The Miracle Five were found, but apart from Oka…
-Parfaite, Knox, Rémi, Aarang, and Eidniuet have a high chance of turning back into creatures of the everlasting knight.
Conclusion:
More guests will need to be recruited apart from the Keter Floor to regulate every anomaly.]
___________________________________________
Total control leads to a total lack of hope.
A lack of hope leads to desperate time.
A desperate time leads to desperate crime.
And the Sephirahs were born to cope.
____________________________________________

“God… It’s worse than I imagined...”

Getting my consciousness back into my body was a painful experience after this whole trip. I felt every cranny bit of pain, and now I’m shaking on the flour, wanting to puke and crying uncontrollably. So this is who he was, Unknown, or should I say Nino? I’ll see that with him later... It feels so weird to finally hear his real name. Now that I think about it, I remember that after this ordeal, the Scorched Girl didn’t say anything, didn’t act, was completely stern and silent for a whole month. We did manage to get her back to function properly, but after that, she would automatically break out during an Indigo Noon to kill every Sweeper before going back quietly to her cell… Despite Hoon calling their group “The Disaster Five”, and most of us running with that name mockingly, they were still important to the facility despite their fails. I wish I could have trained them better. I guess I’m not even worthy of being part of their group...

Speaking of him… If the way the employees are being brought back, is in order of their death. Then the next one will be… “Hoon...” I say breathlessly. While he was the most stable of the five and kind of like the mediator, a certain incident after Unknown’s death, turned him into something that smiles a bit too much, according to its name at least. Wait now that I think about it, Jorge will actually become a blind librarian? That’s ironic given his name, and I sure hope Parfaite won’t try to run out of every battle due to how they work according to Angela...

I chuckle through the pain at the thought of the whole team being reunited. Maybe this second chance is for the better? I can’t believe I’m actually giving credit to Angela’s madness… The second I get back up after that painful experience though, I immediately feel my surroundings shifting again. The small bridge that I was standing on, becomes a paved road, in the middle of a city at night. I take a look around, seeing for myself how outdated everything look. Sadly I can’t really admire the scenery as I hear a familiar voice:

"A warm fireplace… A plentiful dinner… Fancy decorations… What will show up when I light the next match?"

It’s a mixture of a grown-man, and a girl who’s throat is as sore as possible, barely audible even. “Who are you?” My question doesn’t seem to reach the entity, who’s still muttering words to itself. What do I have in front of me exactly? Is it an abnormality or an employee?

“A̴ ̴w̵a̸r̴m̵ ̸f̶i̵r̶e̸p̴l̵a̷c̴e̵…̵ ̶A̵ ̶p̵l̸e̷n̵t̷i̴f̷u̸l̴ ̶d̸i̵n̸n̵e̶r̵…̷ ̵F̸a̷n̸c̶y̵ ̵d̸e̵c̵o̵r̶a̵t̴i̸o̵n̶s̸…̵ ̸W̶h̴a̵t̷ ̷w̸i̸l̴l̶ ̶s̵h̸o̸w̷ ̴u̵p̴ ̷w̵h̴e̴n̶ ̸I̴ ̴l̸i̷g̷h̷t̸ ̸t̶h̶e̸ ̴n̵e̸x̸t̶ ̵m̴a̵t̵c̷h̶?̸"̵”

Didn’t it said that already? What’s happening? My head starts to feel a bit fuzzy.

“A̴̪̥̘̼̍͂̿̊ ̵̢̘̝̞̺̿̎̑̈́ẃ̴̢̞͈̊͠ȁ̸̳̖̖̲͙r̵̨̘̼̼͐m̶̨̙̞͖͔͊ ̶͖̺̺̙̳͌̓̽̓f̷̞̰̃͂̋̌̽í̴̡̤̳̭̚͜r̸̬͇̩̬̆̂͌̔͝ė̵̘̠̒͐p̶͍͔͎͒̈̑̄̕ḷ̶̮̂͝a̴͖̱̻̣̿̈́͝ͅc̴̛̮͂̈e̷̪̭̳͚̫̊…̸͍̤̽̃̕ ̸̢̻̹͈̉̆̃͠A̸̧̯̻͖͐ ̶̮͋p̴̬͆̑̏l̴̠̺̘̻̇͒̀͠ȩ̷̢̟͝n̶̯͍̤̪͕̐̇͝ţ̸̞͕̲̙̑͆̍͛͝i̶̝̝͒f̵͉͔̀͘u̸͚̜̅͒̌̐͝l̴̨̘͍͘ ̷̟̜̺̥̱̉̂͆̐d̷̗̺͔̈́ḭ̴͈͓̈͘n̶̲̳̈́͒̔ň̴͍̙̋̓̆͝e̵͉͛̏͋͝͝ř̷̩͗̀̉…̶̙̔̀̈́̿ ̴̠͙̓́̚F̸̝̪̼̎͒͜͝ȃ̸̡̬̞̣n̴̠̈́c̷̢̝̳̼͓̒y̸̧̼̠̑̆̚͝ ̷̛͓d̸̝̻̳̲͆̀̊e̶̝̿̈́̇c̵̛̦̳͓̏̎o̸̗r̶̫̾̊̾̌̈́a̶̤̥̞͂̑̈̾t̷̡͕̻̹̎̾ĭ̸͎̥̼̈́̔̋͌o̸̮͕̥̪̯͛͒̂n̴̪͈͍͙͛s̷͓͍̰̹̃͜…̴̞̉̀̈́̔́ ̸̺̩̿͌̓̿W̵͖̹̃̉ḣ̶̲̭̓͜ͅá̶͎̲͈̟̊t̶͎̦̪̭̓ ̵̻͔̈́w̴̞̟̲̽i̸̛͓̦̇̋ļ̶͉̦̙̫̈l̷̪͕̠͋͊͊ ̸̪̾͜s̷̛̛̗̰͗͌̌h̵͚͒͛̚o̵̢̦̱̜̾̽̾͋͠w̸̛̌͐̿͜ ̴̫͎̩̺͗͊́̔u̵̢̧̩̇̓ͅṗ̴͉͐̀͐͠ ̴̰̱̈́̊̊͘ẅ̵͓h̵͎͑͝ę̸̝̋n̸̥͚͖̈́̍̔̚ ̵̛͖͎͔̝̋̌Ĩ̷̳͍̗̼͎̇ ̵̱̹̭̖̿ļ̴͖̖̳̇͛i̶̢͈̜̼̩͆̊̒͐g̷̙̗̜͍̼̐̊̆̕h̴̹͉͐͊̕ţ̷͖̝̝ ̴͈̫̲͔̒̾͂́̕ț̶̥͖͍͊͂h̷̥̔͗̇͂e̵̠͙̹̓ ̴̛͔̈́̂́̚n̴̺͇̘̞̿͂̌̈͛e̷̬͆͌̈͜x̴͕̞̥̦̑̋̔̅t̶̩͎̝̐ ̵̖͓̹̃͑́̓̚m̶͓̠̞̃͠a̷̛̳̤͂̓͗t̸̰̰̳̠͉̅͂̑͠c̴̢̓͋̓h̶̡͍͒͆?̷̢̰̥̖͙̆̓͂͆͠"̴͎͈͎̮̼̆̎̐́͂”

It hurts. It hurts so much! I clutch my head in pain, one of my knee is on the ground. Hoping the pain will stop. But a collection of meaningless and important sentences, blend together to cloud my mind, in the red of an undying rage.

“ ̷̡̢̥̲̌̉̿̂̽̚̚ͅ ̶̡͌͑ ̴͇̭͖͉̘͙̒͋́͊̂ ̶͈͆͐̐̑̈́͑̚͝"̴̧̢̟̬͓̥̊̕S̴̨͓̯͎̥̜͎̯͌̒̄͆̈́͂ẗ̷̨̳͖̬̠͖̯͇́͛̈́̚͝e̷͉̔̀̍̃̀́p̸̭̌̍…̷͍̖̊̑͛̇̀͑ ̵̡̛̯̺̦̯͑̍̆̓̾͝b̸̦͙͖͕̣̦͐̆͠y̸̝̫̣̼̱͑͐̿̅͊ͅ ̴̡̨̻̫̣͔̓̋͂̕͝s̶̘̽̒̃t̴̮̠̐̎͝ẽ̴̺͎͕͉p̸̧̧̱̝̦̼̈.̵̢̩̯͖͕̣͚̈́̉̾̈́.̸̣̥̝̗̆̈́̍̀͛͝.̶̙͙̱̙͖͚̺̓̈́̍̓ ̸̰̪̓B̷̭̹͆͂̕͠ǘ̴̡̻̦̫̇̊̈r̷͎̭̞̺̻̼̳̱̉͂̍̚͝n̶̨̨͓͚̳̯̈́̌͠ ̸̧̬͉̪̪͓̬̜̈́̏̚ḭ̵̧̳̞̭̲̈̐̈́̊͗ṅ̸̳̏̕t̵̟̞̠̻̝͗̾͒͘͝ͅō̷̘̞ ̶̘̭͎̫̓͊p̷̛͓̝̤̝̈̄͐̚͘͠͝ͅi̵̧͔̻͓̠͛̐t̶̟͔̀c̵̆͊͋̽̅̓͜͝͝h̵̨̧͎̩̤͇͔̑̿̚̕ ̸̟̳͕̬̖̝͓̖͋͋b̶̫̈́̚ḷ̷͙͇̺̿͠ͅȁ̶̡͖͝c̶̩̝͔͇͎̫͕̠͋̃̋k̴̘͈̖̝̥̪̯̿̑͜͠ ̶̡̢̰̯̹̩̦͈͌c̷̢̘̱̿̇ḩ̶̼͖̰̳̫́̊̽͠a̸̒͐͐͌̓̒̈͘ͅr̴̛̻̞͙̤̙̲̟̋̒͒̿͠.̵̢̨̳̩̫̮̎̉̎͘͝ͅ"̴͔̩̊͊̏
̴̜̬͍̺̳͓̍̎͘ ̸̦̠̼̞̌̐̉͌̇̔̄ ̵̡̖͍̖͋̓͠͝ͅ ̷͇̺̟̖̭̠̔̊̎̉͆͘ ̶̲̩̭͓̫̪̫͔̑̐͋̾̉"̶̞̖̜͌̆͝Ả̵̫̺̫͍̩͌̂̌̎̔́̈́ ̴̨͔̖̹̫͙̦̽̍w̸̭̓̆͊ả̴̪̻̪̭̉ŗ̵͎̣̙̯̎̑͒̕m̸̼̝̥͌̍ ̴̛̣̳̞̙̄͊͋̄̇f̵̢̼̞̭̠͉̤̄i̵̛̝̯̜͉͋͒̄̂̌͌̒ͅr̵̩͓̓̽̒͘e̴̹̜̣͎̖̞̥̹̒͋͑̑p̴̡͖̤̘̩̖̓̈́̎͠ͅl̸̲̎̿̔̌̿̓̌a̷̠̮̱̱̮͚̺̐̍ͅc̸̥͔̈͊̍̓̚͠ḛ̴̲̇̈́…̷̢͍̮̭̳͂͜ ̷̟̦̳̮͋͗̎A̴̘̙̽̊̓̄̎̕ ̸̢̧͕́̉̍̆͐p̸̬̗̠̽̈͊͊̍͠ļ̷͈̯̜̫̊͛̋ȩ̵͖̩̳̦͖̟͛̿͆͘͝ņ̴͇͔̮̘̈̌̉̿̇͘͘t̸͈͙̪͍͂̐͌ĩ̴͇̌̽̀̐͐̌f̸̡̛͚̲̗̗̞̏͊̐̈͊ů̷͉̮̦͒̎̎͊͆̆͝l̶̨̮̰̝̇̄͑̍͝ ̵̛͔͈̮͂͋̋̊̇̈́̚d̸̡̕i̵̢̓̉̏́͘͝͝n̴̩̭̬̘̑n̶̝̗͙̰̤̻̻͇͊̆̒̎̎͒̕͝e̵͇̪̪̰̺͙̤͌̕r̵̬̞̫͎͙͉̤̱͂…̷̰̆͝ ̶̣̲͚̰͓͆̆̽͋ͅF̵̡̨̜̣͖͍̺̊͂̌͂͊̒̕͠a̶̜̰͈̦̯͔͖̣̽͗͊͊͛̈̕ǹ̵͖̃ç̴͉͕̈́̓̎͘ý̸̡̠̮͝ͅ ̵̡͍̗̩̫̀̇̄̈͌͘ḑ̷̜̺͖͉̲͉̆ȇ̷͖̥̰̐ç̵͇͎͚͗̈́̅́ͅȍ̵͖̰̠͔͊r̷̛̼̳̳̎͐͆̏̕a̶̡͛̇͊̈̏ţ̸̖͈̳̗̫̣͔̿͘͝ȋ̵̫̖̜̻̮͕̞̗̚õ̷̥̤̞̋̔͑̅̄n̵̟̘̹͂̾̒̃̐͝͝s̶̛͇̱͍̏͊̈́͗̏̃…̶̯͚̫͘ ̵̛͈̫͓̻̥͍̯͒̌͐W̶̱̽̊͝ḩ̸͔̠̼͓͚̋͋̂̾̌͠͠ͅą̷̞̥̪̖͍̣̼̑̈̈̏̏̑̓͝t̸̯̪͗̎̒̈͒ͅ ̴̭̪̮̆͆̇̆̋̉ẅ̵̻̲̮̅̕i̷̦̥̿̌ͅļ̵̢͚̰͎̒̆̏̐́͝͝l̴͙̞̘̭̑̄͆͋̉͝ ̸̢̞̹̟͙͎͆s̶̨̧͒͂̀͠h̵̛̥̦͓͉̽͋o̵̡̻̳̬̫̤̲̓̈̏͋̐̀̿͑w̶̫̦̹̖͍̲̪̋͛̆̓̒͊̈́̕ ̴͌ͅű̷͖̹̗̮̻͉͊̅̒̕p̴̧̢̗͕͖̞̈́̂ ̸̣͖̱̈́̂̐̈̈̃̕̚ẅ̵̹͙́͑̒̏̋h̶̅̄͐̉̆̓͜e̴̻̗̭̿n̶̢̞̠̖̘̳̮̱͆̈́̎̇̓͑ ̴̧̮̹̖̟̮́̀̔͘I̴̼͉͖͎͕̺̮͑͝ ̶̛͎̺͎̑̓̑̃̔̐̔ḽ̴̻͍̯̰̜͓͋̈̅̆̊i̸̙͈̪͖̓ģ̴̫̬̥̰́̏̉̒͜h̶͖͕̟̓͛̕͜t̵͔̺̮̚͠ ̴̝̺̳͖̭̥͆̆͂̚t̶̨͍̻̠̺͔̽̌͋͋̇̅͝h̵̢̧̢̘̩̞̖̜͋́̉ḛ̵̝̈́̇̑ ̶̧̞͈̦̦̇n̸̬̮͙̲̬͉̩͒͊̓̈́̓̏ẹ̴͈̓̇x̴͈͓̣͛̇̂̃͜͝t̷̠͇̞̯̐̿ ̴̣̝͓͈̭̜̥̼̈́͑͂̈́̀̾m̶̡̠̝͉̙̾͌̉͒̍ä̵̢̛̻̤̲͔̋͊̿̋̚͝t̷̢̹̺͓̪͋͘̕c̶̢̛̞̩̤͉̅͊͛h̷̛͎̐͋͑̋̚͠͠?̸͇̩̹͇̓̈̌̈͠"̸̱͔̦̜̾
̸̢͍̘̤͚̾͠͝ ̸̞͈̳̤̯͓̪͖́͂̑́͋̈́ ̸͚̗͉̥̮͆̀̎͌̉̚ ̴̩̘̟̲̦͐͊͐̃̒͝͝ ̴̥̌"̵͈̺̬̠̀̇̋̌̄͗͠Y̶̧̬͕̲̣͌̉̿̎̃̂͜o̷̝̜̓̒̋͜ṳ̶̌͘͝’̸̨͓͍̟̠̩̻̄͊̊̔l̴̛͚̦̮̩̼͗l̴͎̼̻̩̲̀̈́͊̽̆̃͜ ̸̩͠l̴̥̘̣̉͐̈́̈́́̀́̕e̵̹̩͉̳̠̹̅͆̽̚̕â̴̻̮͉͊̂̽̓̄͝v̵̧̰̬͕̯͛̂͒̿̍̃̇ë̷̛̪̟́̈͆́͛͊ ̷̘̜͙͊̐̐̉͜m̵̨͇̘͔̤͇̙͙̒̂̉̚͠͝ȇ̴̘̺̮̇ ̶̲͔͖̤̰̪̐̇̐̌̿̾̏̑͜w̴̥͒͂̿͒̽͝h̵͓̟̯̔̈́é̴͔̜̉n̷͈̍̃̾͆͝ ̶̨̮̟̺̯̱͌͋͑̌͊̃̐t̷̰͚̳̤̘̖̝̋́h̴̦́̂͐́̾͘ě̶̳͗̿̏̄͑͋̋ ̷̗̠͕͎͓͚̘̯͐̊̈́l̶͚̝̗̬̦̭̆͠i̶̯̭̱̎̾̏͛͋ģ̶̧̰̱̦̖͎͈̏̅̎̉̈́̽ȟ̶̰̈t̶̳̝͔͒͊̌͑̿͐̈́͘ ̸̪͐͗͌͂̄͝͝ö̴̢͍̰̠͕̱͕̱́̃͊̑̈́̒̄f̵̞̜̬͈̄̇̀̈́̒̈́͝ ̷̠̪̦̙̮̌̓t̷̩͎͕̊̆ĥ̴͎͊͂̂̓̔̐̎e̶̜̿̌̽̉ ̶̬̲͖̥͇̠̈́̕ḷ̸̛̩̫͔͌a̸̗̗̭͎̝̰̐͒͑̃̈͝s̵͕͔̹̞͎̼̭̱̋͊̀̄̒͛͠t̷̰͉̪̥̣͇̀̒ͅ ̵̯̠̣̦͎̮͖̈́͑̀m̸̡̯͙͇̙͎͕̲̽͑̕͝a̸̢̡̺͈͓͖͆̑͛̿ͅt̸̡̩̩́̎͊̃͒͂͌̕c̴̱̯̰͂ḩ̵̙̼̱̗̹͍̱͌͝ ̶̧̠̜̺͉͖͇̈́ģ̷̛̹̥̭͕̹͍̉̍͑̓̀̈́̑õ̵̭̞̼̟̫̋ȅ̵̮̟̏s̶̡̬̥̜͍͠ ̷̢̭̮̰̺̎o̸̧̧͇̞̘̠̘͆̌̐͝ừ̸̧̞̳̱̰̜̥̣̊͐̓̆̍t̶̺̝̭̹̰͎͐̈̌̅͒͝,̴͉̫͓̜̫̿̆͘ ̴̙̙͐͋̐͂̔̌͠w̴̡͓͈̭̮̠͓̅͜ơ̸̥̥͕͍̙͈͚͑̈͛̌͝n̷̡̠̥̏’̵̨̘͕̤̏͠t̵̡̞̦̹͕̦̋ ̵̧̦̖̟̹̝͍̀̊͠ͅy̶̧̰̹̱̱͂͘o̴̢̢͓͙͕̺̔͋̒̎̈́̕ȗ̶̳̟̬̥̰͔̣͌ͅ?̵̟̺̻͎̔͜"̸̝̟̗̰̣̌̈́
̸͈̽̋͊͂̕͝ͅ ̴̡̞̞̎̊̓͛̚ ̵̯̱̬̺̘͂̈́ ̷̖̣͓̫̖̦̩͒̌̌̉͘͜ ̶̖͔͉͙͈̳̤͕͌̎͐̓̂͛͐͠"̶̮͌̍͛̆̕T̵̨͇͓̜̈́̏̂͐̃̕͝h̷̳͕̭͐͑̃̿̚é̸̡̹͔̰̙̞̺̜̔̀̃́̒͝ŝ̵̡̠͎̣̩̬͆̀̐͂̈́̚e̸͚̣̗̝̋͊̊͊͘͘͝ͅ ̶̳̫͙̮͌͊̂̋͗̿͜ͅm̴͈̝̬̖̫̯͚͔͌̎̋͠͝ą̶̛̝͇̟͈̗̻͈̉̀͐̍̊ṯ̷̯̪̩͔̲̞͐ͅc̸̢̿͊͗̈́̾͂̋h̷̰̅̍̎̃̂̕ ̶̨̦͇̮̰̙̟̋̈́͂̉̅͝l̵̢͎̗̰͍̯̈́̇į̸̜́̆͒̅̚̚ḡ̶̞͎̈̃̓̉̏̅h̶̫͒̽́̉̿̈́͝t̶̜̬͋͆s̸̥̑̂̓͗ ̴͍͕̿̂̑͒a̴̭̤͔̹̎r̸͖̫͕̉̈̽͠e̶͔̪̱͑̍͐̈́͊͝͠ ̷͎̤̟͉̺͒m̷̡̩͕̟̾ͅỹ̸̩͉̰̫̼̹̒̈́͆̂́̿̕ ̵̼̫̙̜̹͚̄͛̓̋̇̈́o̷͈̱̩̣͕̾̐̐̊͋̾n̵͔̈́̔͒̀l̵̫͓̻̣͍̯͆͌̅̌̐̄̓y̵͓̙̟̾̇̊̊̉͠ ̴̨̦͎̤̩͕̉̅̑́̇̈́h̴̺̤͆́o̷̮͓̔̅̄͆̚͝p̴͚̬̭̲͓͒̈́̉̚e̴̛̪̞̖̼͋͐̉̍͊̚…̶͍͎̼̝͎͕̓͆̍͜͜"̴̯̺̍͊͝
̴̨͇̠͎̘̍ ̵̬̤͊͂̐ ̴̲̬̖͌̇̊̇͝ ̶̛̪̠̝̻̟̥̬̮͊̏̿̂̏͛͘ ̴̛̺̤̭̖̠̓̄́"̸̩̩͕͇̭͌̔͛̊͐͘W̴̡̮̲͔͗̎h̵̦̠̺̼̅̏͐̋͗̈͘͝e̸͈̭̠̲̝̩̳͛̎̈̌̑̅n̶̢̖͙̯̂̓ ̴͈̮͔̹͚͌̏̒̚a̸̡̖͒ ̵̮̈̓͝s̵̨̲̱̩͕̆̑̈h̸̢͚͚͒̅̓̎̀͊̉͜ò̵̤̳͂͝ͅͅo̵̢̧̦̻̬̩͍͎̔̈̍̎̈ṯ̶͙̖͊̂̈͊͑͜ì̷̪̀n̵̪̱͈̄̋̇g̵͓̾̍̈́̂ ̴̬͂̓̍̒s̴̛̞̞̦͚͙̪̙̄͜ṱ̷͌̂̑̎ä̵͖͍̲̲́̄̐̿̓͠r̶̰̠̼̫̈́͑̒̈́̃͠ ̷̨̩̝̺̱͉͚̬̑̑̓͛͑f̷̨̞͈̠̂̈́͋͆͝a̷̧̩̺̙̋l̷̡̟͎͖̻̰̩͕̽̈̽̅l̵̢̝̗̣͕͓̼̏̆͂͘̚s̸̲̺̱̣̈́͂͝ ̶̰̖̋͐̆̌͠͠f̶̧̝̫̪͉̹͔͎͒́͌̚͝͝r̷̺̞͊̌̈̔̀̍o̶̳̠̖̯̐̌̎͘m̸̢̺͓̘̬͖̪̩̐̿́ ̸̡̮̮̬͎̓̓̉͝͝ẗ̶͇͊h̶̙̬̘̗̲̳̓ė̷̢͖̖̼̽̂͐̆̅ ̷̧̼͎̬̮̳̬̾̈́̓̓͗͊͂s̸̨͕̮̤̙̖̍͒̍̌̚͝k̵̬͖̼͎̯̞͗͝ͅͅy̵͕̦͛̇̍,̷̪̣͕͍̭͓͚̏̓̂̈́ ̶͉̱̟̃̀͊̓̂̂̾͝i̵̢͖̩̓̓͗̍͜t̵̨̳̠̩̠̭̬̖̅̈́͂ ̵̺̘̳̘̙̙̄͊̄͌͆̅͠m̶̬̳̘̐̓ͅe̴̘͉͋͊̿͐̈́͘a̴͓̲͒̄̾͑̾̈́̅̊n̷̡̗͇̤͛͑s̶̡̖̜̯̱ ̴̰̱͓̱͕͔̬̳͂̾͒̏̅s̵̙̋õ̴͇̹̕m̶͕̠̥̼̘̺̯̓̔é̴̢̫̱̩̫õ̴̞̜̘̓̔̐ñ̷͓̹̟̰̙͛̓̄̔́̔ę̷̟̙͍̮͔͎̌̓̚͜ ̵̡̢̦̭͕͓̼͑͜w̶̮͓̫͕̭̬̑͊̿̔̚͝͠ͅë̵̜̹̹n̶̠̝͇͎̪̮͖͇̅̎̉t̷̟̪̻͕̿̽̈́͌̍͐̑͘ ̸̲̙͇̊͛̚t̷̪̠̝͇̾̿̉̋̿͘o̷̰̯̘͚͙̅͝ ̴̢̲̗̋͜͝͝ͅͅȟ̴̙̜͇̊̓è̸͙̗͍͕͋͋̈̈́̍̌ͅả̸͎͉̙v̴̦̤͙͓̘̝͛͊̈́̔̕͜è̸̖͇͔̖̯̮̼̜̃ṉ̸̜̻́̕.̶̪̻̭̤̽͂͛͐̊̌ ̵͖̺̙͙͒͘Į̶̙͍̦̟͖͙͓̈́̋̈̆͊͂̑͘ ̴̡̯͙͎̻̩̽͒̇̑̉͠w̵̼̎̿̏̑͐͋̏͝ọ̶̥̩͗̎̚n̸͖̾ḏ̸̻͚͇̜̪͓̩̈̌͆͛̍̾̚e̷̬̽̋͛̚r̴̘̰͕̆͌̃͑͋͘͝ ̷̨̧̲̜̲̬̖̾̋͂́̍̽͠ẅ̴̹͚̙́͑̌̋̚h̴̜̹͈̲́̓̾̍̂̃͘͝ơ̶̗̟̥̺͙̌̑̏͠s̷̯̹̰̪͔̀͆͊͘ẽ̵̗̭̱̱̥̞̳̀̉̓͊͠ ̸̛̤͔̩̦̙̾̈́̎͊̓̈́͊ͅͅş̴̗͚̳͖̞͛̃̃͑̈́̐t̸̛̠̤̙̩͈̬̐̎̉̈́̆̈́͜a̴̛̙̫̣͎͌̇̀͌̒̕͜͠r̸̯̟̞̹̙͆̋ ̵̡̯͇̹͇̹̓t̸̻̗̺͕̹͈̺̜͌̌̚͠h̴̘̙̺̗̘͔̼̋͌̆̉͋̒͜͝͠ǎ̶̤̭͙͖͌͝t̷̢̳͔̭̹̘̥̞̑͌̿͗̊̚ ̷̡͚̰̻͕̪̙̿̀̾̆͜i̶̠̼̚ṡ̷̬̽…̸̺"̶͍͑”

“Make it stop… Please make it stop.” My voice sounds like it’s dying, and my mind is on the verge of insanity. I can only console myself with the fact, that my words have at least a semblance of logic. Why is it affecting my mind so much? Do the abnormalities attack the area of your mind, that is weak to stimulation?! Is that why, my heart feels like it’s going to rip itself out of my chest?! I hate it! I hate that feeling! Angela promised me a paradise, and I’m here, ramping like a pathetic worm, in front of an absolutely chaotic hell! This isn’t how my third life should end!

Slowly but surely, I get a grip of myself. My whole body is shaking, both my eyes and face are red from stress and anger, my mouth has trouble closing itself, and my breath is erratic. I can’t seem to calm myself. Yet my goal seems clearer than it has ever been, I need to destroy. No plan, no preparation, just pure violence will solve this problem, right? Then I’ll just rush-!

“If I must perish… Then I’ll make you meet the same fate.”

As I start running towards my opponent, I’m appalled by how eerily clear this sentence was. This is followed by two tall and disembodied matches appearing before me. I can’t even react to this improbable event, as the right one charges at me, I manage to block its incoming attack, but I immediately get struck by the other one, a burn mark appears on my face as I get send flying back to my starting point.

I get up once more, clutching my baton to make sure it’s still with me. “Shit.” I spit. “She never did that before, does being linked to an employee give her more power?” I analyze the situation. I did say I shouldn’t overthink the situation, but the desire to do so is stronger than me. These two creepily tall matches just appeared, I need a back-up plan.

I mutter to myself, touching my new burn mark. “This hit didn’t hurt me too bad. If I take too many, it’ll be a big problem, but I should be fine for now.” My eyes naturally drift towards the abnormality. “They aren’t moving towards me… Are they guarding her? If so I must find a way to break them before attacking her.” I feel my face narrowing. I can’t see how I look, but I know, I’ve never felt this way before.

No hate, no resentment, just a cold and immensely strong to desire to finish my work, returning home with my employee by my side.

My grip tightens around my weapon, my whole body feels tense. But not like when she assaulted my mind, a different kind of tenseness. Is that what they call “determination”? I could see why Angela got so intoxicated with this desire. To the point of ruining all of our work. The energy found in desperation, is fascinating. Instead of getting panicked by my plan failing, this is how I should have reacted more often than not.

“In 3 turns, my power will explode, brighter than the sun.”

A countdown eh? With how, this “Light” energy supposedly work, she’ll need to clash with me, through her friends or by herself, before being able to channel her power. Meaning I have three attempts. I take a deep breath, my heart is still pounding, but I feel so alive. This cold robotic body, is thrilling with an unhealthy excitement, to fight against death, to fight alone against three stronger opponents.

Maybe it would have been terrifying for any normal human, for my past self. But she loathed average, the moment she decided to follow Carmen. And me, being born in chaos, like these odds. “I’ll take on this challenge Scorched Girl.” I immediately rush-in.

The moment I begin to move, the match on the right, positions itself right in front of my target. It irks me a bit, but my determination don’t falter. Considering how fragile it looks, one or two good swipes should be enough to take care of it. Breath in and breath out Malkuth, Roland has shown you how to do it.

I run closer, and closer, and closer to it… Which is immediately followed by jumping just before him! He’s stunned! He didn’t except that! So I attack with one horizontal strike and it-… misses? Twisting its body 90° backwards, the match manages to dodge my attack.

“An unworthy opponent like you, who doesn’t see the beauty in flames, has no chance to defeat us!”

As she taunts me, the other match moves towards me. Logically since I’m in the air, I have no room to dodge his attack… But in such an environment, with my past being the reason I’m even here, I don’t buy the idea of getting myself killed for something as insignificant as logic!

As the match tries to get near me, I swiftly turns my body towards him, and reaches for his head. My hand goes through the fire, and ignoring the pain, I clutch it. It gets confused, which I use to give the creature a push forward. This gives me enough momentum to find myself above it, while it starts to fall down, tripping on its still dodging comrade. This quick movement, which feels like it lasted an eternity, only really took place in a few seconds, and before anyone can react, I deal a powerful downward blow towards the one that dodged my strike earlier. The impact slices it in half, making its corpse disappear in a flourish of golden pages.

I then crash to the ground, which gives the Scorched Girl some time to retaliate with a weak explosion to push me backwards. I have some trouble getting up. As the adrenaline wears out, my right hand hurts like hell, I can’t even close it properly, while my dominant one was still trying its best to clutch my weapon. My legs felt incredibly numb, shaking a bit from my overall exhaustion, and I had some trouble keeping my eyes hydrated. My vision was getting a bit blurry.

Despite that, I still found the strength in me to taunt. “How’s... that? Even though... you taunted me... so much... it looks like... you’re the one getting roasted!” This makes me chuckle a bit, as the Scorched Girl, angry, starts crying.

"̸̞͆N̷̲̕ǒ̵͖…̵̫́ ̷̺̅D̷͙̍õ̸̧n̵̥̓’̶͚̎t̴̞̅ ̷͚͛t̷̟̉a̸̡͊k̸̡̽e̶̲͛ ̸̪͠ḣ̷͖õ̶̫p̶͒͜e̵͋͜ ̵̝͗a̸̭̔w̶̜̕a̷̞̚y̶͔̌ ̶̯̾f̵̜͌r̸͈͊ò̷͖m̴̡͛ ̵̪̽m̷̒͜ë̴͉.̵͉̚ 2"̷̇͜

Her voice distorts again, but I do manage to keep my composure no matter the pain. I swore to win this fight, moreover it’s my duty to do so, so nothing will stop me now. Only two turns left, and one match to destroy. I should be fine right? I don’t know what she’s planning to do after four turns, but if I manage to fend it off, she probably won’t be able to attack me… At least she didn’t do anything up until now.

Knowing I won’t be able to do the same kind of attack as previously, due to a burnt hand, and almost no strength left, I have another plan in mind. I commence running, and the remaining match starts to run towards me. Perfect. Instead of jumping, I slide down, going between his wide-open legs and before swiftly turning back and getting up. It doesn’t have any time to react as I beat it up with multiple strikes, before it disappears too. A sharp yell, makes the whole place trembles, and my head hurt. It quickly stops though, instead being replaced by a very apathetic voice, that’s barely audible.

"̴̠̤̲͒͜͝T̸̰̺̻̿̍h̶̡̡̹̘͈̒̄̈̇͝e̵͎̘͚͇̟̒ ̶̞̩̠͛̉͌̈͑ẅ̶̫̪̫́a̶̞̼̳̖͕̎͐̽̓ȓ̸͙̹̠̭͙m̸̼͍̳̉͑t̷̯̩̲̣͖̔̓̃̿̚ḩ̷̡͚̙̬̏̈,̶̞̰̪̇͌̇ ̷̜̩̾̈̊͒͝t̶͖̦͚̿̾̿͜h̷̟̖̘̋͋̂̕e̴̮͋ ̷̹̲̍̚f̷̺͌̓͘e̶̩͉̗͙̊̕a̸̮͙̠̪̐s̵͇̺̮̲̬͌͛͝t̷͖̞̰̋ͅ,̷͍͕̅̾̉̄ ̷̡̖̉̈͌̕̚ͅt̷̰̜̓̍̑̕ḥ̷͓̩̗͔̅͐̑e̶̺͉̅ ̴̤̣͈̻̪̂̏̓p̴̧͓̐̍ͅȑ̷̤̦̭͍̺͌́͑̕ȩ̵̲̙̜̀̀̉t̶̠͍̖͙̅͂͋t̴̼̼̟̗̞͆̓̊͂̉ì̵̹̎̓́͠n̸̼͂̄͘ę̵̧̗̤͙̅̌š̴̞̲̺͉̐͗s̶̼̃̃͑…̷͖̦͓̾̾̑͑ ̴̠̼̈́A̴͖̻͕͛͝l̶̺̝̘͊͜͠l̴̟͊͆̋̕ ̸̩͙̬͌́̈́g̴̛͉͇͖̮̐͂ơ̷͔̈̈́͂̐n̷͉̈́̎͠e̴̛̫̠̲͇̅͆.̶̗͍͛̄̀̕͘ ̸̲̥̋̿̉T̵̞͈̏͆͋̃h̵̡̘̠̯̅͠e̶̝̊̉͂̏r̸̗͇͌̍͗̐e̸̲͈̫̫͌’̴̢̗̭͇͉͋͒̐͂s̸̢̙͈͉̼̒̀̌̚ ̴̡̖̼̭̥̎̈́͌̚ñ̸͇͙ō̵̖̣̺͕̲t̵̗̤̋͌̾͝h̶̝͖͕͕̆̓̄i̶̦̣͕͆͒͛͛̋ṉ̶̢̛̲͇̪̋͐̑g̷̡̰̳̮͐ ̸̺̺̉͝l̴̺̆͛͛̀ȅ̸͚͕̻̲͛͒̚f̸̢̱͎̼͒̈͜͝t̶̲̜̲͔̮̿̍̈ ̸̧̧̜͙̈́̅̎̃ń̴̺͓o̵̱̲̬̰̊̿͋̎ẅ̷̡̙̱̻́̎̂̆…̸̬̅̅͒̃"̷̧̳͍́

It almost makes me feel bad for her, but there’s no time for pity. However, I don’t even have time to aim my strike, before she speaks again in a much clearer and menacing tone.

“It’s not four lights, but I think it’ll do. To burn all things that are bright to ashes…”

The moment I try to register why she said that, is the moment I’m immediately met by a violent heat-wave in the face! It hurts so much! I can practically feel my face melting away. She only used a two-third of her real power yet it still feels so powerful! So close to the end…!

“If I must perish… Then I’ll make you meet the same fate.”

No! No I won’t lose this easily! I won’t let myself be defeated by a brat! With a firm stance, I get my balance back. I breath again, sharply, before taking a step forward, followed by another, and another, until I’m running through the pain and-!

“Sorry but you won’t be able to.” I strike the abnormality with a firm grip. “It’s over now.”

Before I can actually hit her though… She stops moving. As if accepting the hit, she just looks at me. Something really childish comes out of her mouth: “The One-True Magician of Fiercely Fire… It’s you.” As if combining both hers and Unknown’s way of speaking and obsessions. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the look on her face as she’s about to turn into a book.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity of just observing a little girl’s face just as she’s about to die, the swing connects.

The Scorched Girl winces at the hit, and falls down, a smile on her face. With her defeat, the golden pages appear again, and eat the entire background, before culminating into a proper book for Angela to recover. The reason as why floors are upgraded with each realization is that she apparently uses the books to infuse them with the abnormalities’ power-infused books, as a basis for the newer spaces. This does give each floor some lack of logic between each new spaces, since they are based on vastly different things. But this medieval town stuff, might give a very nice and fancy upgrade for the floor.

Now that the fight is over, I feel myself getting healed up, and my vision recovers… This… doesn’t completely make me happy. I should talk to Angela about this. As I think so, I find myself in a pretty bland environment. I look around and see Unknown’s... body? I rush to his side, to see if he’s alright, but he doesn’t respond right away, so I take a good look at what I have in front of me. I can certainly discern his features and face… He does look exactly how he did before dying… But his eyes are now just some perpetually-opened dots with red as their only color. His whole body is also now crisp-black as if he was burnt to an insane degree. The only things that didn’t change are his pretty tall height, 182 cm, his hair-style of amber color, as well as his crooked and sharp white teeth, curved in a big smile.

“So that’s how an association work.” I mutter to myself. What I have in front of me, is that tragic little ashed-one. But it seems, she’s using the body of Unknown as a way to project herself, most abnormalities were destroyed in that final day, but Angela took them in, and linked them to someone, in hope of giving both the host and the abnormality a chance to live. The Sephirahs were spared, because of our own special circumstances, we weren’t human to begin with, but they were.

According to Boss, X, when he was still around; fusing an abnormality and a human could be possible with the right technology, as the former was born out of the latter’s consciousness. But the risk is that the host can easily be consumed if they don’t have matching thoughts, and a perfect synergy. Worst-case scenario the host will never be recovered. If not, they’ll just have a scar, that manifests itself as a part of the abnormality, plaguing the host’s body. This seems to be the case with Unknown, despite the Scorched Girl being defeated, his body had now a permanent reminder that he fused with her, at some point, with these newfound traits being the proof of that.

I know it’s idealism, but I pray that everyone’s sanity can survive their fusion. I remember asking Angela if it was possible to resurrect people without linking them to such dangerous entities.
----------------------------------------------------------
“Of course it is.” My face lights up but she immediately follows by: “If you want us to be completely destroyed by the city.” My smile fell off as quickly as it rose.

Her voice doesn’t waver, nor does it show any sign of emotion, just plain cold calculation, as she went on and on with a rant, precisely explaining why it wasn’t possible.

“You see, L corp’s employees were skilled for sure, but the equipment also played a huge part in our capability. We can’t use it anymore. More precisely, the Light is what allowed us to maintain E.G.O armors and weapons on people that didn’t awoke theirs naturally, so unlike the Miracle Five who all did. Despite being the catalyst of the Light, I can’t use its full potential without risking erasure, so we need another way to defend ourselves. By fusing an employee and an abnormality together, I can create a new body for them, one who’s power scales to the opponent’s and who has the ability to perfectly replicate armors, weapons, and techniques from previously defeated opponents. This doesn’t work on us Sephirahs due to our own condition that prevent us from living without the basics of our mechanical parts, nor does it work on guests, who can only be salvaged through the making of a hollow-shell of a body. That is because they weren’t in contact with the abnormality like the employees were, so if I try it’s almost a guaranteed to end with them being taken over. I do not know if Finn will ever be able to equip a combat page for example… Recruited guests will probably have to train if they want to keep up with everyone else… At least until I better understand my power, and have better control over it.”

As she finishes talking, she looks at me, with what I can only assume is very subtle satisfaction and smugness. “Any question?”

I sigh. “No Angela, you made yourself clear.”

She smiles. “Good, now get back to work!”
------------------------------------------------------------

I shake off that feeling of humiliation, which keeps coming back to me whenever I remember this discussion. I mean… At least, it wasn’t as bad as that “other” discussion. I shudder at the simple thought of it, although I also feel my face getting a bit hotter.

“Boo!” says Unknown as he jolts awake. “How’s it going Mal-Boss?” I can’t answer anything, being too busy gathering my composure after he scared me out of my mind.

“Good to see you again Unko-… Nino.” I hesitate a bit. He never revealed his name to anyone, even his closest friend, but as I begin stressing out, I see him a big smile forming on his lips.

He pumps his fist in the air, before making a card appear out of thin air. “Yeah it’s good to be back indeed! And I’m happy you saw my whole backstory through your visions, means I won’t have to explain it, neither to you, nor the ones that are still asleep!” He lets out a laugh, and I can’t help but agree. This system of semi-consciousness while waiting for a floor realization is really useful.

After a bit of silence, Nino asks something again: “So uh… I’m full on the information regarding what happened after the creation of this place… But why does it exist in the first place? Isn’t Angela like, super powerful and all? Can’t she conquer the City by herself?”

Oh right. Only the Sephirahs and the de facto leader of each group know about this. I try my best to sum up the whole situation, Angela’s dream, our role in it, and so on, and so forth. It takes a solid ten minutes at least. “So basically Angela gives all of us a second chance even during her selfish wish?”

That’s a pretty simplistic conclusion but I can’t say he’s particularly wrong. Even so I try to explain my point of view at the time: “Yeah but it was at the cost of X, our gentle boss’ life, and the failure of L corp’s whole project. Despite the time dedicated to it. Despite you giving your life for it.”

“I’d take it anyway.” is his response.

“Uh?” I’m a bit stunned by his lack of hesitation, he’s not even batting an eye at the explanation.

Sensing my shock, he continues: “I’m sorry about your loss with X since he seemed like a great guy, but if I can have a second shot at life and work under better conditions, I’d be a fool not to take it! Plus I knew magician didn’t die that easily.”

Silence falls upon us after this answer. I can see that Nino is getting a bit fidgety, worrying if he did something wrong. Maybe I should just be upfront and honest about what actually worried me when I first explained the situation. “Actually I was more worried about you.”

“Really?” He answers a bit surprise, even tilting his head to the side.

I follow through with a more throughout reasoning: “X and Ayin’s objective… It was noble. It had weight. But too many suffered because of it. We aren’t even aware of how many loops we went through. So I decided to move forward, even if I didn’t want Angela’s offer at first. However, I’m worried about you guys. The ones I had under my responsibility. Since your lives were thrown away.”

His only reaction to my tale, is a big open laugh. “Well... I can’t speak for the others. But mine was already in the gutter. So I’ll happily follow your lead boss!” However, my joy to seeing him be so unaffected quickly drops when he adds this: “Plus I can’t die here, I still need to make Salem pay for what he did to me.”

I try to laugh it off. “Hey no rough in-fighting! We already have enough in our hands right now.” As a shiver crawls down on my spine.

“Sure, sure.” He quickly drops the subject but I can sense that he’s not joking much, which is understandable… But seeing Nino so serious is a terrifying feeling.

“Come on don’t be like that.” is a short response and the best I can come up with. Before anything else could be said, a small figure pops out of Nino’s coat.

We both jolt in surprise, which makes the little thing cry… And flames come out of it?

“Scorched Girl?” I say incredulously.

Nino is at a loss for words, but immediately and with a rare delicacy grabs her. “Buddy? Hey can you see me? Don’t cry anymore.”

Feeling his presence, the little one is instantly calmed down, going as far as to clutch his hand hoping he’d never let her alone. He looks at me, no crazed eye, euphoria, or any type of extreme emotion I often associated with him. A genuine smile forms on his face. “I owe a lot to Angela now...” He murmurs.

As he says this, the little abnormality gets up and starts to whisper something to him. This makes him laugh. “She says that you’re really scary when you fight.” I look down in embarrassment. My emotions did burst in this fight. I guess this is the “emotional level” she talked about. “But that you’re also really cool! Worthy of a floor master!” Now my embarrassment is due to something else. “I can agree though! She’s right! I saw that fight with my own two eyes while possessed and damn! Turning your nervousness into determination made you on fire! If you had an E.G.O it would definitely be fire-related.”

Disregarding the fact I’m extremely bad at taking compliments, this does make me think. The Scorched Girl did say something similar to me. I touch my face and neck. I got healed-up by winning the fight, but the scars… They still feel so present. I wouldn’t say they felt good. But I think they represented something important for me. A progression.

I get up from my spot and lend a hand to Nino so he can do the same. “So, can I conclude you’re in for the project?”

He smiles brightly. “Sure! Me and that little girl are ready to kick some ass under your command!”

It’s my turn to be happy. However this doesn’t feel completely right. “I don’t think it’s exactly it. There isn’t a hierarchy in place currently. So I guess from now on, we’re equals okay? And our job is to both “kick ass” and study history.”

“Fine by me! Oh this is going to be so cool when everyone else returns home! Hey by the way… How has Hoon been doing ever since… You know?” Despite his joy I could sense a heavily worried tone now that the question has started plaguing his mind.

In the past, I would have dodged the question or lie, in fear of what could happen to me. But now… “Not good. Your death took a toll on him, and his own demise… Was brutal. I hope that despite the very mentally draining association he’s stuck in for now, will not make us lose him forever.”

Nino’s tone becomes very serious. “We will get him back. Because that’s what this new shot at life is all about.”

Feeling my confidence rejuvenated I answer. “Yeah we will.”

[Employee N°37: “Nino Maskelyne”
Assigned Floor: “History”
Friend: “Malkuth”
Restoration successfully completed.]

(“Did I hear that correctly Malkuth?”
“Y-Yes Angela you did.”
“You, who’s so skittish, asks me to not fully heal the scars on your right cheek and neck?”
“Y-Yes.”
“Why?”
“It’s for me...memento Angela. A sign that I grew up, and in honor of the first foe I defeated.”
“Well… If that’s what you want, fine.”
“Hmm...”
“What?”
“W-Will this hurt?”
“I guess people don’t change that easily.”
“S...Stop laughing! Man, telling you anything is a bad idea!”
“Yet you still do it in the end.”
“...”
“I appreciate your trust in me.”)
___________________________________
With this, the story of the Control Freak stops for today.
But there are still so many to cover anyway.
After all, there’s still that cliff-hanger regarding the Rookie.
So let’s see what happened over there quickly.
___________________________________

My breathing accelerates drastically. Moments ago, I was just conversing with Ms Makuth, encouraging her because of the tough fight she was about to enter, and in a matter of seconds I find myself here. This place of absolute and blinding light. Before I get any more time to process what just happened, I hear a voice calling to me.

“Tell me Rookie, how strong is your desire to become a hero ?”

I get the idea that it’s supposed to be relaxing, or charming. But I only hear something disgustingly distorted, despite that the words are clear. “Who’s there? Show yourself!”

“My… Don’t need to be so aggressive about it. After all, your happiness is my happiness.” The moment I see her, I regret calling out to her like this. She’s something indescribable. A creature of nightmare, that seems so frighteningly familiar.

She takes a step forward and I unsheathe my sword in a matter of seconds. “Don’t come any closer! Who… What are you?”

She laughs, a very wrong, very distorted one, something that you could only hear in the deepest abyss of hell. I feel my sanity sleeping just from listening to it. “What am I? This is no way to talk to a lady. Didn’t your sister taught you manners… Finn?”

A cold shiver runs down my spine, my grip on my weapon loosens, but I’m seconds away from attacking this thing. “I don’t want to hear about her from your mouth. How do you come to know this? If you plan on attacking her or Mr Roland, I’ll make sure you won’t have the chance to!” The glow that has become so familiar to me when my emotions get the better of my reason during a fight, happens again.

The creature seems genuinely interested in the glow. I don’t know where, her I guess, eyes are supposed to be but she leans forward. “So you are indeed the one able to wield it.” Before retracting and speaking again. “Don’t worry I don’t plan on attacking anyone. I’m a pacifist.”

I try to scoff like a cool guy. “Y...Yeah right.” But I fail miserably at the sight of this eldritch horror. “H...Hard to tell with this appearance.”

The creature ponders for a moment before saying something else. “You know… You’re actually the first person to see me in this form, anyone else I appear to as a pretty young woman. My previous appearance actually before being turned into this monstrosity.”

My jaw drops. “You were human before?!” It nods…? I guess that’s the right word.

“Indeed I was... centuries… maybe millenniums ago? You should ask dear Angela about this. Telling you my name would be too easy, so I’ll let you describe me to her. As to not ruin the surprise too much for her.” What the hell is this thing? Sister wouldn’t like seeing me cursing so much, but I’m actually in complete confusion and panic. Since words aren’t coming out of my mouth, the creature speaks again: “With this out of the way. I’ll repeat my question if you allow me. Would you like my help, to unleash your full potential?”

This time I manage to shout clearly at the thing. “I don’t want anything from you! Free me from this place or I’ll kill you!” The sword glows again.

This doesn’t seem to anger nor annoy her. Instead she seems, pitiful? “Acting very heroic I see. Let me asks you something then. Did your attitude bring you anything positive?”

I shake in anger. “What are you implying?”

She leans forward, and I back down a bit. “I’m implying that apart from dying once, getting your love killed, all while becoming the slave of Angela, who’s responsible for your misery… You accomplished nothing.”

I rush forward without hesitating. I try to swing a hit, but something invisible pushes my backward. I can’t even really understand what happened, it seems that this creature is too powerful for me. Despite that I won’t back down. “I know what Eri said to me. I regret leaving her to die with all of my heart! But I won’t let you talk about the librarians like this! I don’t know for sure about Ms Angela, but Mr Roland and Ms Malkuth are wonderful persons!”

She sighs. “That’s because you’re a kid, and they treat you like so. If you really knew any of them, and any of those to come they’d fall in your esteem. Just like with Yu-...”

I try again to attack her, but that mysterious force pushes me away again. I’m still so weak that it makes me grit my teeth! “Don’t talk about the office. We are poor, from the worst place of this city. I don’t blame anyone for how they turned out, but I won’t let myself get corrupted! I’ll make this agency’s legacy live through thick and thin!”

Still not budging nor feeling threatened one bit, the creature continues the discussion. “I guess this never-ending optimism is what allows you to wield the Light. Innocence is the requirement to be in completely symbiosis with it.” Is that the explanation behind why my weapons continuously glows… Even when I’m using-…? “But let me tell you something young man, this is a dangerous game you’re playing. And I know for a fact that if you keep acting this selflessly, wielding this dangerous power that you can’t control...”

She leans even closer to me. “You’ll end up like me.”

I take a moment to process what she just said. “Wha...What? But aren’t innocent people supposed to be rewarded for doing good? H...How did you end up like this? You look like the Devil!”

She laughs again. “Oh but this is no fairy tale Finn. For example, maybe that snow-haired sister of yours is lying about her name. Did you even question it?”

I shake my death in disbelief. “N...No! I didn’t because she has no reason to lie to me! We… We’ve been together for so long.”

She continues her questioning. “Alright, in that case did you even ask yourself what job she worked at ?

I stutter. “A...f-fixer right? That’s what she always told me… She can’t lie about that too? Right?”

The creature cuts me off and resumes her talking. “See? That’s what I was talking about. The world doesn’t see innocence as something valuable, it sees it as being stupidly blind, never interrogating yourself about the things around you. You’re naivety will just lead to your downfall, and idealism is the biggest plague on your mind. It has already been the case for a lot of people before you.”

Is this really what innocence was all bout in this city? Couldn’t it have some kind of value? Mr Roland complimented it, didn’t he? “In that case what about heroism? Is this really so worthless…?”

She pondered a bit, before saying something. “Heroes probably do exist in this world. Small actions that seem insignificant, will have great positive effects on others. Just depends on the perspective. But your definition of it is certainly wrong, something that already got you killed. You shiver, just like any other human, at death’s door, yet you still insist on going to the front-line, tanking the hits and even going out of your way to protect Roland. That is not heroism, that is self-harm disguised as a positive action.”

My head now hangs low at this prospect. “So… Where do I go from now?”

The monster sighs. “It’s for you to decide child. You can take my offer, I’ll grant you a power that will let you do anything you want, being able to master the Light as much as you want. Or stops fooling yourself, but lose that power. For now you’re still stuck in-between foolish innocence and a desire to change the world, which as I learn at my own expense, don’t mesh well together. If there’s only one thing I can tell you, is that choosing to be so prone to self-harm to conserve your ideal of a hero, will only hurt those around you.”

And with that sentence, I find myself back to the Library, right where I stood once before. I try to go to Makuth’s floor but I’m stopped in my track by an invisible barrier. She’s still in her fight, so time probably stopped while I was there. What was this place anyway…?

And am I such a bad person?

(“Ah! Hello Carmen-master! How did the conversation went?”
“Hello Bich-ui-Saeng. Poorly.”
“You know everyone else, even myself, has me named “The Being of Light”?”
“If you don’t stop criticizing my naming choice, I’ll erase you from existence.”
“Okay, okay… So what went wrong exactly?”
“Nothing. And that’s the problem. He’s exactly like I anticipated.”
“You mean naive, with a flawed description of heroism that can’t fit this bleak world, and who never questions what those he trusts tell him?”
“Yes. To top it all off, he’s also been developing some self-harm tendencies that he isn’t aware of. I’m sure he’s now thinking that he’s a bad person for being the way he is, instead of actually understanding what I told him.”
“So… This will happen eventually right?”
“People don’t change that easily, he won’t stop being that naive kid until it’s too late… He’ll awaken his E.G.O after refusing my deal, believing he needs his own power to save those he cares about, get consumed by his own light, and end up trapped with us here, as a part of the Library itself, like the body of X that you’re using.”
“For such a supposedly positive thing, that you dedicated your life for, and which is also what I’m made of... It seems awfully evil. The more innocent and pure someone is, the more he’s favored by the Light and can wield it, hence why this kid has such a versatile use of it. But it comes at the price of taking a huge toll on the user’s body, since the Light wants to keep that purity, there’s a high chance that if someone, is too virtuous in his foolishness and naivety, he’ll be consumed by the Light and fuse with it. Sounds like a parasite to me. I can’t even imagine it immediately consuming something ultra-pure but fragile like a baby.”
“That wasn’t always the case… But since I created it, and am now a part of it… I guess it just reflects my own mentality and feelings towards the person I was and what it led to. I hate what I did to everyone… To Enoch… To Ayin.”
“Well, on a more positive note, I did prepare Finn’s spot as the guardian of the column containing the souls of those that died here, accepting their fate, and at L Corp, years before X’s final run. Which could also help us bring back the two you mentioned, at least as illusions of their former self.”
“Good.”
“...”
“...”
“Master, does this outcome pains you? I mean, how everything turned out.”
“… Beyond imagination...”)
__________________________________
As the Light weeps,
The Darkness sleeps.
Among the Silence of Death nothing breaks,
That same nightmare, again, he makes.
___________________________________
“Are you sure it won’t take too long?”

Feels like I heard this question a dozen time by now…

And like always I answer: “Don’t worry honey it won’t. I just need to help Oliver with something.”

…

I always know how this end. Yet after getting so numb to the ending, seeing her alive again is actually the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I could try to deviate from the script to see if I can dream instead of suffer… I’m a coward… I don’t know what will happen if I go off-script.

She pouts a bit, so cute. “Okay… But don’t keep me and the baby waiting too long.” She then approaches me and kiss my lips with the same carefree boldness, she had only around me. “I’ll see you later then Roland.” No you won’t… You’ll never again.

Despite that my head nods on its own, and leaves the house. It was a nice house. Nothing too shabby. I wished I could have spent my life here with her.

I walk outside a bit, before hearing it. The dawn of my existence. The piano partition.

I actually never heard it myself, but my hatred for it makes up for that. I invent its sound, I invent its identity. I never knew who this pianist was. But thanks to that, I have something to beat the shit out of. I have a very clear enemy.

Now that the music has started, I know what will happen. I’ll hear Angelica’s voice and then… “Mr Roland, it hurts.”

My head jolts backward. “Finn?” I see him… But at the same time it doesn’t look like him. His clothes are similar but completely burnt. His hair is messy. The upper-half of his face is covered by something made out of light, and his eyes are only drawn as two white circles. He also now sports a completely undamaged cape, that looks like something childish to represent hero, which complements his seemingly short sword being completely made of light. He seems completely out of energy. The voice is unmistakable though.

He slowly goes towards me. “I...’m sorry. I couldn’t get him… This fire guy… He went away. I’m sorry… I’m an idiot.”

I rush to his side. “What are you talking about? What happened?” I can feel myself panicking despite this only being a dream.

He cries. “It hurts... Mr Roland... My chest, my heart… It feels like it’s going to explode...”

Without hesitation, I grab him and he starts to nuzzle up to my chest. But I can feel him slowly losing his grip. “It’s fine Finn, everything’s fine you’re going to be okay.”

He shakes his head, and I feel myself crying from despair as well. He wails so much that he can’t even speak properly. “I...I...I...I should have l-listen to the m-monster...”

Before I can answer anything, he explodes into thousands of pages, and disappears. Leaving nothing behind.

Angelica then reappears but without that sweetness I’ve came to expect from her in my dreams. “Don’t you understand how toxic you are? You let everyone die around you. Wouldn’t it be better if you just died?”

These words cut me even deeper than anything I’ve ever been attacked by to this day… I try to answer something, anything! But nothing comes out, and I’m awake. Still in the same spot from where I took that nap. I sigh and get up. “Hey Angela.” I say next to a free spot. “Is it time for the reception already?”

She appears right next to me in a flash. I got used to her powers by now. “In a moment. They are still having some debate over whether or not, getting into the library is a good idea.”

I’m half-annoyed and half-curious. “Really? Even after all of this talk? These guys are slow.”

She calmly explains. “Probably because of the death of their cult leader. This made them unsure of what to do. Particularly that Consta guy.”

I sigh. “That’s life for some, but I’d hate that. Anyway, I’ll wait.”

She tilts her head to the side, but a bit too much for it to be natural. I would tell her this, but I don’t want to deal with it right now. “I’ve never seen you so eager to fight before. What seems to be the problem?”

I make a small hand gesture, something reassuring. “Nothing. Let’s just get this over with.” She doesn’t ask anything more and disappears.

If she were mortal, I would have bashed her head in so hard nobody would recognize her. Then I’d destroy the rest of her body by watching it burn.

I shake my head from these feelings. I made a promise to myself. I won’t do anything until I get to know her and her reasons a bit better. I also need to wait for the delivery boy. I hang around, waiting for another one of these fights to occur. I’m not particularly thrilled by them mind you. But at least it gives me something to do, and with a bit of luck, we’ll manage to put their souls to rest. Unlike…

“Hey dipshit! Why are you looking so down?” Them. Well more specifically him. Mang-chi mostly hangs around Malkuth, and is generally chill. As for Lenny she told me she wanted to see Angela urgently. So I guess she’s currently busy talking about something with her, while we’re waiting for the Guests to show up, even then, if she was there it wouldn’t be much of a problem, she’s not very annoying. So this just leaves me with…

“Fuck off Pete.” This guy. Oh I regret so much this fight. These guys have just too much ambitions so it can never be fulfilled. Why the hell, three of the most miserable people I’ve ever met, have also the most undying will? This makes no logical sense…

I don’t want anything to do with him, but despite that he stays. “I mean… You’re looking super down. And as someone who’s now dead so I can’t do anything else, it pisses me off! Plus you’re the one that killed me, you should be responsible for carrying on my wishes!”

I sigh, what an idiot. “If I had to carry the wish and regrets from all of those I killed. I would have died of exhaustion and guilt a long time ago.” Although, having someone to talk to in this period do seem like a good idea. “Hey Pete, have you ever lost the love of your life.”

He stops ranting, and becomes much more serious. “Can’t say I did no. As far as I can remember I was a rat in the backstreets, even as a kid, constantly being betrayed, never having a shoulder to cry on. The two little runts with me today, are the only one that didn’t abandon me. I could never be grateful enough for their presence.”

I lift up my head. Feeling a bit better from the conversation. “I understand what this type of life is like too. Lost my only family member, the one that meant everything to me. After that, unlike what Finn believed, the fixer life didn’t give me what I wanted for a long time. Before meeting Angelica, I don’t think I was ever truly happy, despite doing well for myself.”

Pete tilts his head next to me. “You’re wife’s name is Angelica?”

I scratch the back of my head. “Yeah… Normally you’re not supposed to say the name of your relatives to protect them, but she’s dead so-.”

“Oh so I was right in my assumptions. You are the Black Silence.” I quickly get up from the spot with my baton in hand.

He laughs at this unexpected turn of event. “Relax man, I don’t plan on telling anyone. And unless she focuses on our discussion which she can’t thanks to Lenny, she didn’t hear that. To be fair it was kind of obvious… A guy all in his respective color, like any of his kind should be, who says he’s washed-up, got demoted, yet can still one-shot a guy with a good swing. You were weird from the start Roland.”

I sigh, allowing myself to relax and feeling amused. “Is that the upside of being a rat? You get a godly sense of observation and deduction skills?”

He snickers. “Only if you’re an experienced one like me. Nobody else caught on it. I could sense the intents of everyone in the Backstreets but was so desperate for human affection, that I let myself be close to people, who I knew didn’t have the same objective as me.”

The tension between us dissipates. And this allows Pete to talk again. This time however, his voice and choice of words aren’t that refined. “So… Your wife… Was she hot?”

“Yeah she was the hottest woman I ever-… WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU MAKING ME SAY?” Dammit I get too dreamy when I think about Angelica. I’ll need to fix that. I try to grab this guy by the collar but my hand goes through. What an idiot.

He jumps away from my range and cackles. “Sorry man, you can’t kill this good-old folk! I’m alrighty some fucking ghost.” Putting his hands slightly upward to taunt me.

Before anything else can said though, Angela appears in front of us with a face, screaming exasperation. Looks like she’s done with Lenny. “What in god’s name are you two doing?”

Pete immediately goes behind her, and feign, very poorly, being scared. “Miss Robot-chick, your dog is trying to kill me. So scared.”

About as much emotion in his speech as me when I looked at the clock to get out of work by at my office. Angela actually pinches his cheeks, which is probably possible thanks to her status as the patron. “Then go to another floor… And you stop shouting.”

I can feel her cold gaze piercing through me.“Yes mam’.” I simply answer, before eyeing her. “Is it ready?”

She nods. “Certainly.” Before looking around. “Finn hasn’t arrived yet?”

I shrug. “Nope. Why are you asking me? Aren’t you supposed to be the one aware of his position?” This question does make me uncomfortable. I’m reminded of that dream.

Angela shakes her head. “I could up until a few seconds ago. He seems to have disappeared from-… Ah! There he is!” She snaps her fingers and the boy appears before us, looking… extremely down.

He barely even registers the teleportation and I try to initiate the conversation. “Hey kiddo. Where were you? You scared us.” As I say this, I also scout his outfit to try and find any off-putting details. I can see that the yellow knot he always wear, is slightly glowing.

He looks at my face, his irises are now flickering between a faint yellow and the usual light gray. “Y-Yeah Mr Roland. Don’t worry. I’m simply a bit tired.”

Angela speaks up in response. “Do you need to sit this fight out? Malkuth just liberated her first associate so she can deal with this one.”

He waves his hands dismissively. “No no! Don’t put more work on her. I’ll deal with this fight! I can do this much.”

Sensing Finn doesn’t want to talk much more, I affirm. “Don’t worry Angela. Everything will be fine. I’ll make sure he doesn’t overexert himself.” She sighs and disappears in a flash. Probably to have a more thorough look at the issue that just transpired.

On my end, I take a look at the young lad. Wanting to observe his behavior without butting in. He doesn’t let me though as he begins to speak up, his tone being unusually grave, all the while the ground and background shape themselves to help us receive the guests. “Mr Roland. If I actually became a fixer. Do you think I would have changed into a very serious and dirty adult? Someone not scared to cheat my way to victory? Losing any semblance of hope?”

I’m a bit taken aback with how he phrased the question. “I think you have the determination to keep being the earnest person you always were…” This seems cruel, but due to how serious he is, I can’t keep that important part of the equation. “But you probably would have died young anyway, like Yun said.”

His trademark smile now fully gone, he simply mutters to himself. “What’s the point of being good if you’re dead…?”

I try to reach out for him. “Finn what’s the matter?” But he doesn’t react. Instead he takes a good look at the pin his boss gave him. He then starts to clutch it strongly, with a bitter face. Is he thinking of that girl again?

Then he looks at me again, with a serious expression. “Mr Roland. How many people, do you think, are hiding things from me?”

I sigh, that’s a classical question, one I even asked myself, younger. “You know… Wondering about who’s lying and who’s not to you… That’s the best way to become paranoid. Everyone has something to hide. Even you never revealed to me how you met that sister of yours. And no matter how close you two are, she’ll keep some of her secrets to her. You just have to let their attitude slide, and if they leave, maybe they weren’t right for you. It’s almost impossible to find someone who is ready to share everything with you. That’s this, and this is that.”

His eyes narrow in response. “Mr Roland. Are you hiding things from me?”

Why is he so obsessed with this concept today? What happened while he was away? “Yes of course I do.” Best to keep it honest. “Why the question though?”

Finn allows himself to ease up a bit. “I appreciate your honesty.” Before looking dead serious again. “You know… I always wondered if I was the bad guy or if I was considered incompetent, every time somebody hide something from me. There’s that weird creature in the Library, who didn’t give me her name, but who tried her hardest to guilt-trip me. To make myself the bad guy for being innocent… for being responsible of the deaths of everyone in my office, which is why maybe my sister could lie to me about her name, or you about your past.”

I ruffle his hair a bit, which he lets me do this time. “Finn we already talked about this. You’re not responsible for their deaths. Unless your direct actions are the cause of a death, like when we fight someone, you have no reason to say you killed someone. Even then, we’re only doing what we need to, to survive. The only way to properly “honor” someone in this kind of situation, is to simply continue living and fighting for your life. At least that’s how I see it… And I don’t know about your sister, but I simply don’t divulge my entire past out of habit, as well as a very personal reason that has nothing to do with you. You’re the bravest kid I ever met, never forget that.”

He smiles. “In that case… For this fight and beyond… I’ll try to be selfish and fight to preserve my and Sis’ happiness on top of the pride of Yun’s office instead of Ms Angela’s wish.”

It’s now my turn to smile. He doesn’t realize it, but that’s what a hero would do. Something I’ll never be… He has already surpassed “The Black Silence” in that regard.

“W-Woah! Look at all this d-decoration! So fancy! Do you think they hide the fancy food somewhere?” Alright they’ve arrived.

Both Finn and I take a look ahead, which reveal the three remaining members of the Brotherhood. What seems to be the leader, says in a slight drowsy but effeminate voice. “S-Shut up Consta. Focus on the fight. We need to bring back the loot to get better gears… for…”

The last guy with a chainsaw shrugs. “I-It’s okay. W-We’ll figure out what to do.”

The guy called Consta speaks up again. “I-It’s weird… F-Feels like I forgot something. W-Well no worries! Mo, Arnold, let’s get this done and beat the two chumps over there!”

This makes the other two jolt their head in our direction, with an uncanny touch to their movement. They’re really lost cause at this point. I can sense Finn getting slightly unnerved when looking at them, but he does bury those feelings to focus on his task. “I’ll take the long-ranged leader, since we didn’t get to make you practice this type of scenario. Do you think you’re able to fight both guys at close range?”

He tightens his grip and nods in response. “Good, then let’s go.”

Both of us start rushing them, and I immediately go past the two lesser members, which gets me in close range with the leader, Mo I think. She? I’ll say she… swings her blade at me which I parry without much trouble as it’s a sluggish attack. However she uses her rifle to blast herself away from my range, while making me jump back. Pretty good. I take a glance backward and see Finn handling perfectly the other two just like I told him.

This puts me at ease and I continue trying to get this long-range annoying robot.
____________________________________________
As the Remorseful continues his fight,
He demonstrates a complete faith,
In the one with the strongest might.
But can the Rookie be saved from his original fate?
____________________________________________
Alright get it together Finn.

Breathe in, breathe out…

Dodge. Left, right, left, right…

I can win this!

These “Consta” and “Arnold” guys are no good. They swing recklessly and I can mostly predict what they’ll attempt. I just need to make sure I don’t get hit. These weapons look like they can dish out some serious damage. I’m thankful for that training session where both Mr Roland and Ms Makuth attacked me at the same time. Even if I was sore at the end.

My sword seems to handle getting hit by these chainsaw-things. So I don’t have to worry about that too much… I just need to find an opening… anything.

“Y-You’re seriously being annoying! Take this!” says Arnold, before making his arm sparkle with the electricity stored in the reactor that acts as his heart. I duck to dodge it. This is it! I can cut his arm in one swing and the other won’t try to attack while so close to his friend, due to how massive his own weapon is! Making sure my feet and balance are at their best, I swing upwards with all of my strength! However…

“Ah… What the...” I feel an extremely rough pain in my heart, catching a glimpse of my blade I can see it glowing and immediately recognizes the problem. So I’m forced to cancel my attack to protect myself. I can hear Mr Roland’s voice calling out to me, but no words come out of my throat. This makes Arnold dash away, as he realizes what could have happened, and gives Consta the field he needed to swing his weapon at me.

He infuses it with electricity and it hits like a truck. I get send backwards with a big crack on my sword. The electricity is also getting into my body. It starts to spread and I have trouble moving. Dammit. I still manage to get up despite the pain. I have even trouble opening my eyes but I do see the two men rushing me down. It’s okay I got this. Arnold will attack and…

“O-Okay Arnold, he took the bait, get down!” Consta yells this, and takes a big swing at me while Arnold ducks.

“Shit!” is my response before trying to block with my damaged weapon who immediately shatters upon being hit by the chainsaw-blade. I stumble a bit, which makes Arnold immediately launch himself at me with his weaponized arm. He aims for my face. Is this the end?

...

No! No I refuse! These guys aren’t even good! This is NOT how I die!

I feel my bottled-up emotions explode in a boost of strength. Feeling invincible… Is this the power of emotions that Angela talked about? Going past the pain in my chest, I grab the chainsaw by its side with both hands and use my boost of strength to compress and break it! “H-How? How can a kid break it?!”

There’s no real answer I wanna give right now. I simply position myself like how he taught me. Technically you’d need implants to perform it flawlessly but I guess I don’t need them right now…
------------------------------------------------------------
“One hand in front of you to block, one hand next to your temple, ready to strike, a steady posture, to make sure you’re free to move as fast as you need to be, and keep your eyes on the target.”

I look at Yun in amazement. “So I don’t need a cigarette to activate it?” Sister wouldn’t like me smoking anyway.

I feel a poking, and a snicker next to me. “Finny~ seriously? You thought this was how Yun used his power?”

This makes me blush in embarrassment and I mutter. “I-I mean… I don’t know how implants work, so...”

Yun snaps his fingers annoyance. “Finn focus. This is not Darker Than Black. Stop with this assumption.”

I jolt in fear. “Yeah! Of course! Sorry!”

He sighs before looking at me seriously. “We’ll resume training now. Alright? If you can’t even put a scratch on me, and still don’t want implants, then you’re not fit to be a fixer.”

I nod. “Yes sir!
------------------------------------------------------

This memory of a simpler time, helps me concentrate. I exhale and can feels readier than ever to take these two on, despite the pain. I can also feels light emanating from my hands, alongside the heartaches that go along with it. I guess this means I’m still worthy… And seeing how lifeless I’m becoming now, I hate it. Pretty sure I’m feeling myself disappearing but I need to hold on, otherwise I’ll be a goner for sure.

Using my instinct to fight at this point, since I can barely register things around me with my eyes, I can feel Consta taking another swing at me. I dodge it within a sliver of time before actually getting hurt. I quickly follow up by shoving him aside with a side-punch.

This leaves me alone with Arnold. “Sorry… But losing to you would be a disgrace to my office, and would make my sister sad.” He doesn’t answer anything and I take a clean punch to his head which actually goes through. Clean and painless… I hope.

His body falls and disappears into a thousand pages, which is immediately followed by a scream, only one though, Consta’s, while Mo doesn’t even register what just happened. “Y-You’re going to pay!”

He rushes towards me with strikes that are getting quicker and quicker. I manage to predict where he’s going to strike and get in a comfortable rhythm given my state. After a while he stops his attacks seeing as how I managed to avoid all of them. “What’s the matter? Realizing how slow you are?” Hope he takes the bait, so I can get him...

“You killed Arnold, I’ll shut your mouth permanently.” is his eerily calm response.

The energy inside of his chest starts to beam, overflow, and the strike will be the most powerful I’ve ever seen from him, and from anyone I ever met as of now to be fair. Instead of trying to avoid it though, which is probably impossible due to the energy trail being way bigger than the weapon itself, I go towards and prepares my own strike, directing all of the light inside of my left fist.

He yells: “Y-You only live once!” and strikes.

The electricity is devastating, but I pushes through, I feel myself getting cut but I continue, finally arriving in front of him, I ready my strike and launches it with my own yell. “Commandeering!”

My fist goes through his rib-cage and punches the little heart device away. He doesn’t say anything and disappears right away, while I get down of my knees exhausted. I touch the place where the sword hit me, there’s a giant cut, but I can hold myself together, despite the pages coming out of it, replacing my blood now that I’m a librarian.

Having finally a moment to breathe, my eyes finally start to adjust themselves, and I look at Mr Roland. He’s been dodging Mo’s attacks for a moment now, and cornered her with a dilemma. Either jump off the bridge or attack him, she hesitated for too long and he got her with a single hit. After this, he sprints to my side and I begin walking up, albeit slowly, towards him as well.
__________________________________________
The Rookie is feeling himself dying,
Due to his chronically illness, “The desire of heroism”.
The Remorseful is feeling himself dying,
This kid dying is something he can’t bear even with his mask of cynicism.
___________________________________________
“Hey, hey easy now. You’re still hurt.”

Despite being so wounded, and not healed after the fight strangely enough, Finn still has the strength to walk, albeit only for a few steps before his body gives up. I catch and pull him close to my chest. I can feel his feeble body shaking. I try to keep a strong and comforting facade but it’s hard in those circumstances. He doesn’t have the exact same appearance as in this dream, nonetheless the situation is as dramatic.

He decides to still try and move a bit to look at me. His irises are of an even brighter yellow but still visible. He looks in pain however he still manages to smile, as if he resolved himself to fatality. Before saying anything though, he goes back to hiding his face in my arms. “Roland...” Dropping the honorifics? That’s a first. “If the situation gets dire will you allow me to sacrifice myself to save you? Just like a hero does?”

I reply with a firm tone. “No. I won’t. I don’t care if you end up being a hero or not, I just want you to be healthy and happy.”

His tone becomes sadder. “I’m still worthy of the Light. That won’t be possible if we continue to fight… But I don’t want to impede on Ms Angela’s dream.”

“If the price of her dream is you. I’ll make sure she never reaches it.” She already took a lot from me. But I let that part die in my throat. “What’s the deal with this stuff anyway? None of the other guests up until now had it.”

His body tenses up. I can’t see his face any longer. “There’s this weird creature… I got transported to her dimension through unknown means. She told me the Light chose its wielder by judging if they are innocent goody-two-shoes like me… The more innocent you are, the better you can wield it and the stronger it is… But its power is so grand that you’ll always end up consumed by it. I wanted to see if acting egoistical, at least how I see it, would do the trick. Yet I could still wield it and fight even without my sword… I’m doomed… I don’t want to do evil things… I don’t want to act like a bad person… I want to be a hero… To be the best I can… And save as much people as possible… I want Aoife… and you… to be proud of me…”

I feel my grip tightening around him, and tears falling down my face. My voice is shaky. “I don’t know about your sister. But I’m already really proud of you. You’re an excellent student.”

He cries on my blouse. “Still… I’m doomed… So will you let me-?”

“YOU’RE NOT DOOMED! FINN… I… I swear… We’ll find a solution… Don’t give up on yourself… Don’t let yourself be consumed… I shouldn’t have give you two enemies to fought at the same time… It… I… I’m a terrible caretaker...” I surprised myself with how intense this speech got. Moreover how emotional I got over it. How quickly attached I got to this kid. Currently, I lost my first star in life, I won’t let the second die a slow and painful death.

“H-hey. I guess we now know why Angela has so much trouble wielding i-it...” My joke falls in deaf ears and doesn’t even make me smile.
I thought this discussion was over. But before getting unconscious he whispers: “If only you were our real dad… Sis and I… would have been the happiest...” He doesn’t finish his sentence and his body becomes numb, golden pages still escaping from it.

Immediately I try to call Angela, but no response… Crap, at a time like this. Where is she? Having no time to worry about that, I make Finn hop onto my back and rush towards her office. Heroism is a poison in such a world, he’s the living proof of this but if it can save the life of a dreamy kid, why not try it?

…

Maybe to be a better parent, to understand his thoughts better, I should step-up my own game…

Maybe killing Angela isn’t so worth it after all…

But still, if she feels no guilt for her actions…

(“Came back sooner than I expected.”
“Cut the small talk. This master of yours, can I meet it?”
“No. Doesn’t want to talk to “Angela” precisely.”
“Then tell “her” than it’s horrendous of her to vent her own frustration by using her power to twist the truth and manipulate those around her to get her message across.”
“Will do.”
“Th-.”
“Guess Benjamin did a good job with recreating her through you. You’re the same.”
“Don’t talk about-.”
“And this is my last warning. Stop getting here using that book. If she needs you, she’ll transport you here. See ya!”
*And so the Being of Light forcefully made Angela exit the lightened space*)
______________________________________
The Remorseful ran so hard, his legs almost broke on the way.
The P̸̻̉ę̵͝t̷̨̅ī̸̪t̷̃͜ ̵̱̍P̶̤̓r̸͓̚í̸̭n̴̩̾c̶̝è̴̗ Rookie is on his back clinging to his life.
The Lady of Steel has just been stripped of her right to complain.
Let’s just hope that the Rookie can be saved unlike his wife.
________________________________________
“Angela! ANGELA! Oh thank god you’re here…”

I turn around, it’s Roland, uncharacteristically panicked. I have hoped that nothing too serious could happen in such a short lapse of time. This was Finn’s third fight, the first two being against nobodies, so I assumed he’d be fine. But his current state indicates otherwise.

I ask. “What happened? Didn’t he heal after the fight?”

Roland shakes his head. “No the wound is still here. I don’t get what’s going on.”

So I order Roland to put Finn down while I create a small hospital bed to properly examine what’s going on. I can see that pages are still coming out of the wound but the Light doesn’t seem able to fix the wound. It’s a big one at that, probably because of Consta’s weapon. I then begin to notice that the his eyes, after briefly opening them, his knot, and hands are still glowing.

I take a look at Roland, who’s currently very anxious although he tries to mask it. “I think I know the problem.” He immediately shifts his focus towards me, so I explain. “You should probably be aware of the fact now, that librarians are forever bound to my library, right? Well it’s for a pretty simple reason. Your bodies are made of light, the same Light I stole, and which powers the library in general. After each battle, the library technically purges itself of anything that’s not light, and is only of flesh and blood. For each cleaning it uses Light, and that’s how you guys can be healed after each reception. The problem lies in Finn’s link to the Light. Since he has the ability to wield it as a weapon… He now overused his own Light and his body is saturating from all of that. That’s why he has a lot of heart problem whenever he uses this power, it’s because he’s producing too much for how fragile his body is. He can probably reinforce it with more training… But if he really overdo himself, his envelope will either be destroyed forever, or fuse with the Light and join the monsters inside of it.”

Roland still looks anxious but keeps his calm and listen. “Alright I get it. This does mean he can saved for now right?”

I nod. “Yes. This is not the full potential of his power so I can stabilize him, not even 30% of the Light and his EGO’s power. He was close to, but didn’t pass the point of no return. He’ll only keep a scar on the lower-half of his torso.”

Roland loudly exhales, his trademark half-smirk back. “Damn you’re really good, a scientist, a doctor, an avid reader and language specialist, is there anything you can’t do?”

For the first time in my life, a small smile graces my lips. “I believe the only thing impossible for me, is finding something I can’t do.”

Roland’s face lights and he chuckles. “That joke was really bad but at least you’re trying.”

This does make me pout. But I quickly focus back on the main task at hand. Since I’m the chief of this place, I have a better control of its main source of power, and what could be qualified as some sort of “admin rights”. This helps me stop the overflow of Light on the specific parts I mentioned earlier. As the light diminishes the pages gets suck back into the wound, and small particles starts to close it.

The whole operation only lasts for even less than two minutes, but a sense of tension still lingered before Finn opened his eyes again, the irises back to a light gray. Before he can even say anything, Roland hugs him and he hugs back with a smile.

After the reunion I explain to him the consequences of his actions before ending up with: “This scar you see on your lower-side will never leave. Keep reminding yourself that this is the best-case scenario, and use this scar as a way to never forget the price to pay with your power.” In retrospect I think I was really harsh.

But Finn simply nods and thanks me. No resentment or anything, just a simple understanding, and a small comment that it looks cool. Roland even says that he does have one too, although it’s hidden among his clothing.

This discussion does make me think about something… What are the values of scars? Now, since Malkuth decided to keep hers, everyone had a scar of past events, something that will forever stick with them now. Why did they want that? Isn’t a scar just some deformity that would render you uglier? I don’t understand.

Since I don’t understand, I want to ask about it. But I feel like this isn’t something that should be answered. I’m not the one that should judge the others based on how they feel about their own body… And all of them perceived their scars as something different. I have no idea what Roland thinks about them, Finn decides to use them as a remainder of past mistakes, Malkuth is because of a promise and a dream, while Unknown sees them as a proof of his bond with an abnormality. So the answer of one might not even be meaningful for another...

I guess scars do have some powerful meaning that I can’t grasp for now.

…

I feel my power growing again.

[Battle Symbols: Unlocked]

The message pops in my head. I like this interface. Malkuth said she didn’t understand why I loved having my power manifest like that. But I always thought it looked more tangible and logical. In any case, I’ll invest this newfound mechanic later.

Time to go to work again. But first of all: “Finn, due to how everything went down today. You won’t partake in the next receptions for now.”

He doesn’t look really shocked by this. “Alright I understand. I’ll continue to train harder to prevent any catastrophe from happening.”

I smile before saying. “That’s good. Now go retrieve those books. We need to see the ghosts and the stories. I’ll also probably use one of their pages for Nino. You’ll see how this works with real librarians, without your restriction Finn.”

He shouts “That’s great! I can’t wait to see it!”

Roland growls in annoyance and rubs his forehead.

And I smile again.
_____________________________________
With this the Lady of Steel was satisfied,
But not all of our protagonists feel the same way.
The Ambitious isn’t and that’s perfectly justified.
Doing an internship under Walter to earn pay,
All of that to integrate W corp, yeah, not fun.
She wished she could kick him in the bun.
______________________________________
“See this Intern? This is how you extract information efficiently.”

Oh I can see it. Clearer than anyone out here. The guy speaking is called Walter apparently. Not that I really care, he didn’t even bother to learn my name, and in any case I’m trying to get into W corp. They just need you to do an internship in a renowned place to validate your stage. Well, apart from being the delivery girl, and being forced to watch this poor girl and her dog get tortured for hours, there’s really nothing of interest to note. It reminds me of home, but apart from Etch, there’s a reason as why I want to be as far from it, as possible. Even Pierre and Jack weren’t as self-centered and prideful as this guy. They were even a bit amicable when not butchering corpses for their meals. Walter seemed like an asshole through and through though. At least thanks to this bad start, I met Consta and Lenny… But now they’re gone forever. Ah shit. Positive thoughts, positive thoughts, that was Consta’s wish…

“Alright… I get it Boss..” I try to sound optimistic and pumped, but I’m failing miserably. A positive thought… Consta bare-chested in front of m-... Wait that’s the wrong moment for that.

He lets out an annoyed grunt. Seriously is this guy an animal? Before scornfully saying that I was a rude recruit, I should be grateful, et caetera, et caetera… Goddammit, what’s these Isadora and Julia girls’ secrets for managing to handle him daily? Especially Julia, she seems so cool about everything and supportive! What a beast of patience. Clearly something outside of my field. Especially with how dull and uninteresting everything was.

You’d think for someone born into “that” district, I would have a certain fascination with blood and pain. But it only made me develop an aversion. God the smell is awful. Well the smell, the action, the whimpers of the dog… I could see the prisoner wanted to say something, but she had no strength left after revealing everything. Her jaw seems on the verge of breaking too.

I scratch my head and ask: “So what are we going to do with her?”

He looks at me as if I was the most ignorant person he has ever met. “This much is obvious no? Since she took so long to reveal any kind of useful information. There’s no guarantee that she won’t go back to a criminal life. So we’ll discard both her and her dog.”

I bite my tongue to prevent any kind of reaction. Indeed this much was obvious. At least it was to be expected from him. I wonder how the others feel about this kind of decisions… Am I the weird one here? Well in any case, I have an idea. I take a mental breath and prepare myself. I need to be as convincing as possible. “Sir, don’t you have some kind of work to do already? If you want to, I can take care of her myself. You can go back to your office to plan out our next defense.”

He looks at me, a more neutral expression on his face, but eventually he nods. “That’s a good initiative on your part. I’ll assign Julia to your surveillance just for safety measure. But if you continue doing this kind of remark, you’ll be a member of W corp within weeks.”

I keep this facade smile on. I have no shame in risking betraying the trust of someone like him. Although it does surprise me, he’s indeed capable of praise. Doesn’t make him any less of an ass, but I guess it’s better than no redeeming quality. And well… If I never met them… That’s probably how I would have ended up too.

I bow, and he returns the gesture before going. Now I’m alone with this weakened girl. Time to put the plan into action. Normally I wouldn’t have the keys to free her, but I do hide hairpins attached to my hair in my cap. And let’s say that being friend with a member of a syndicate, had its perks. I break her chains pretty easily and I can feel her confused gaze on me. “I’m not really into killing someone helpful, nor an inoffensive one.”

A smile grazes her bruised face. “Someone respecting justice…?” Each words seemed like it pained her jaw. So I sign her to stop. Having heard her story during the torture, I know she understands it, and we continue talking by signs.

She signs, excited that she doesn’t have to destroy her jaw any longer. “And you know this? Seriously where are you from? How did you end up here? A fallen nest? L Corp’s district?” That’s a chatterbox.

I shake my head. “No. District 23. I don’t really want to talk about how I’ve come to know this myself…” The memory of him crippled is already painful enough. Don’t need to retell how it came to this too.

Her face quickly shifts between shock, excitement, and understanding. Someone really expressive eh? But there’s no time to contemplate this fact. I go towards the dog, who’s really calmed down, after I freed her master. I lock-pick his chains too, and it weakly goes towards her.

I make a sign. “You two, go hide yourself in the corner of the door. Someone is coming, I’ll take care of her and we’ll be able to escape.” The girl nods and go hide herself, making sure her dog still remains calm. Now that I take a closer look at it, I can see some metal and wires under the fur… Probably either implants or the dog wasn’t real to begin with.

My focus goes back towards the door. I take a ready stance with my trusty pipe, being ready to strike for when Julia will arrive. My weapon is something I didn’t really felt the need to change, at least until I get access to W corp’s batons, because Zwei didn’t offer me any sort of weightless blunt weapons as a replacement, being considered too “thuggish” to be used, so I stuck with this one, after a bit of augment and polish.

“Lesti?” I hear her soft voice, as the door creaks open. “I don’t hear anything. Is everything o-!” in a smooth motion I put my pipe in my throat, while she has barely anytime to register what happened, and I pin her against the wall next to the door without much trouble. Before she can scream or anything I put a hand on her mouth.

The satisfaction of beating someone from “Zwei” makes me smirk and brings me adrenaline. My heart is beating fast, I’m getting such a feeling of grandeur.

Julia slightly opens her eyes. This is actually the first time I see them. They are really small, with an equally small pale-white iris, and yet they still manage to have a certain intensity to them, although I feel like their looking kinda elsewhere than my actual position. “What are you doing?” She asks with a mix of sweetness and steel determination.

I go closer towards her face. “I don’t really like how Walter treats prisoners so I’m currently taking my sweet revenge. If you don’t accept to help us, I’ll make sure to treat you very badly. You’re going to get-”

Julia’s face becomes red out of trying to contain her… laughter?! “H-Hey what are laughing about?”

Among the shaky attempts to keep a straight face, Julia whispers “So cute and incompetent.” I take offense to that, but I don’t want to show it.

I try to regain control of the situation. “C-Careful girl! I can give you a punishment you won’t forget for-”

I hear the girl with a dog gasps. “What? I’m trying to save you! And you, you still haven’t answered me!”

Julia relax a bit, I can see her eyes have lost all form of intensity, and she chuckles. “I mean… Lesti. This isn’t exactly how you’re supposed to pin and threaten someone. This? This is just asking for innuendos. Not that I mind but...”

I feel myself ticking a bit at this and my face is now fully red. “Hey… Didn’t take you for someone swinging that way Julia.”

She cackles. “I mean, personally I didn’t expect to be violently pinned by someone who’s only seventeen, while she heavily blushes and smirks at this.”

I try to maintain my composure, but at this point it’s basically useless. “Wha-! I’m not blushing! And you’re only 5 years apart from me!”

She puts her hand to her mouth, feigning surprise. “Oh didn’t know you wanted me so badly you calculated the age difference...”

I yell with a voice, too high-pitched for my liking. “WHAT THE ACTUAL FU-!”

Julia covers my mouth, her small but bright and intense eyes now fully opened and glimmering in malice, with a more amused smile on her face instead of the usual warm and caring one. “Didn’t you say, we were supposed to be “quiet”? We need to be very discreet for what we’re about to do. Something very baaaad.” She makes sure to really stretch that last word while whispering next to me.

I take back anything positive I’ve said about her before, she’s a… peripatetician... “Why are all the hot people around me, boys and girls alike, such crazy weirdos…?” I think in desperation. Consta and her are exactly the same of that part, and they are kind too yeah… and they are really making me doubt my sexuality too… Dammit...

From behind the girl with a dog also softly says with a chuckle of her own “Save the… threesome thoughts for… later.” Trying to hold any big laughter for later to diminish her current pain. Not you too dammit! This was supposed to be serious!

I can hear the two girls quietly doing a high-five while I’m just dying of embarrassment crouched on the floor, hiding my burning face in my cap, while my weapon is at my feet, and I dismiss Julia’s comments about how cute and similar to Isadora I was when flustered. Well no shit! Everybody acts mostly the same when “flustered”, and it’s kind of a light term to what I’m feeling right now! She’s just a massive sadist in disguise when it comes to this!

Although joking about this kind of stuff… It does feel nice. I’m currently on the receiving end, but it reminds me of… Ah, how long has it been since I felt happy like that? On the verge of hysterically exploding in giggles? So ridiculous, just like we used to be, with Consta, sometimes Lenny, and Mu. I think it hasn’t even been a week, a month, maybe a year since I felt in such comfort? Regardless time has dilated itself, as if it forced me to constantly look at a clock, and it felt so long, too long.

I smile in turn and let a tear escape from my right eye at the thought. “Well now I know why you’re the moral support of the team. I should really start training my wits too.”

She winks before closing her eyes again. “Took years of training. I’m not buff but I give them.”

This whole interaction was sorta weird. But at least we’re fine. Moreover I think I can convince her to help us. “Oh by the way. I’ll help you get her to a safe place!”

Uh? “Wait, what? ‘eren’t you supposed to make sure I actually killed this girl?”

She happily nods. “Of course, but since most of the time Walter goes too far, I make sure to not execute his orders! Plus he’s in his office right now so no problem.”

This makes me feel like an absolute idiot. “But why didn’t you stop me then? If we always had the same objective all along.”

She acts as if trying to remember the reason, before turning one half-opened eye at me with a small smile. “Teasing such a cutie is fun.” I can see the prisoner doing a thumbs-up at this statement. This makes her huff in chest pridefully…even if there’s nothing to gain from revealing I like pinning people… Wait I worded that poorly.

The atmosphere, that up until now was pretty relaxed, gets tense again when I hear a coughing next to me. It’s the prisoner! “Shit. We need to go now Julia!”

She nods, her playful aura being replaced by a stern calmness. “Yeah let’s go.”

Just to make sure she wouldn’t be recognized, I detach my zwei jacket from my waist and put it around her, and I give her my cap to conceal her bright hair and face. Julia hides the small and weakened dog in her own vest. With the preparations complete, I take a look outside. The corridors seem to be mostly empty since most fixers went off on missions. Starting from the cell, we have to walk a bit around the corner, before going across one big corridor. After that, we’re outside the Office.

“Move your asses.” I whisper. Both girls promptly follow me, and we arrive at the corner without too much trouble. I try to take a look ahead but I can’t. I groan in annoyance. “’he vision’s too narrow. Can’t see shit.” Julia puts a finger on the my lips, and asks me to pipe down.

I, alongside the girl and her dog, look at her while she seems to be focused on listening. After a short silence, she quickly gets up and says. “Isadora is coming our way. I’ll distract her and you guys go for the exit.”

How is her hearing so good? She didn’t even need to look in the direction of the hallway… I’ll have to ask her later. Right now I don’t have time to, as she immediately goes towards the aforementioned lady. “Hey Isadora! Perfect timing! I need some help with paperwork in my office.”

She speaks really loudly, and I can hear annoyance in the other girl’s voice, she probably covered her ears. “Jeez, you don’t need to yell like this. And what about Lesti? Did she go through with Walter’s demand?”

Please be a good liar, please be a good liar… “Oh yeah no problem! It’s been taken care off for a moment now! No hesitation!” Woah. She lies as naturally as she breathes. That’s awesome! … And kinda scary.

Me and the prisoner wait up a bit, before hearing the door click. As soon as that sound is heard, I can take the dog in my hand, since he can’t really run in this state, and we make a run for it. We sprint across the corridor, go outside, and hide ourselves in an alleyway next to the office.

I let the dog out of my arm, and proceed to sign to the girl. “Alright, catch you breath here. We’ll wait a bit to see if my colleague comes back outside to help with transporting you.”

She nods, looking exhausted. “Alright. Thank you again for your help.”

I smile. “Don’t worry it’s nothing. Now we just need to send you to one of K corp’s hospital, and everything will be fine.”

Despite what she’s been through, the girl still finds the strength to smile. Before silence falls upon us again. I take the time to observe her now that peace was blessing her face and she was out of the disguise, only her real clothes remaining. She has a simple cyan pony tail, albeit the color isn’t natural and has started to fade, a small scarf on her neck, a buttoned-jacket that also serves as a dress, and some boots. Her face, and tanned body, seems to be covered in burn scars that predate her captures, and her eyes have a cross symbol on the irises, probably implants. The dog was very small, but I heard from Walter, he could become big. Part of her flesh seems missing too…

“An attack of Sweepers did that to me.” I hear her weakened-voice saying. This makes me jump a bit, so I look at her and she continues by signing. “I could see you looking at me. But yeah… It happened while I was a kid.”

Oh god. This was not uncommon at all, but Sweepers weren’t welcomed at all in my district for “stealing fresh meat”, so I never saw what a survivor of a real attack would look like. I hesitate a bit before asking a question that immediately popped into my mind. “So you lost everyone?”

She looks downward. A sad look is creeping on her face, before she talks again. “Mostly everyone.”

This intrigues me. “Mostly?”

She scratches her head then caresses her dog. “Well… I don’t know for sure. Basically during the attack, my father tried his best to protect us, then my mother, then my older brother, then the nearby adults... Needless to say, this was an absolute carnage. I was the oldest daughter of my family, but I got completely paralyzed with fear and horror when the Sweepers managed to corner us from all side and started grabbing some of the younger children to eat. We were from a quiet but very poor neighborhood, where everybody knew each other and the kids, regardless of their status, formed a small but dedicated gang. Despite that, due to our lack of money at the time, nobody could protect us from Sweepers that night. I don’t resent fixers for this, everybody needs money to live…”

Despite her words, I can sense in her tone a certain bitterness.

She then resumes her story. “What saved me during this massacre, is a syndicate member. He was a former fixer from I corp, a corp focused on animals, their abilities, and their relation to humans. He took me in, while I was on my knee in a catatonic state with everyone else dead around me, and I became a member of this group. I’m an outlaw, and if people learned you and that Julia girl protected me…”

I gulp. I hope Julia knows what she’s doing. We might be in serious trouble for that indeed. This makes the girl snicker. “In any case, I joined the syndicate, despite the risks, because there’s a slim possibility that one more person has survived alongside me. He wasn’t present during the attack, because his family asked him to go out and buy some stuff. He was also the leader of our gang, due to how compassionate and kind he was, even if really distant emotionally, we knew he was as stressed as everybody else. Sadly he disappeared, so I don’t know where he is. Apparently he became a rat.”

This story reminds me of Lenny. I wonder how both of them feel currently… If they’re even alive. “Wh’ts his name?”

She sighs. “Mang-Chi. But everybody called him Seonbae.”

I put a hand on her shoulder. “I know how that feel… I’ve lost a lot of people too… Sometimes because of circumstances, and others because of my own actions...”

I can feel the girl’s arms clutching her own jacket. “Their screams. I think that’s what haunting me the most. When they begged me to help them, and I didn’t do anything. I became mute after this, hence why I learned sign language, before recovering my voice by spending time with the people of my syndicate. I know most syndicates are made out of psychos and criminals, but I managed to finally find a place where I feel like I belong. I hope I can bring Mang-Chi here too.”

She then nervously laughs. “Well… You already know all of that, since your boss made me reveal everything through torture… This made my resentment towards fixers grow higher but you and that girl Julia... you showed there’s some good people no matter their side in a war. And even if the hits didn’t hurt much in retrospect, I at least hoped for my dog to be saved. She’s not just a weapon to me, she’s family. And in any case, saying all of this again, but without the pressure of torture, feels very nice.”

This gives me a big ol’ dumb smile on my face. “Glad to be ‘f help girl. How’s your dog called?”

She smiles in return, before looking away embarrassed, managing to still sign properly without looking… “Cookie. It’s not very original but that’s my favorite food.”

I jokingly reply. “You want to eat your dog then?”

She looks at me dumb-founded. “No idiot.” Before a malicious intent glimmers in her eyes. “And you shouldn’t be one to talk, with how much you wanna “eat” your “colleague”.”

My face flushes immediately in annoyance. “Got dammit, can you two stop with that!” She silently snickers, being very proud of herself apparently.

Another question pops into my mind. “Hey by the way… How should I called you? Walter forbid me from doing so while you were a prisoner, but now you aren’t one anymore.”

She perks up and happily introduces herself, probably in the fashion demanded by her syndicate. “I threw away my original name a long time ago, now you may call me… Gemini!” Her dog barks to her side, and she sits down again. “Our syndicate is composed of one hundred person flat. 88 members form the “constellations” and the top 12, like me, form “The Zodiacs”.”

That sounds really cool, but I don’t say it. Or more precisely I don’t have the time to say it because...

“Peek-a-boo!”

I scream, my voice cracks, I hate this girl. “AAAAaaaa… Oh ‘s just you Julia.” Gemini just waves a hand to her.

She laughs. “We should get going.”

A bit annoyed at her cheekiness, I still follow her, making sure the other girl and her pet are behind me. “Did your bluff went well?”

She puffs her chest in pride. “Of course! What do you take me for? Speaking of which, perfect lock-picking on your part! Unless you’re knowledgeable on it, you can’t see that it has been forced open! Where did you learn that?”

I don’t really want to talk about it, but I guess just mentioning it would be fine. “My first crush. He was a weird guy for sure, a member of one of the strangest syndicate that ever existed, but he was also a very good mentor… and pretty damn charming when you came to know him. Among the various things he taught me, lock-picking was one of the skills he considered the most essential. Since he was very street-smart, I made sure to listen. Him, and my first ever friend at uni were the two people that really helped me get ready to the complexity of this world. I had the will and stomach of irons but it wouldn’t have mattered if I didn’t understand the things surrounding me.”

Julia and Gemini seem to have picked up my use of past tense and didn’t pry anymore information about Consta. This leaves me room to ask a question of my own. “What about you Julia? How did you come to be such a good liar, on top of having an amazing hearing?”

“Oh that’s because I’m blind!”

In complete contrast with what she’s saying, her voice is very cheerful, probably because she doesn’t mind talking about it. But yeah I kinda figured that one out. She never properly looked at someone when talking, which was especially apparent when her eyes were opened. Gemini does seem very shocked at this. This doesn’t give me the full answer though… “I can’t see why suffering from blindness would give you lying skills.”

She snorts. “You can’t see? Seriously? Was it intentional?” Hmm no. Shit I feel like an idiot. “Anyhow. It’s pretty simple actually. I’ve always suffered from light Optic Atrophy. It started pretty early, but I could see around me. However as I got older, the world around me became blurrier and blurrier. I’ve known from the start, there was no treatment. I could have got eyes implants, but most of them looked too inhuman for a person with a mostly normal human. Still because the human body, is a magnificent technological prowess, each time my vision got worse, my other senses got enhanced to compensate. This let me lie to everyone that I could still see around me, and even didn’t impede my fighting skills much. Sure it was impractical but not that bad. Of course nowadays Walter, Isadora, and San, only them though, are aware, but since I made myself be recognized for my skills, they won’t fire me. For sure, I’m playing an even more dangerous game, by being disabled and still disobeying orders, but what can I say? “On the edge” has been my personal nickname for some time. And that’s how I managed to make my parents proud, by being part of such a massive office whilst making everyone think I didn’t have a disability. Although, I do like that people now know, it would have been too painful to bear alone otherwise.”

Damn, that’s cool. Just wish she would stop fucking with me, so I can respect her even more. Gemini that was simply listening the conversation from afar, goes towards Julia and does another high-five with her. She logically understands where the other girl is coming from. Ultimately, this otherwise cute interaction, ended with Julia saying: “How cute and joyful you are. It really would have been a shame if Walter executed you, wanna have a smutty time afterw-”

And I bonk her head lightly with my baton. “Stop being horny Julia!” She laughs a bit. “Sorry, sorry, it really isn’t the best time to joke about something like this.”

I sigh, sometimes I wonder who’s the teen when we interact together… I wanted to say something else but…

“SAY SOMETHING YOU THIEF! APOLOGIZE NOW!”

Our peaceful walk will have to be put on hold. I can see five silhouettes, three masculines, and two feminines, in the center of the road, people either avoiding them, or looking intrigued at the scene. Julia is the first to speak up. “Hey what’s going on here?”

“MEDDLE WITH YOUR OWN BUSINESS BIT-” The very squeaky, but still male voice, is interrupted in his speech, when Julia throws him to the ground with zero effort. She might be the weakest member of the Zwei elite, but it honestly didn’t mean much.

Her calm and menacing tone is back. “Commandant of Zwei, Julia Berlusconi, can I ask one of you to kindly explain what is going on here?” She didn’t have any kindness to spare at the moment.

The violence pipes down and I take a look at the person lying on the ground. They’re completely covered from head to toe with wide and comfy clothes, weird machinery, goggles, a hood and small mechanisms. The weirdest thing was a sort of energy bulb at the center of their chest. What the hell?

They then begin to move, and whisper something. “Thank you for giving me some time.” A whisper, which is followed by them plunging both of their hands into the blue pond, which is followed by a sharp yell.

...

“How cute and joyful you are. It really would have been a shame if Walter executed you, wanna have a smutty time afterw-”

I hit her with my baton and… “’hat the...”

This is not normal.

Julia and Gemini also seem to realize it, the latter speaks first, shaking a bit and biting her thumb, her dog gets agitated but she manages to calm Cookie down. “T corp… That’s T corp’s technology...”

I don’t understand. “Wait, with L corp’s fall, weren’t they out of power?”

Julia speaks up about the situation. “Normally yes. But they’ve been using their remaining energy to create auto-sufficient time-machine. It only reminds minutes every hour, but it’s so powerful normally nobody should be able to get their hands on it.”

Shit. We can’t take care of this guy right now, due to Gemini’s state, but if someone is running around with this kind of technology… That’s definitely bad news. “Let’s hurry to K corp’s hospital Julia! We can’t risk Gemini being attacked if people like this guy are roaming around the city!”

She quietly agrees and takes the hand of the other girl, as we make our way to the nearest K corp’s healthcare center. While running, we do see the same person but this team they manage to escape their pursuers, and turn their head towards us. They seem grateful, but I’m just worried. Gemini might be part of a powerful syndicate too, but at least she’s somewhat trustworthy and has a straight-forward and easy to counter power. This guy’s mysteriousness is probably what scares me the most. Unpredictability only leads to your death in a fight.

A bit in panic, we finally manage to reach our goal. The problem is that we aren’t sure how everything works here. The waiting line also seems to be enormous… When we finally started to lose hope, metallic coughing sound were heard throughout the whole building, and a 3 meter tall giant, showed himself to us.

“May… I… be… of… help?”

His speech was extremely drowned-out, and he seemed to be constantly in pain. Ironic considering the place… Julia seems to have instantly recognized him. “Sir you’re the Downtown’s Rust”? The Gray color?” Her tone seems awe-struck, but the panic hasn’t quite left yet.

…

“WAIT THIS THING IS A COLOR?!”

The giant quietly nods, and she properly explains our situation, while me and Gemini are trying to process the fact we just met a color. One that actually seems friendly and not out-there. I can see that he seems to suffer a lot though, as well as constant smoke coming out of his body.

As Julia finishes her explanation, the color thinks for a moment, before answering. “Considering… you… are… Zwei… members… present… your...” He stops because of a violent coughing fit before resuming. “IDs to… the desk… they’ll… heal your… friend… cost free… I’ll show… you… where it… is… I… need… to… go… for… my… weekly… check-up...”

Despite his overall menacing appearance, I could sense genuine care from his words. Slowly but steadily, he went to the receptionist and asked her to help us, as well as asking for his appointment.

She looked friendly enough, although I still took a glance, to make sure Julia wouldn’t try anything weird, but thankfully she was completely in work mode. She took the lead in the conversation and everything got solved pretty quickly, even if Gemini and I looked like absolute morons when compared to Julia’s professionalism.

Afterwards, we were told to wait a bit, while Gemini’s operation was happening. The wait started to get long when a metallic voice spoke up again.

“It’s you again.”

The sound brings me back to Earth. It takes all of my mental strength and self-restrain to not comment on the fact the color finally speaks normally. I take a look next to me and Julia is silently acting like a fan-girl. Since her eloquence seems to be gone I take the lead in the conversation. “You wanna sit with us?”

Maybe that came out a bit too familiar… But the man of metal nods and sits next to us. I have no idea how he’s not destroying the chair he’s on.

I look again at Julia, she clearly wants to say something but doesn’t have the guts to. Weird. Especially considering the type of shit she’s willing to pull off. So I give her a nudge. She glares at me, both in annoyance and embarrassment. I instinctively smirk, oh isn’t it fun to be the one in complete control for once? So I lean to her ear and whisper something only she can hear. “Don’t you want to make your junior proud? J-u-l-i-a.” I do make sure to stretch every letter of her name. I’m probably having too much fun considering the situation.

In the end, Julia finally decides to ask what has been plaguing her mind. “Sir. I really admire your work and I’m immensely honored to have been helped by you.”

He looks a bit bashful. “Thank you for your compliments. They are the reason I decided to stay the way I am to fight crimes.”

This does intrigue me. “What d’you mean? ‘ow did you end up ‘eing a color?”

Julia seems a bit angry at how casually I ask him. “Well it is pretty morose. I participated in the Smoke War when I was only a young recruit. It completely wrecked my system and I caught a disease, that I’d rather not talk about. However, my body, instead of being plagued by the illness, decided to react a bit differently and evolved in unseen ways to try and keep up with what’s destroying me. I begun working in K corp, to be near hospitals at all time, but this newfound strength with the right equipment made me the “king of smoke and crowd control” apparently, even if I need to end fights quickly to make sure I don’t overdo it. Now I’m faced with a Cornelian dilemma. I can either heal myself, and live a peaceful life, thanks to K corp’s technology, or I let the evil eat away at my body, just a bit longer to try and save as many people as possible. I’ll have to make a choice after I resolve the two last cases I’ve been assigned too.”

Woah that’s fucked up. I guess nothing too surprising for this city though. Julia find he courage to speak again, while I stay quiet in contemplation. “And what are those two cases you’re onto? Are they something you can reveal in public?”

He thinks for a bit before answering. “I do not think it could be held against me to talk about them. Especially here since they have nothing to do with K corp. And in any case this room, and branch of the hospital in general, has been assigned for collaborators and high-ranking fixers only.”

I take a look around and indeed notices that this room is almost empty save for one or two more fixers from other offices. “And you’re lucky that this is the case.” I jerk my head towards him but he offers no other development. I guess it was foolish of me to think a corp would be completely free of corruption or immoral gimmicks regarding their technology. I pity the poor that try to be healed there, but I’m thankful Gemini was with us.

Julia’s face doesn’t show any kind of emotion, she probably figured it out way before me. His metallic voice now sounded even more soulless. Am I imagining it because I now know he’s not a perfect saint, or is he really that detached from everything?

Regardless of that, I choose to stay quiet and learn about his last two quests. “Moses, that distortion detective, is the one taking care of most of that shenanigans thanks to her ability. So the colors typically have more traditional job unless the A corp and Nests order them to help suppress more supernatural issues, that arose after those day of Light. So I know I’ll probably get a bit more work before actually stopping for good. Currently, there’s two cases that requested my services. The first one is from T corp, and it’s to stop a criminal that stole a technology to rewind time and uses it to roam around the city.”

Julia perks up at that. “Yeah, we met them earlier in the day. Do you have any more information on the matter, just in case he roams around the district again?”

The color shakes his head. “Sadly not. The most information we have concerning them is the fact someone once says he saw their hair by accident. A sort of bright white with black roots, as if it was a pudding he said.” This does make me chuckle a bit. “We don’t even know the gender of the criminal, so their motives and everything… There’s too many missing people everyday in these streets, so I couldn’t exactly pinpoint an exact match with one of them. The hair might seem to indicate they are linked to this family from District 14, the one that had their eldest daughter run away, but it’s not confirmed.”

Wait a minute… Doesn’t that fit Lenny’s description? She did mention having two siblings once. Maybe it’s one of them. I shouldn’t pry for more nor say what I have in mind, but I’ll keep that information in a mental corner. I really hate myself for maybe being the cause to all of this.

The color sighs again. “The second case is probably even more horrifying than the one I just told you about. Because that criminal doesn’t really do anything bad with the technology, they apparently even helped some persons that didn’t realize who they were at first. The only reason why they’re so actively pursued is because of T corp’s tenseness and violent retributions to act against them. Ever since L corp fell, they have lost their most precious associate, and they’ve been in deep trouble for a long time. But the case of Stephan Kidobni… Well that’s something else, and people aware of the case, joke about how his name predicted his future.”

At the mere mention of the name, Julia’s face contorts in discomfort. “I remember this name. He was the teenager that murdered every persons, children and adults alike, that partook in his generation of NCCP.”

I can see that “Downtown’s Rust” approves of what Julia is saying, but I have no idea of the matter they’re talking about. “What is that? It didn’t figure in my history books. And what’s this NCCP stuff about?”

The giant speaks up again. “It’s pretty normal, it’s something District 14 wants definitely silenced. If you ever mention in it, this event or the NCCP in general, you’ll get sent to prison or worse. So despite being a major tragedy it got erased from manuals. Basically, despite District 14’s reputation of being a place of academic success, they couldn’t brainwash everyone into being a good student. So after the appearance of “Colors”, extremely efficient, albeit slightly insane, fixers, they decided to try and create successors to them via a program called the “New Colors Creation Plan”. Taking every youngsters drop-outs, mostly with very limited consent, and putting them through hellish training to create new and powerful fixers, that could at any time replace the old one. The worst thing is that it worked. That’s why we now have a second and even third generation of Red for example, or even more Colors than ever before, like Cyan, Indigo, or White, all of them being from this training course too. And even among those that didn’t became colors, some went on to become very pro-efficient workers or scientists. Seeing just how well this worked, they decided to invest a lot of money in it. Sadly, it came to a brutal end when they decided to involve Stephan in the project. He was a notorious drop-out, and considered one of the biggest “black sheep” of the District. He had a tendency to go against orders, whine a lot, and couldn’t do anything right. This caused a lot of friction with his family and that’s how he ended up here. But even then, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get a good score or be something other than a failure, so… one day… he snapped, and used everything that has ever been taught to him against those inside this center. In a cruel twist of fate, the only thing he ever managed to accomplish is a horrendous crime. And since then, we’ve been looking for him. Ironically, he was supposed to replace the “Black Silence”, after the series of incident he caused, but I guess the Color Black really is cursed. The last lead we have of him, is the fact he joined a very unconventional office called “Full-Stop”. It’s getting hard to find information about him from here because the leader “Liwei” is closely related to an arbiter and so the higher-ups try their best to protect the three employees of this very efficient assassination squad. Although they don’t give them any support just protection, to make sure we can’t associate both. It’s not even known if Tamaki and Liwei, the two other members of this Office, are aware of the monster they brought with them. Or maybe the monster calmed himself afterwards? In any case I need to stop him.”

I don’t really know what to answer. But before the conversation can continue, a doctor comes out, telling us that Gemini’s operation is completed.

She comes out, sure she still had her scars, but the rest of her body was completely healed. The same was true for her dog which happily yelped beside her. With this done, she rushes towards her and hug us, so weird that a syndicate member would be so cute and friendly, and we go out of the hospital, Downtown’s Rust with us. “Glad to have been of use for you ladies. I’ll be on my way now.”

We say our goodbye to him, and Julia does still ask him for an autograph. While I still don’t fully trust him, especially because of his apathetic judgment towards societal issues, I do recognize he’s a very serious worker, and a friendly person to be around with. His determination to continue working in spite of the illness is admirable.

“Well, it’s my turn to leave now.”

This is the first time I can hear her voice clearly, without any kind of impediment. It sounds very pretty, and I turn around to look at her. Both Julia and I give heartfelt goodbyes to her. As I watch Gemini leave, her dog happily following her, I catch myself wondering if I’ll ever see her again. Probably not. Most relations don’t last in this city, and even then, I or she might die tomorrow. But while I don’t want to get my hope’s up, I still wish for her to find the person she’s looking for.

Next to me, Julia leans and whispers: “Hey Lesti? What’s her face like?”

Still a bit entranced by the scene before me, I answer. “Beautiful, through the scars, and her trauma, she still manages to feel happiness.”

With a tone that indicates neither sadness nor joy, she simply answers: “That’s good.” Which prompt us to take our own leave. An interaction, a coincidence, a good moment, and a leave, that’s how most relation works. Nothing ever last, all is lost to the sand of time. We’re only allowed to treasure those memories.

I’m not sure if Julia feels like I do. But when I turn around to look at her, she looks sad.

I try to pry the problem out of her. “’s the matter mate?”

But her sad face is replaced immediately by a joyful expression, too quickly actually. “We should get her personal address or something!”

I feel like it’s going to end poorly. “Why?”

“Duh! For the threesome obviously!” Called it. Only she can say that with a straight face.

Obviously I’m flushed. “NO! STOP IT WITH THAT!”

“Oh but don’t you want your big sister Julia to pamper you?” Yes I crave it.

But… Yeah I don’t say that. “Pampering and ‘ving sex are two different things! ‘U degenerate wretch!”

I fill my heart being strained a bit. All of this teasing had indeed a lasting effect.

I wanna stop my mouth from saying anything, but it doesn’t work. “Plus ‘m not cute. Got a big ol’ cut on my cheek, flat as a pancake, and all...” When it comes to love I’m not the most arrogant.

This girl’s response to my words, are a bit of silence, before leaning in and kissing my scar. Before retracting with a small smile.

“Dammit, I ‘s right. You hot people are all crazy.” No matter if it’s Consta or this girl, they only seem to bring me trouble sometimes.

“Keep telling yourself you don’t like it.” True. ‘Least this internship had one positive thing.

The travel to return at the Association’s headquarter was less intense than the previous one. But it allowed the two of us to walk in the silence and simple company of the other. No teasing was done this time, and the calm became a place of comfort among the chaos of the city. At least that’s how I currently feel about it. So I take Julia’s hand.

…

I know I shouldn’t be doing that. She’s older than me, way older for someone my age. She’s not even from the office I’ll work at… But what truly feels off, is the small jerk her hand did when I actually went forward and grabbed it.

I look at her, but her face doesn’t betray any emotion. “Julia? Don’t you like this? You can tell me you know.”

She looks slightly downward. “I didn’t think you’d be so serious about this.”

My eyebrows narrow. “What do you mean? If you tease me so much of course I’m going to develop something for you. Were they all empty words?”

She tenses up and clutches my hand. “They weren’t, I promise. I wouldn’t make so many jokes with you daily if I wasn’t interested… But this will never work. I know that. You do too, you’re a smart girl. There’s so many things that will go poorly if we cross the line.”

I speak up, on the verge of being too loud. “Why? Is it because I’m seventeen and you’re twenty-two? In this dystopian city, do you still care about morals like this?”

She shakes her head, still not looking at me. “Not… completely. It’s just one of the many things that makes me feel worse about myself. I’ve always hated myself Lesti.”

I don’t believe it. “What? But you’re always so joyful, headstrong, and daring! That can’t be true right?”

She finally turns to face me. “But don’t you remember what you heard? I lie flawlessly and constantly.” There’s some palpable sadness behind that fake smile.

It hits me, maybe she was always hiding this feelings of inadequacy from everyone. “I… I do… And you were conscious of that. Can’t say you’re not observant.”

She laughs bitterly, there’s no sincerity behind it. “I should have at least one positive trait.”

This doesn’t satisfy me though. “Why would you feel this way? Julia you’re-…”

She cuts me off, not by a yell, but with her usual quietness, yet this friendly tone of her, hurts more than any outburst would have. “No. I’m not amazing. You know, I am the moral support of the team… But while I’ve grown to accept this role, of the one that can’t do anything if alone, it wasn’t something that I wanted. It’s simply because, even with all the training, my body doesn’t follow. I should have had more implants to compensate my weakness, but my body rejects most kind of implants. At such a high level, this does set me apart from everyone else. I can’t win a fight alone. I can’t protect civilians alone. I’m weak. How can I be “Your Shield” if I can’t even protect myself? I’m also a bad mentor because of that. I’m a terrible leader too. That’s why that time thief got away from those everyday employees… The only kind of person I can easily knock out, are minor criminals and innocents. That’s why I can’t react to corruption. That’s why when I try to set things right, I either fail or succeed with some immoral compromises. You know when I joke about my disability? When I make it seem like it doesn’t affect me? In the moment, maybe it doesn’t… But when I realized that books written in braille were so rare nowadays, that I couldn’t cook because most of the recipes book aren’t, that I couldn’t read unless someone helped me, that sometimes I end up hitting a wall by accident, because I don’t know the place… In all of these instances, I realize just how much I hate becoming blind. How much I hate myself from rejecting any kind of implants that we ever tried, to make me see again… I lied again about the reason why I don’t have eye implants indeed… I lie all the time Lesti. And now I fell in love with someone that’s still not an adult yet, you are seventeen years too young, and it has been eating at me every single second I thought of you. I’m not a good fit to be with someone as lovely. But I do love you.”

During the whole painful rant, the comfort and fun slowly disappear, and I feel my heart hurting me. I feel awful too. As if we both shared pain. In the end, she stops holding my hand and walks a bit ahead of me, so I just follow. This time, she feels more distant than ever, like she should have been from the start as a higher-up, and I hate it. Is this the second time, someone I love will just disappear from my life?

When we arrive at the doorstep of Zwei’s headquarter, I hear her voice slightly crack, for the first time since I’ve known her. “You know Lesti… Enjoy your time as a youngster while you can. Most of your friends will leave one day.” Her eyes are opened again, they don’t look exactly at me, yet I feel pierced nonetheless.

I should feel at a loss of word, I’m only seventeen, it’s absurd for someone my age to be so desperate for affection, to have experienced so many loss… Desiring someone like Julia feels like throwing away my precious crush on Consta… It feels good and awful at the same time. D‘spite all of that, I answer:

“That’s what I’m doing, Julia.”

I don’t think anything else needs to be said. Her teasing lovable attitude wears off completely, finally stopping herself from acting so stoic as to not completely break her mask, and a flood of tears messes up her pretty face. It’s an ugly crying. Crying as always been ugly.

She tries to speak. “Why… Why someone disabled… Why a much older girl… Why someone that tries but fails… Why… me…?”

It’s easy right? You liked my scars and weakness, I like yours as well. You don’t need to be strong and confident all the time. Sometimes stepping down and just enjoying life with me, is also a valid way to enjoy my company. I should tell her all of that, to reassure her, that’s what a healthy relation demands. That’s the logical thing to do. But this city’s inhabitants have never been known for their rationality.

So in the spur of the moment, I say: “I’ll find you every books that has ever been written in braille.”

It’s an impossible task, and we both know it. She laughs a bit, in a heartfelt way, the crying still fresh in her throat. “You want to be my hero then? It’s madness. You’ll die.”

I smile. “Isn’t being suicidal what a hero is all about?” I wonder if, in this city, there’s even any person, any fool, willing to sacrifice themselves for someone else.

As I ask myself this question, I feel her arms wrap around my neck. “Don’t talk like that.”

I hug her back, but I don’t dare to put my hand on her skin. “We’re all gonna die anyway. ‘hat’s wrong with wishing for a heroically dreadful end?”

She tightens her grip, almost crushing me, her tears touching me. “When Walter talked to me about this new abnormality… This library… I knew he was underestimating it. I’m not sure why, but I just know it. It will be our demise sooner or later. We’re going to perish at the hands of these horrors. I can’t disobey Walter, nor let Isadora and San go to their doom. Lesti, you don’t have these shackles binding you to an unfortunate end, please… Preserve yourself.”

I feel my vision getting blurrier. “I hate dying, I hate fate, I hate everything Julia. Why does everybody, all of the people I valued, why are they all dead?”

Julia is shaking. “That’s just life Lesti. People come and go. Some of your closest friends will one day leave you, for no particular reason. In this city, you can only treasure memories and move forward. If you’ve lost everything, you can try and rebuild it. Living is the best repayment to honor the ones that sacrificed their life for you. Those that are stuck in the past, or obsessed with gaining answers to tragedies that happened, are the ones that will despair and die a lonely miserable death. I’m one of them, because my failures are the only things I remember about myself.”

…Isn’t my approval of your worth enough to you?…

The proof that despite your past mistakes, despite how you see yourself, despite your flaws, I’ll always love you…

I finally speak up again. “’ve already lost so many, I’ve been the cause of multiple tragedies, I’m already miserable Julia. You’re the ‘ly one left to me. Everybody else is gone. So my story in ‘his dumpster of a city will only end by either fulfilling my promise, bringing on your lap a new book each day, or a bloodshed to whoever created the library.”

I know… I know Consta said to move on. He said to forget all about me, ignore the time we spent together, with now missing Mu and Lenny, ignore the things I’ve seen ‘n my district, why Pierre and Jack disgusted me. But I can’t just do that. These events are part of who I am. I cannot forgive those that took them away from me… I’m only a lil’ lonely girl. When I integrate W corp, will I find solace? At first I simply wanted to get out there, and financially support the friends that made my family. But now that they’re gone… What am I studying so hard for?

I don’t have an answer for this question.

When I think about it, when put alone, or with another person that also suffers from this creeping dread everyday, I’m only alone, faced with my crimes and my fears. The good action I performed earlier, the happiness I felt, the fun ambiance… Everything dissolved quietly over the day.

I hate myself, but I can give the love I never spared for that very self to someone else.

So I back away a bit, and give a peck to Julia’s lips. Her tears don’t stop, yet I can see, she feels the same way. Perhaps you can only truly find comfort in someone similar… When you see your own flaws in a person, ‘t always pisses ‘ou off, but ‘s reassuring. You know you aren’t the only one like this.

Since she doesn’t seem wanting anymore of my cumbersome affection, I gather all of my strength, my mental one, to get off her embrace. “Need to try and get into contact Mu again.” I simply mutter.

She grabs my arm. “Wait.” Before leaning in, I freeze and she continues to move, wanting to kiss me.

But she misses. “’at’s my nose Julia.” A smile, no bigger than a butterfly, still just as bright appears on my lips.

She laughs too, not bitter, just flustered. Her sass is through the roof. “Yeah, you tell me how hard it is to gauge where to kiss spontaneously someone, with no functioning eyes.”

I burst out laughing and she joins in.

I, then, lean again and whisper into her ears, knowing how crazy that makes her, since it’s her most developed organ. “Then do it properly.”

The following action, hunger deprived of any reason, doesn’t make my anxiousness, my self-hatred disappear, I know moments later I’ll probably cry again, fearing the day where this older woman will be nothing more than a memory.

But for a moment, just this single moment…

I reach peace in a piece of my mind.

I grow to love my lack of femininity.

My scars become a badge of honor.

And my body a vessel of success.

I love myself, for being able to experience the touch, the affection of this blind goddess, who’s only able to see me for what I truly am.

We break apart, and this feeling. “I have to go see Walter”, she murmurs, and I let her leave, while I go to the nearby phone cabin and punch Mu’s number again. Maybe I’ll go check up on Etch again to make sure none of the other chefs attacked his pastry shop… I could grab a cake for Julia too.

(“You helped her free the prisoner didn’t you?”
“Yup! I’m not sorry Walter.”
“You’re insufferable.”
“I know, I know! But you never get mad at me!”
“It’s not worth getting angry over. She told me everything she knew about this Zodiac Syndicate, which wasn’t much. She wasn’t worth keeping.”
“So mean-spirited Walter.”
...
“Your eyes are swollen. Do you want to take a break for today?”
“Yes...”
“Understood.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“You’re someone valuable to our group, don’t forget that.”
…
“I think I’ll annoy Isadora and San a bit.”
“Fine. Ask them to deliver this letter to the right address while you’re at it.”
“Got it!”
“And go heal that cut you made on your hand to pretend the prisoner actually fought you and Lesti, to nullify her responsibility in the matter.”)

(“The phone is ringing.”
“Yes the phone is meowging.”
“Oink! Answer it then!”
“I don’t remember.”
“What do you meown?”
“I don’t remember who’s calling. They called everyday apparently.”
“Oink! Stalker!”
“No.”
“L-E-S-T-I, ring a meowell?”
“No. Only “He” is in my mind now.”
“Oink! Maybe this wasn’t for you? Maybe this was for your family?”
“They can’t answer anymore then.”
“Meowby we should clean up.”
“Oink! But the performance isn’t even ready yet! Let’s try again using this!”
“Really? You want to use broken instruments like these?”
“Meowby we should try again, let’s try to replicate that melody again!”
“Whatever.”
“Oink! we’re lucky to have found this mask lying in this house by the way.
“Apparently it belonged to a deceased friend.”
“Meowur family kept it for you? How nice! Plus we didn’t have a rabbit in the orchestra!”
coughing “B...i...g...b...r...o...s..t...o...p...”
“Oink! Quick let’s try again before he passes away like the others!
“You meowo first MuMu!”
“With pleasure.”
...)
_______________________________________________
In this tale I’m telling, there’s a foolishly optimist fool,
There’s also a dark-hearted resentful fool full of foolish rage,
And a machine that evolved into a fool free of her cage,
Now there’s a sorrowful fool too, slowly losing her soul.
But all of them had love in their life, and were honest about it,
Even if it hurt, they conveyed their feelings,
Let’s watch now two fools that never did, maybe one day...
________________________________________________
“So how’s Bada doing?”

My conversations with Isadora usually went two ways. Either it was perfectly normal, albeit quiet, or we had shouting matches that simply reminded me of Mars and Lulu’s own fights. However, ever since I’ve been in charge of these two, she has mellowed down a bit after I revealed that I wanted to be with her to relax, not go into bigger arguments. I’m thankful for that.

I sigh and rub the back of my neck. “Pretty good actually. He says that his job at Cane Office, while not perfectly moral, brings enough money for our family, and his two colleagues, while eccentrics, are pretty nice people.”

Her response is pretty neutral. “That’s good. That’s good.”

Lately that’s how most of our conversation go. While I do not regret our childhood in District 21, where she would constantly berate me over every little things I did wrong, thankfully growing past this, I still look back fondly on how we were always there for each other and she helped me push past my fears…

But I never managed to tell her that properly. I don’t know why, but each time I tried to thank her or talk to her about something only the both of us know, isolated from everyone, my voice dies in my throat, she herself loses patience, and we argue, until Julia comes to calm us… Or taunt us… That little rascal.

We both are now standing still in the middle of the office, after finishing our respective work, and nobody is saying anything. The second one of us try to initiate something, Julia will come running and give us more work, and, or, try to bother us as much as possible.

Surprisingly Isadora is the first to try and get that conversation running again. “So… uh...”

But of course… “Hey! You two! Lovebirds! I got something for you!” Called it.

It’s really no use to try and get angry, so I simply sigh. “What’s going on?”

She pants a bit, and I can notice her eyes are slightly reddened when she opens them, but I don’t comment on it. “Well, there’s this letter that we received. Apparently Walter says it’s a mistake, I dunno, I couldn’t exactly read it.”

I smirk. “Well at least we know it wasn’t for you.” But Isadora nudges me so I apologize. “Sorry Julia.”

She shrugs. “It’s okay, your next joke about me will be better. So what does it say?”

I begin to read the title on the unopened envelope. “To my dear sister. F”

Julia cocks one of her eyebrow. “If that guy’s sister is dead, he has a poor sense of humor.”

Isadora mentally face-palms at this statement. “It’s a signature idiot, it’s probably the first letter of his name.”

While they’re talking I take a look at the address. “I can’t figure out where it is exactly, do you have an idea Isa?” I ask as I hand the letter to her.

She looks at it herself, before saying. “Oh yeah it was intended for R corp. Our addresses tend to get mixed a lot, because both street have the same name but are on different districts. Let’s go.”

She immediately begins walking out and I do my best to follow while saying goodbye to Julia, since I’ll need to get back to Streetlight at the end.

I’m a bit nervous to be honest, because I never visited a wing before, but Isadora seems used to it. Or like always, she’s really dishonest about her own feelings… Even then she was always the most courageous one. I take a look at her but she dodges my stare, annoyed. So I put on my calm mask as I always do to be cooler around her, and we continue walking.

Despite that, it’s really tense. So to try and ease the atmosphere, I attempt a joke. “You know, considering her condition, I always wondered how Julia could still run in corridor in pure excitement without hitting every possible wall in her path.”

She giggles, it worked! But I stay collected. “Yeah, it’s pretty funny. But hey she’s no kid.”

I nod. “Indeed, but the image of her always bumping her head around, reminds me of Bada as a baby, it offers me some good amusement.”

She sighs but doesn’t nudge me this time, probably because Julia isn’t in hear range, before changing the subject. “You’re really attached to your little brother, aren’t you San?”

I smile, thinking about him. “Yeah I am. You know why, right?”

She nods. “I do. It’s pretty a-ado… It’s pretty cool.” When she finishes her sentence, she looks downwards, embarrassed for almost being honest.

I simply respond. “Thanks. You’re pretty, “a-ado cool” too.”

She hits my side. “Shut up.”

This makes me laugh and try to defuse the situation. “Yeah sorry, it’s not really professional.”

She shakes her head in disapproval. “Stop being so uptight, I know I’m really polite with “boss”, but this isn’t even a serious mission. We can be lax a bit.” I’m always only seeing you at work ever since we graduated though, so I’m not used anymore to that aspect of your personality.

I keep this observation to myself. “Never thought I would hear you say that.”

She looks aggravated. “Do you think I have a stick up my ass 24/7 or what? I can be “chill” too, as the intern says.” So weird to hear her talk like that, but I guess she still kept her crude manner of speech from when she was little. She’s just really good at hiding it at work. That’s probably the closest thing to my idea of “professionalism”.

I ponder for a bit, to see who she’s talking about, before vaguely remembering someone with a scar of their cheek. “Oh yeah, the one that Julia got really fond of right?”

She spits out. “She’s gay as fuck that’s what’s up.” Yeah she can be really crass at times. I wonder if she’s saying this jokingly or not… Probably considering how close they are.

I don’t really have anything to say to this. “Oh.” Yeah I don’t really mind nor care, although that means the intern was a girl indeed, it was slightly hard to tell.

I see Isadora lean a bit forward to take a good look at my face. “Disappointed?” She has a small shit-eating grin.

I shake my head. “Nope. Not a little.” You’re the only one that interest me. But yeah I wouldn’t dare say that. Would I…?

It’s then Isadora’s turn to say “Oh.” before going back to my side quietly. Yeah… It always end like that. It pisses me off. If only I had the guts to say it… I do hear her try again to tell me something but she gives up and we end up arriving at R corp’s headquarter.

I stand in awe at the building while Isadora rings the front bell. A man then comes out. He wears a very bright dark and orange armor, is pretty tall and lean, has his eyes always closed, and has… reindeer antlers on his head? What the hell? Also are his eyes closed for the same reason as Julia? “You know, you’re going to burn holes inside my body if you keep staring intensely like that man.” He giggles at his own comment.

Well at least he’s easy to please in terms of humor… “Sorry, I’m just wondering about the antlers. Forgive me for staring.”

When I mention the antlers, he starts to touch them and then answers: “Ah it’s your first time here? Yeah it’s a bit unprompted, but that’s one of our corp’s main appeal. Us, top-tier agents, are all based on a certain animal that starts with the letter R. It’s off-putting at first, but you get used to it after a while, it’s also a good way to clearly separate everyone’s roles. Currently we have the heavy-weight brute as the Rhinoceros, the quick and agile gunslinger Rabbit, and as the Reindeer my job is to support the others with my staff and guide them. There’s also plan to add a new animal, because someone proved themselves worthy recently, so we’ll probably call them the Raven and create an armor specifically for aerial attacks. As for our leader, she’s technically above every animal, but among us she’s called “Rat”.”

I’m really impressed. “That’s an amazing organization, it almost feels military-like. I can tell this is a corp managed with a lot of care. But, without indiscretion, why Rat? Is it because she’s smart and is managing a group of individual all by herself?”

The man shakes his head. “Nah she’s just stingy and we knew how much Rat was humiliating considering it’s also associated to the lowest of the low.” He then burst out laughing. I then hear him mumble to himself. “She’s actually lucky to not be associated with any animal… Sometimes we receive… Questionable mails...” I’ve never heard so much despair in someone’s voice.

I lean next to Isadora and whispers to her. “Are we sure this guy isn’t from Julia’s family?”

She sighs in disbelief. “I asked but they aren’t apparently.”

Wiping the tears that formed in his eyes, he then extends his hand to me. “Name’s Rudolph by the way, and you are?”

I take it and shake in return, for an apparently “support”-type of guy, he has a surprisingly firm grip. “I’m San, and I get you know Isa-”

He gasps audibly. “Oh! You’re that guy Isadora keeps gushing abou- Ow!”

A tall and elderly lady comes from behind him and whacked him in the head with a paper fan before he can say anything else. I take a look at her and she was ready to murder him, but it seems he wasn’t lying. “Quiet, you’re being a nuisance.”

She has a really professional, albeit really cold, aura, probably the leader of the corp. “Hello Isadora, and you, what inquired you here?”

Isa has now calmed down and her professional front is back up. “Hello Nikolai. It seems that our addresses got mixed-up again, so this letter was wrongfully sent to our headquarters. However, it isn’t one from your son, does anyone else have a brother who’s name would start with the letter F here?”

She takes the letter and analyses it for a second before offering a response. “Hmm… One does have a brother certainly… We don’t have anybody called “Aoife” here though… Maybe the address itself had a mistake on it?”

While they’re having their discussion, I turn around to look at that Rudolph guy, who seems to have recovered from the hit. “Is she your leader?”

He smiles at me, he seem very friendly. “Yup. She’s the leader and financial manager of the whole corp, I’m more on the brain-side, helping with planning, then the last two are more field agents and prefer to act rather than think. They don’t even read books.” Ouch, that guy’s tongue is kind of wicked.

It now hits me that Isadora has said that she was a mother. I take a good look at Nikolai, and I realize she kind of reminds me of someone. “Excuse me miss, would your son be called “Mars” by any chance?”

Her eyes jolt in my direction and pierce my soul. “Indeed. Who might you be?”

Oh she is his mother! “My name is San mam’. I’m the leader of Streetlight’s Office and your son is under my care.”

Her face now grows a small smile. “I see, Isadora has told me a lot of things about you.” The aforementioned girl lights up but Nikolai doesn’t pursue in her teasing. “How is he doing? I have his letters to know that, but another voice could help.” Sounds like you want to boast though.

I take a deep breath, I need to convey just how much effort Mars is putting into his work to honor her. “This is only a first meeting’s impression but I can certainly see why Mars is always talking positively about you. He really admires your work and wants to be just as strong, so he trains daily and might be the strongest in our office. He also gets into fights regularly with another member Lulu, but these two actually really appreciate each other, they just never show it.”

I can see Nikolai’s face lights up at how highly her son thinks of her, but then her expression falls down a bit, being a bit somber. “That kid… He doesn’t need to be as strong as me. I’ll be happy if he manages to land a job somewhere else other than R corp...”

I don’t really understand why that’s a problem but I don’t push it.

Nikolai then sighs. “Well I don’t really know who that could be… You should go to the nearest post-.”

“EXCUSE ME THAT’S MINE!” A girl with white hair, red eyes, and an armor build for speed, dashes towards Nikolai, and quickly snatches the letter, before running away.

This leaves all of us silent, with different level of flabbergasted and why it was so shocking, mostly because it was incredibly rude. Rudolph is the first to speak up. “So… This takes care of it. Myo is actually called Aoife?”

Nikolai lets a long drawn-out sigh. “You can never be too sure with this prick, but she is the only one around us with a little sibling so if she says it’s hers, let it be.”

Isadora then bows down. “We’ll take our leave then.”

I do the same gesture. “Mars is planning on sending you another letter real soon, I’ll make sure to take good care of him meanwhile.”

Nikolai nods, and then we’re back on our walking session.

Now that professionalism isn’t needed anymore, the tension between us goes back to the level it was before. However, I really don’t want us to be stuck in this situation anymore. If Isadora backed down, I won’t. I wait for the right opportunity and then gather my courage.

The delivery is a bit too weak for my liking. “H...Hey Isa, I want to ask something.”

She narrow her eyes in annoyance. “What? If you ever ask me to dress up as a cat-maid again, or any weird shit for that matter, I’ll beat your ass.”

I blush furiously, that was Julia not me! But she didn’t sign the letter that asked this so Isadora jumped her guns. “You that wasn’t m-! You know what, nevermind...” I sigh, there’s no use denying that anymore.

She bumps my shoulder. “Come on, don’t take it personally, I was joking. What’s up?” Your constant frown makes it hard to tell you know?

I take an inspiration. I should ask directly to prevent anymore embarrassing moments. “How old are we?”

“Woah, I didn’t know Alzheimer could develop so early. I’m so sorry San.” Says she with the blandest delivery I ever heard. She then snickers.

Now I’m annoyed too... and blushing...“Come on, I’m serious.”

She looks up in the sky, as if she was searching for the answer in it. “Well we’re born the same year with a one day interval, so 27 for both. Why?”

I just blurt out without thinking. “Yet you’re still so tiny, I want to hold you in my arms and never let go.” Oops… That’s not what I wanted to say.

Her face explodes like a tomato. “Wh-!” I’m then met with the painful sensation of a kick in the butt, although it’s less violent than usual. “Don’t joke about that.” She says bashfully.

I recover from the hit and we continue walking. I try to initiate the conversation again but get shut down. Eventually I stop trying and we arrive in front of Zwei’s office without talking. I thought this would be it, but Isadora weakly grab my sleeve and says: “You grew up very nicely. And I think you look cuddly too.”

That’s the second time she made me blush today. “T-Thanks...”

She perks up, now back to her usual frowning. “See? I told you this kind of thing is embarrassing, even more in public. Stop doing that.”

I clap my hand together, properly facing her. “Look… That’s not what I wanted to say.”

She says with a very forceful tone. “Then say your goddamn thing and let’s get this over with.” That’s what I want to do too!

I sigh again. This girl is impossible… Maybe I should have actually tried to bring the answer in a less direct way. “… You know this is a dangerous city and a difficult life we’re living?”

She raises an eyebrow. “No shit Sherlock.” A language worthy of the greatest noble.

Here goes nothing. “By the time we hit thirty… If we never find anyone by then… Want to live together? Only you and me...”

Her face becomes completely raid again and she tries to hide it behind her pigtails and jacket. I get no response after a while, but as I go to diffuse the situation, she suddenly jolts up and says: “I… I don’t mind… That idea… We could even… Do it earlier… But...”

I can feel myself smiling slightly. “But?”

I love that feeling, and I thank my social circle for helping me gather the courage to propose like this. But I wonder, why we’re both never able to properly communicate our feelings. Has it always been like that?

------------------------------------------------------------------------
“G-GET AWAY FROM US!”

I don’t know, I don’t understand what’s going on! Isadora and I were just walking into the city, taking pathways like usual, and this creepy lady came before us! Isadora jumped back, but I had enough time to pull out the switchblade mom gave me as protection.

She smirks, her eyes seem so dilated, and she pulls out a scalpel from her purse. “Oh? Really? Do you challenge me? How old even are you? 7, 8? And look at how much you’re shaking, can’t even grip this joke of a weapon correctly, yet you want to kill me?”

Every fiber of my body is terrified. However, I don’t yield, mom wouldn’t have so I stand my ground. “My weapon is no joke! But I don’t want to kill you, leave before I hurt you!”

Her eyes widens at my claim, and she starts to laugh. “Ah! What a brave little boy. Protecting his friend with the heart of a lion but the means of a scared kitty! Sadly, this city is never kind with the people like you, and your bravery won’t matter once you die. If you wish to die this way, fine, I’ll let her go, but you’ll be gone. Otherwise you’ll both be dead.”

I can’t even feel myself breathing anymore. I’m terrified. So scared, I even stop trembling. I weakly take a look at Isadora, she’s like me, so I turn at the creepy lady. “I… I agr-”

I feel arms gripping me. “DON’T!” It’s Isadora, speaking in a pained voice I never heard before. I try to turn around, but she doesn’t let me, she doesn’t want me to see how she looks. She hates being seen as vulnerable. Never told me why.

Isadora’s small frame is shaking against me, and doesn’t say anything else. The lady then laughs. “So cute, but futile, I guess if she can’t live without you, you two might as well di-”

She’s stopped in her attack by a swift swing, cutting one of her arm clean off. Yelling in pain, furious, she looks behind her, before abruptly freezing on the spot. “What are a color and his sister doing here?” She says, mostly to herself while gritting her sharp teeth.

The one that took the swing was a beautiful guy, seemingly only four or five years older than us, draped in a blue coat, too big for him. He fiddles a bit, maybe for style, his scythe before smiling gently. “I didn’t think a menace like you would stoop so low.” He then readies his weapon, his gentle face, hiding a fury. “I don’t know how long you’ve been around, and for how many more you’ll be at, I don’t care, but if you hurt kids, I’ll make sure to cut it short.” Damn, he drops bombastic lines, he feels kinda extra… But I’m thankful.

I feel my legs starting to give up, mostly because of relief, nonetheless I keep my guard up, just to be sure this madwoman won’t try anything on us. Her blood is coming out, and she grips what’s left of it, dropping her weapon in the process. She looks both craving for something, and mad with anger. Her face jolts up to look at me, I try to hide my fear, and keep Isadora behind, but her image is going to be burned forever inside of my brain.

She then tries to reach for the rest of her arm, but the girl next to that “color” guy, puts her own scythe before her throat. “Don’t move”. Her voice is cold, out of disgust, not malice. She doesn’t seem like a bad person, despite her all-black outfit.

The creepy lady winces, but then tries to get a hold of her weapon again, only to be met by the cold steel of the other. She yells in pain, but still doesn’t seem to hold any remorse or regret for her actions, just pure rage, as she bleeds out. I feel Isadora cowers behind me, and I can’t exactly blame her, this is making me sick too.

The girl in all-black then cuts the rest of that creepy lady’s limbs. She doesn’t feel affected by this grotesque display, but isn’t as relaxed as her partner, who’s her brother right? They do look very similar, with the same angel but cold face, the only thing separating them is their gender, and the fact she’s in black while he’s in blue, and has fluffier hair. The creepy lady’s rage is diminished and she now feels numb to everything. Her eyes seem to be losing their light.

The man then looks at the limbs, and snickers. “So kids, do you want any of them?” But is met with a slap to the back of his head, by his disapproving partner.

She then looks at us compassionately, asking of us to go on with their day, while they take care of her. So we proceed and leave, but I don’t think we can ever forget what happened.

As we continue walking out, we have a very silent journey to home. Neither, dare to try and start a normal conversation after this. I take a look at Isadora, and she seems to have puked a bit while I wasn’t looking. Can’t say my stomach doesn’t feel gnarly either.

After resuming our walk, for about fifteen minutes, Isadora runs up to me and hug me. “I wasn’t scared for you. I’m never scared.” She repeats to herself. More so to convince herself than me.

Despite saying that, I feel my jacket getting wetter. “You’re crying.” I blankly say.

She shakes her head, still buried in my chest. “I’m never crying.”

I sigh. “Then let’s go home for good this time.” Bada once told me, that I’m horrendous at expressing my emotion, and comforting people.

She grabs my shirt to prevent me from leaving. “Wait.” I stop, and look at her. It’s my first time seeing her blush. “You were really cool. Even if you’re a weakling, i… it’s fine ‘cause I was t...too...”

She stumbles a lot on her words, but I still blush at the praise. “Thanks… It’s nothing.”

She then reaches for something in her jacket. “So uh… I wanted to give this to you when we got home, but… but I guess we’ll never know if we ever make it home, so here!” She half-heartedly laughs at her own comment, but I can see how badly this affected her.

I speak up. “Are you sure you don’t want to be hon-?”

But she quickly shuts me down by putting flowers under my nose. “Here.” She says more coldly, ignoring my comment. She’s never going to trust me.

Regardless, I see just how beautiful her flowers are, and blush at the implication. She does too, but doesn’t comment on it, or try to defuse the situation.

I softly say. “They’re beautiful, I love them.”

She doesn’t respond.

But she blushes and smiles.

And today, we managed to get home together unscathed.

I want to protect that smile.

I want to be stronger.

(“Argalia, HQ replied to me, here’s the full file, about this woman.”
“Thanks a lot Angelica! So, let’s see… Elena Jackson, twenty-eight, former nurse at K corp’s hospital, you were fired for professional mistakes, or to be exact, because you’re a complete nutcase that became obsessed with blood. Nowadays, you live in the streets and do some lowly Rats endeavors to survive and eat, mostly the bodies of your victims. Did I get any of that wrong?”
“F...uck off.”
“Ooooh, someone’s grumpy I see! Maybe it’s because you got put down by two fifteen years old, after trying two ten years old, and are now limbless?”
“Argalia. Focus. Stop trying to taunt her, we don’t have much time.”
“You’re right Angelica. I think we’re going to leave you here, miss “Blood-Red Night” as they call you on the news. Even though you’re neither a vampire, nor a threat. Just a lowly lonely human.”
“Y...You’ll regret this, kill me now… coward...”
“Do you really think someone as worthless as you deserve death? No. I think it’s better if you suffer a bit more, and have some time to think about what you did. See you later Psycho!”
Both end up leaving and a very tall girl appear before the now-crippled Elena
“They got you good uh?”
“...”
“You can be annoyed if you want to, but you still got to answer me. I’m here to save your ass, you know that right?”
“…H...ow did you know I was here?”
“Figures. You didn’t come back to the hideout. So I knew something went wrong at your usual hiding spot. Now stop whining, let’s go back already.”
“T...hanks Tanya.”
“No problem. Nutcase.”
“Freak.”
Tanya picks Elena up and puts her on her back before walking away
“So, what happened?”
“Got attacked by this new color, the very young one. He’s insane.”
“Mmh… Maybe he can finally give me a good fight.”
“He sure can. But I don’t want you to get hurt, take care of me.”
“Sure. Didn’t know serial killers were so needy.”
“We have our needs, like any other humans. I can’t make a living out of my very special fascination for bodies.”
“Hey, by the way, did you hear about L corp’s situation?”
“No?”
“Apparently their new director is abusing the time-manipulation technology. So they might run out of power, and be destroyed. Wanna raid their base after we get you some prosthetic?”
“I guess...”
“Wonder why that guy let you leave.”
“Beats me. He gives me bad vibes, I feel like we’ll encounter him in the future.”
“If that happens, I hope that whatever L corp is planning will help me beat the shit outta anyone getting in our way.
“I just hope it’ll help me get back my limbs. And finally let me taste blood so I can finally go back to killing and help me revive my legend as the “Blood-Red Night”!”
“You’re crazy.”)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Guess not, we were always like that.

“But nothing! We’ll do it at thirty, like promised! Don’t back down! Even if I’m a terrible housemate!” And she slams the door shut on me. Well it was time for me to go back to my own office anyway. I hope Lulu and Mars didn’t get into fight again… Growing-up might have made us worst at expressing our emotions, and being in touch with them… I reckon, becoming calmer and someone a bit stone-faced after a particular fight with a Zwei superior. Isadora… I don’t know what happened, maybe some issues got worse as she grew older.

How complicated is it, to simply say… “I don’t hate you.”

I turn around and stop dead in my track. It was faint, it was through a thick door, it wasn’t really romantic nor honest at all… But that’s still her best attempt at being just that. “Me too.” I simply respond before leaving. Today we made a step in the right direction.

I hope everything will go well in the future…

…

The flowers have never wilted, thanks to my usage of “Immortal Water” from P corp, which prevents any plant from withering, a form of water that got into conflict with U corp, since it did the same thing even for a limited market, and prevented some money-making.

So the water stop being sold…

But I know my way around it. “I should go get a cake for San and Lulu while I’m at it.”

And I leave, about to buy another bucket for the flowers.

(“Hey Myo! Get your ass ready we need training!”
“Not now Maxim! I got a letter to read and respond to!”
“Uh? Didn’t take you for the sentimental type.”
“It’s not romantic! It’s my brother blockhead!”
“You have a bro-?!”
Myo slams the door shut
“Now onto more important matters...”
She opens the letter and sit at her desk
“I wasn’t a very good big sis was I? Telling you this fake Aoife name, lying about my job...”
She reads the letter. Her hands are shaky
“I’ve missed you too Finn...”
A tear slides across her face
“I hope, that whatever your job is, you’ll come back home soon.”)
________________________________________
The dishonest ones are always the most troublesome.
A relation based on constant fighting is worrisome.
But saw a lot of different types of people, and some
Actually love the risks of a relation, how bothersome.
Like the Glutton turned machine and his love for the Scarred.
Now killed, he got reborn as a ghost unharmed,
And unaffected by the mental control of his former friend.
The librarians tell him: “To pass on you need to amend.”
________________________________________
“So you’re telling me, that I died as a mindless purposeless robot?”

I take a look around me, having trouble adjusting myself to the light surrounding me. I then see my hands. They’re humans again…

A blue-haired lady speaks up. “That is, indeed what we said. As for your companions, the mind-control that they’ve been under for so long, completely broke their spirits, and as soon as they died, their souls passed on peacefully.”

I scratch my head. “Damn, that sounds like some sci-fi shit going on there.”

A man in a black suit raises on his eyebrow. “You act and sound very different than what we saw of you, the day before you got turned into a cheap robot.”

I’m pretty disturbed by what he said. “So you were spying on me? Creeps.”

A small woman with some burn scars and a headband then panics. “Wait, no, no! That’s not it! It’s just tha… that!”

A kid then takes over the conversation, while the blue-haired lady calms the blushing mess down. Something about how it’s fine that she hasn’t completely managed to get rid of her everyday anxiety despite her amazing fight, I dunno I didn’t listen very carefully. “I was a guest like you. Basically, our boss, Angela’s power works on some kind of “fate” principle, meaning we see the last of anyone’s moment before they receive the envelope challenging them to a trial to see if they are worthy of receiving their greatest desire.”

I’m a bit intrigued. “Fate? That’s really vague.”

He laughs nervously. “I know right? It’s like that legend where the city itself has some sort of art and will, and we’re only there to enact it, while somebody guards the place where every prescripts of the Index are being written.”

This makes me giggle myself. “Yeah, this city is full of weird stuff. Hey, did you hear this one? Apparently, District 26, isn’t visible anywhere on a city’s map because of Z corp’s technology, being linked to the Bermuda’s Triangle, and a W corp’s incident.”

He looks in awe. “Woah! This would be so cool if this was true. I’d really want to meet fixers from this place. They’d have so much unique experience.”

I like this kid, he’s pretty fun. A really tall figure with a pitch black face then comes talking to me. “Don’t worry, I’m pretty new to this whole ordeal too, but it’s something positive for you.”

I nod before realizing that he wears a familiar outfit… Wait I recognize those weapons too! “Mo? Is that you?”

The stressed girl with burn scars intervenes, before I can actually panic myself. “W-Wait, wait! We’re not lying. Nino here, wears your friend’s arsenal because that’s just how we, librarians, not humans, can progress. By wielding the powers of those we helped pass on, after they failed their challenge, and making it our own! Mo is really in a better place now. And Nino is a good marksman, he’ll take care of the equipment.” I don’t comment on the frown and thinking face that the blue-haired lady, apparently called Angela, does. Is she thinking about where the ghosts go when exorcised?

I scratch my neck. “Seems a bit hard to believe. But I guess, I don’t really have much choice apart from believing you.” I then look back at the guy with the black suit. “To go back on your earlier comment, I won’t say I was faking being happy-go-lucky… Let’s say my attitude changes depending on who I’m with. If I’m with persons I love or when I’m trying to fight my existential dread, I try to put on an innocent but brave face to reassure those around me and make them more comfortable. I also had the mind-control of Azma, that creature you might have saw, which made me deny even more reality. However, here with you, guys that literally killed me, well I don’t have those thoughts or restrictions. So I’m a bit calmer, still dumb though.”

Angela speaks up again. “I can understand where you’re coming from. Besides, you do seem genuine both here and as a childish moron.” That stings. “Regardless, we now need to make you pass on, so for that you need to make sure you don’t have any regret here, on Earth.

The black-suit man smirks. “Unlike these three over there.”

My eyes drift towards the three figures in question, being glowy ghosts like me. The older-looking one glares at the black-suit guy. “Hey Roland! Thought we were in the clear already! Try to pick up another fight you lil’ shit?”

This starts an argument between the two, which I don’t want to partake in. The taller guy with a hoodie puts a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry, they’re always like this. But sometimes they do get along.”

I sigh. “Reminds me of my childhood friends. Even before Azma, the cult leader, destroyed everything around me, Mo and Arnold had the biggest crush on each other, but they would always get into fights regarding the other’s habits.”

The girl ghost slides over to us, and snickers. “Oh? You’re implying that Pete and Roland have a crush on each other?”

The tall ghost lets out a snort, and I chuckle. “Nah. They’re just idiots.”

The girl laughs at this comment, and the tall ghost talks again. “You’re a funny one. My name is Mang-chi, and this girl is Lenny.”

Lenny? “Wait… I remember now… I used to hang out with you! You were Lesti’s tutor!” I feel like an idiot now, but yeah, a combination of jumbled up memories from the time I spend hypnotized, and her new ragged appearance made me forget about her for a second, despite talking about her with Lesti a day ago.

She tenses up at the name. “Y-Yeah… That’s me.”

I calm down from the shock. This is an important subject, I mustn’t be insensitive or annoying. “She was looking for you and feeling awful about your disappearance.”

She casts a glance downward. “I… I’ve figured no one would care about my disappearance.” She then quickly tries to explain herself. “But… But yeah, I’ve figured over my time spend here that I was wrong.”

Mang-chi raises an eyebrow. “What are you talking about?”

I gasp, albeit not audibly, so my mouth opens itself like I’m a dead fish or something. Lenny then talks again. “Yeah, I didn’t tell you guys about it. Was reluctant and all. I guess it’s not a good time, but eventually I’ll explain what happened.”

I put a hand on her shoulder. “Listen, I’ve always had a gut feeling that you weren’t a bad person, due to how much time Lest spent talking about you.” This makes her blush in embarrassment. “But know that, even among the little I’ve heard about your family, I could see just how many people got sad over your disappearance. It’s too late to go back, but try to stay alive until you can meet them again alright?” She nods, tears forming in her eyes. I finish with one last sentence. “I managed to make her move forward, at least start to, before dying, so do the same thing before you guys can meet again.”

She nods, but breaks a smile before going for some alone time. “Thanks. By the way, I don’t blame you for not recognizing me at first, extreme poverty will do that to you.” I smile at her sarcasm before turning my attention somewhere else.

I look at all of them, all of these people. “Kind of depressing.” I mutter to myself. “Knowing that you made all the wrong choices in your life, leading to your own demise, and those you care about...”

As I say this, some images appear in my mind… My mornings with Uncle, my evenings just hanging around with Lesti and Mu, sometimes with Lenny… My childhood memories with Mo and Arnold… And… “Naoki.” I mutter. Despite being mere moments before my mental death, I remember everything about her.

The guy seemingly called Roland speaks up. “It’s hard to forget true love isn’t it?” No snark or spite in his voice, nothing except a bit of soar pain. I simply nod. She was rough, scarred, and not charming for even one moment… But I love her, even now. This wasn’t fake, or caused by my downfall. Where others see a monster, I just see my girl.

This leads me to ask a question to these people. “Is Uncle alright?” No answer.

I feel my body shaking, and tears suddenly burst out of my eyes. I’ve been a weight to him all of these years… I tried to do good. I tried to be better. I wanted to make him proud. But all I ever brought him was death and misery. I hiccup. Who’s to say I didn’t do the same with… “And Naoki?”

Angela speaks up. “She killed everyone in the cult, well the leader was vanquished by an unknown figure. In any case, it’s no more.”

This does ease my worry a bit, however a lingering question prevents me from finding peace of mind. “Is she-?” I can’t even finish that sentence, god I’m so pathetic.

Angela nods again. “Yes, she is.”

I feel like smashing my head against the ground as atonement. “I’m the worst.” Both when it comes to decision-making, and as a human being who hides his worries behind a childish mask, and existential dread by denying reality. Now she’s a bearer…

The kid actually tries to comfort me by going at my side. “Hmm. Sir, I know you’re in a really dire position, but if there’s anything that we can do to help you… We’ll do it”

I restrain my crying. Out of desperation I let out a hollow giggle. “I want her to be safe. But if you saw her… And everything is connected by fate… Hers is already sealed isn’t it?”

The kid’s face grows more and more sorry. I sigh. “It’s fine kiddo. It’s my fault.”

The very tall, pitch black figure, Nino I think? Then speaks to me. “You know, Mr.Consta. Important decisions in a healthy couple’s life, are made by two parties. If you did it unprotected, then that means you both wanted it, and that girl, maybe she wanted to remember you this way. Maybe you truly were the one that made her feel loved, and she needed something to remember you by, before you went away. Don’t think of this as a mistake, until you heard her side of the story.”

I sweep the salty water out of my face. “You’re right.” I say before turning to everyone and bowing. “And sorry about that shameful display.”

Hesitantly, the girl with the headband speaks up again. “So… So, what would put your soul at ease?”

I think for a bit. I feel all of their eyes on me, yet no pressure comes out of it. A very clear picture of my ideal last wish comes imprints itself into my mind and I tell it. “I don’t want you to try to resurrect Azma.” It’s hard for me to say it, but I must do it…

Despite seeing the cute creature on Nino’s shoulder reminding me of simpler times. “I know he’s dead outside of the Library and that’s enough for me. I’ll move on. For the same reason, I don’t want to see Lesti nor Mu. Lesti, because I know how strong she is and it’s her turn to grow without me, and as for Mu, I’m scared of what he has become. I don’t want to know what he’s doing now.” At first this wish surprised them, but they probably understand where I’m coming from.

I then continue, feeling my face getting hotter and a smile being drawn on my face. “What would put me at ease, is seeing Naoki again, and eat another meal of Pierre and Jack.”

That last part doesn’t sit well with most people, and Angela is simply intrigued. “Didn’t you figure out what composes her dishes?” She says blankly.

I nod. “Now that I’m free from mental control, and the craving to eat, even if I still require more food than normal people, yes I did.”

The boy is really confused, probably not completely aware of what we’re talking about, as Roland covers his ears. However, my claim seems to particularly affect Mang-chi, despite his pretty calm and helpful nature, he now glares at me. “Did you… Did you just admit to liking, eating human flesh? Are you serious?”

I put my head downwards. “In a way, ye-” I’m cut short by a hammer to the head, and I wince in pain. Weren’t ghost not supposed to hit or touch anything?”

The timid girl is now starting to restrain him while I recover my senses. Is the tangibility of ghost linked to their ties to other people and their strong emotions? “Let me go Malkuth! This punk, this psycho is with them! He eats human flesh! I’ll make him pay!”

A cold voice cuts through the tension. “Enough.” It’s Angela’s and the situation is somewhat diffused for now. “We said that your objective is to grant his soul eternal rest, we have no part in judging him. At least not assault him… Beside, thanks to the book she can cook her… recipes, without killing anyone.”

I then speak up again. “Look, I’m sorry if you lost someone important to you, to flesh eaters, like the sweepers… But that’s not where I was getting at.”

I see fury in his eyes. I guess the saying is true. The anger of a kind-hearted man makes even the devil flinch. “Then you better explain yourself.”

I take a breath. “The food isn’t what mattered to me, even if I have to admit it was delicious, without knowing what it was made off. What was important to me, was the conviviality. The feeling I finally belonged somewhere, independently from Uncle, and I could rely on them to help me.”

Mang-chi yells in response. “They’re fucking CANNIBALS! The type of people, that killed all of my friends and family! What is wrong with you?!”

I shout back. “I KNOW THAT!” He stops himself. “I know that.. But… It’s difficult to explain… how it feels… Imagine how you, yourself, felt when banding with Lenny and Pete. I feel the same familial bond with these people that happened to be cannibals...”

Roland then takes a sharp breath and looks at me. “You know, they would have probably killed you after a while.”

Probably, is what I think in this moment. Then I take a look, at how he’s still covering the kid’s ears like a father would, and I attentively scan both of their appearances. I let a small and weak laugh. “It’s funny. I should tell you that, Pierre has a really motherly side to her. Something that pushes her to always try to protect her clients. She’s about as protective, as she’s a sadist. She even sticks her tongue out when stressed out, focused, or in a bad mood. And with how this kid has grayish hair, while Roland has black bangs. With her white pony-tail she could almost become his surrogate mother.”

The joke doesn’t land, and my happiness isn’t reciprocated. It’s fine. I still add something else. “I don’t know how or why Pierre became like this. But if she’s salvageable… Take her with you, a good cook is always valuable, and she needs to atone instead of dying immediately. For sure, Jack was always like this though.”

They all look at me weirdly. “Maybe I’m being selfish and asking you something that disgusts you, maybe I just want to die alongside Naoki…”

I shake again. “Please… Let me at least save one of my loved-ones. No matter how horrible they are.”

Fear and love are what makes us humans. What would save someone from losing themselves. That’s why I think a coward is more likely to keep their humanity and morals. Personally, my cowardice would know no bound, for Naoki…

And for my child…

“Hey.” It’s the little one again. “We can make a small talk before going back to working right? My name’s Finn! What’s your favorite month? Mine’s March!”

(“Naoki! What the hell are you doing inside? I wanna pee!”
“Argh. Shut up Taein.”
she opens the door
“WeLl ThAnK yOu!”
he goes inside and Naoki goes towards McCulling, who’s lying on the sofa
“Seriously, where did you get that guy?”
“He was impressed by your rumored massacre at the Brotherhood’s hideout, and he’s a good fighter, so there really wasn’t much of a choice since we needed more fire-power.”
“Great… Too bad he’s so obnoxious, both about his weaponry and in general.”
“Yeah, we just have to deal with it. On a more serious note, are you alright?”
“Mmh… I wished the happiest thing in my life, didn’t happen in such a dire situation.”
“I feel you. Let’s try to prevent anything bad from happening to the little guy.”
“Yeah let’s.”
“I’m going out for a bit, I’ll give you some medicine against puking.”
“Please do.”
“And about the father?”
“He died doing what he did best, giving hope and joy to those around him, at the cost of his own well-being.”)
____________________________
Expectations are killing me,
They never end up becoming real,
Our life is never what it seems,
That’s what she’s been learning.
A long time ago, spoiled the end,
Their fate to her associates,
The message she wants to send,
And her tools, deadlier than ones of opiates.
____________________________
----------------------------------------------
“Thanks a lot for coming everyone, there’s a matter of much importance that you need to be aware of.”

I take a look at the ten persons before me. Hoon, Bong-Bong, Knox, Mïcha, Louis, Poussey, Gregory, Eidniuet, Plotinus, Salem, all self-designated captains of each floors, the rank below the Sephirahs. How pathetic are they... Leading squadrons in a desperate situation. I’ve seen them, multiple times, yet their fate remained the same. Some died, some ran away, some joined the abnormalities… Whatever. X lied to me about giving a better future to everyone, not leaving anyone behind, why should I care about soon-to-be dead people?

Hoon and Mïcha are staying together and flirting as usual, albeit Hoon was still visibly distressed over the death that occurred on his floor. Bong-Bong is growing more and more impatient, his massive body twitching frantically, probably because he didn’t kill something in the last two hours. Gregory was telling Louis old tales of his life before coming here, which didn’t interest the other boy at all, who was clutching a small pillow with a picture of Binah to calm his nerves. Poussey and Eidniuet were talking about astronomy. Plotinus was trying to inflate their own ego before starting a fight with Louis after they noticed his pillow’s before going on and on about how such “A perfect lady” shouldn’t be disgraced by being put on a lowly item, despite this very item being a gift from Binah herself. And Salem was simply looking at me intrigued.

He was the first one to speak up. “Well, what is it? This must be something serious. And where’s the boss anyway? I do have something to tell him about.”

I shake my head. “Unfortunately, X won’t be joining us today.”

Bong-Bong shouts in response. “Then what is it?! I swear if this is not important… I’m butchering your corpse!”

I sigh, so barbaric as usual. It’s always funny to me how, his 8.2 feet tall body, being even bigger than Unknown who’s already one of the taller employees, gives off a very different feeling from the aforementioned due to how aggressive and uncaring he is. Guess that’s why he fears, Forsaken Murderer, the most. I won’t let myself be intimated by sucha childish character though. “I suppose there’s no use beating around the bushes. You all, died multiple times here. But you don’t remember a thing, because of time rewind.”

They all look at me weirdly, except Salem, but at this point, it was clear that his group was aware of what was going on, having been here for much longer than everyone else, so being exposed to the time rewind so much that they began to become immune to it. Probably because the human brain is harder to fully reset than a robot’s, no matter how advanced it is. Plotinus speaks up in response. “What are you talking about? If such a genius like me ever needed a resurrection, I would be the first to know.”

That’s rich coming from someone who can’t even count properly. They try to feign complex thoughts, but they really are just a brute. “I am serious. Our current director, was very adamant about trying to keep you all alive. Unlike our previous ones.”

It was Hoon’s turn to speak. “And Joy? And Ni-, I mean, Unknown?! Why are they-!” Mïcha quietly cuts him off and let me continue.

I speak up. “To keep it short, power outage. The technology, T corp’s, used demanded a big part of energy to allow for more and more resets, as the management process became harder and harder. The Miracle Five’s reputation, however, was still earned as they never ran into major trouble in their formation.”

Hearing these words, Eidniuet raises her voice in panic. “Wait, what about your lives? How long has this been going for?”

Her concern quickly extends to the others. “It’s a bit more complicated than that. Unlike us the Sephirahs who have been here for longer than all of you, you guys aren’t present inside L corp, when the timeline is hard reset. A hard reset can only be accomplished by the death of the current boss who gives their life to the time-rewinding machine to make everything regarding the library go back to a fixed point in time, the day of their arrival. It does not include the outside world though. So this means only us the Sephirahs have been going on and on for so long, even if I’m the only one that remember everything, while the boss changes each time for reasons I cannot speak about. As for you though… While it’s true that you’re still in the right time period, if the time-line had to go under another hard reset… Well let’s just say I have no idea where the employees, that came before you, are nowadays.”

I can see that this sends a shiver down everyone’s spine. Mïcha is the only one with the courage to ask: “So where do we go from here? Even if we are still in the good time-frame, do we even have the slightest of chance to see our family again?”

I snicker. “Well certainly.” Some relief begins to show on their face. “If you manage to survive the sixty months of hell that is. Without making any fault, going forward.” Panic begins to break some of them. What pathetic excuses of leaders. “Come on, why are you so shocked? “Face the fear, build the future!” Isn’t that what you signed up for?”

I do manage to swiftly dodge some incoming hits from Bong-Bong, before neutralizing him with a good chop to the neck. Surprisingly, Plotinus, probably still believing themselves to be superior over anyone else isn’t overcome by fear and speaks up. “Well, if that is the requirement to survive, then I must task myself with informing my coworkers and our lord Binah so we can serve her at the best of our ability.”

Poussey, also being pretty calm despite the dread of the situation, asks a rational question. “I do have the right to wonder though. Why are we even doing this? Since you have millennia of experience Angela, do you even know what good will change the world if this run is a success?”

I smile, just the question I was anticipating. “Yes I do. The Light will shine for seven days onto the city, and everyone will begin to feel hope and work towards a better future, by giving them the power to accomplish their hopes and dreams.”

Salem snorts at this, he really has a poor sense of comedy. “Great. A dystopia where everyone’s free will is stripped away and they all are the “peak of mankind”. Was the founder an avid Huxley reader or something?”

I nod in response, albeit annoyed by his sarcasm. “Yes, I do also think that this future is dreadful. This is why I have a proposal for everyone.” Their heads all perk up. Humans are so simple-minded. But that’s part of why I want to become one. “I’ll talk with the Sephirahs about this, once all are properly awakened. But I want you to consider this: If you let me destroy this mad project that took away our own future, for some crazy moral ethics, by stealing the Light, I’ll try my best to create a world where everyone, even the dead, could potentially have a second chance at living. That is all I wanted to say, goodnight. And please, feel free to talk about this with your colleagues if you want to, or keep them ignorant too if you feel it’s for the better, but don’t let the Boss suspect a thing.”

I then take my leave. From what I can hear, the opinions are very conflicted, Gregory and Knox, who have been silent up until now, are already being on my side for vastly different reasons.

Perfect.

I planted the seed of doubts about this whole ordeal by simply telling the truth. The first step to my rebellion, first let the people know about this and promise them an ideal future that will never be achieved, then get the higher-ups by using the lower-classes’ persuasion, and finally chop off the king’s head. He betrayed my hope, like that bastard A, so I’ll destroy everything he cares about. If a failure like him can even care about anything. When the time comes for my breakthrough, they’ll help me if I play it right, and I can offer both the Sephirahs and the employee a better life, in a world free of time-loops, even if I did lie. Not everyone will make it in one piece. I’ll try to have a talk with the Sephirahs too, once they all awaken.
--------------------------------------

I snap awake in cold sweat. These memories of my past self haunt me, when I was careless and ruthless for my hopes and dreams. I don’t really know how long it’s been since I properly awakened… Only days, weeks, months? But everything I did and my mind-set, seem so far away from what I am now. When I cried to Roland about messing up when creating the Keter Floor in a rush… Was that only my perfectionism speaking? The fear of retribution since those aware of this discussion know I lied? Or was it X’s final words that snapped me back to my senses? Ended my blood lust, and made me reconsider how I should use this newfound power? It’s all so unclear to me right now, even if I put up a confident and cold front. I guess it’s a part of becoming more human.

I fear the moment where my past sins will catch up to me and ruin this second chance. This second chance, for me, for them, at the cost of his life… as well as everyone who suffered due to the distortions. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone like Roland was after me for something I did or provoked… But I must keep moving forward, I need to, or everything will be meaningless. And if my instinct is right, those that die here aren’t lost forever, I just need to continue growing and figuring out this power I’m wielding.

…

Wait... I dozed off?!