(This Chapter has been Edited by the Helpful nintendoplayer96v8)
POV: Trigger"So you… shot her straight in the eye, right after she killed your best friend… lost your mind over it, weird voice happens, and you came back in time?" Juliet asked each question slowly, with building excitement as she went along.
"Yeah, pretty sure that's how it went." I gave her a nod while she… kind of like a puppy leaned on me, gripping my forearm with both hands and stared up at me like I was some kind of living dream.
"And then you talked and befriended her with words of justice and positivity?" Her speaking sped up, while her eyes shone with eagerness.
"Positivity is relative here and probably not correct, but yes." Despite seeing the ticking time bomb in front of me, I did little to try and avoid what was about to happen.
"That's… SO COOL! LIKE AN ACTUAL HERO BACKSTORY! THE DRAMA! THE CONNECTIONS!" And there she goes, bouncing up and down on her… rear. I'd say she was shaking, but she wasn't moving fast enough for that.
So yeah, while we were sitting on the floor leaning against a wall, she decided to bounce up and down, only by the excited movements of her torso and arms.
Chuckling, I pressed my hand on her head to keep her still, "I'm aware, you said this to me twice by now." She was really earnest about it too, didn't expect things to go… this well.
Juliet released a squeak, "Oh, I wish I could be like that myself! Grand adventures! Peril everywhere!" And now she is getting a bit too crazy for my liking…
"Take a deep breath." Sighing out loud, I gave her a worn out smile. I'm surprised by her rebound after I started talking about myself… although when I put some thought into it, a lot of Abnormalities rebounded relatively fast after I met them.
Red being the exception rather than the norm.
She blinked a few times before laughing awkwardly, "Sorry, sorry…" She coughed on her fist a couple of times, seemingly trying to think of something to say, "I uh… you really don't want to be a hero anymore?"
The question was somewhat sudden, but not wholly unexpected, "I just said I don't have to be one."
"Uh… yeah, but why?" She fidgeted for a moment, "That won't change how some look at you, so may as well take the good part, right?" Her logic… was somewhat sound.
However.
"It's just… life I guess." Shrugging, I continued talking, "The good comes with the bad, and while I can't really tell people how they should see me, I can still do my own thing. That's enough for me." Juliet kept staring at me for a moment.
"You're weird." She stated, but soon after a smile formed on her lips, "A good kind of weird."
"Say's the girl that accepted a name for herself, not even by her own choice." I snarked back with a laugh.
"Hey… it's a good name." She defended with a massive grin.
With a roll of my eyes, I found myself with the opportunity to ask one important question, "How did all of you get caught by Lobotomy Corp anyway?" Juliet's smile became a smidge smaller.
"I can't speak for the others… but I remember someone yanking me out of the kingdom. I remember the black mud as I kept going up." Juliet's head shifted around like she was expecting for someone to suddenly try to attack her.
I stayed quiet, letting her decide if she wanted to tell me or not. After a few more seconds, she nodded at herself in resolution, "Then a single yellow eye... glowing at me and staring with wonder at the time." Huh… that sounds familiar.
Extraction Team? Guess it was more than just extracting EGO, "At the time?" Had Juliet met Binah before?
She gave me an uncertain look, "Well, I know Justine had a similar experience to some extent, Joy said the eye seemed bored with her." Knowing Joy, she must have said a lot more than that.
Next question, "When did you three even talk about that?" I questioned with a frown.
"Four." Juliet corrected, "When we are all somewhat close by, we can vaguely read each other's thoughts. So we kind of talked like that, rare as those moments are… and even if I forgot them when I lost control, I adore them." Juliet sighed and looked at her hands with a small smile.
Giving her a slight pat on the back, that soon turned into a gentle rub, "So… you four can just read each other's minds?"
"Yep!" She proceeded to offer… no explanation to what I just heard, not that I was particularly surprised by that. Abnormalities and E.G.O just do things without much logic behind it, I wonder why this wasn't in their information documents.
Well, I guess no one ever really asked? The documents did say that the company makes active attempts to keep the 4 in different branches.
Well usually.
I rolled my shoulders slightly, "Well, I do a lot of random unexplainable things myself, so why bother understanding it?" That was not a good mindset to have.
Juliet nodded and rose one finger as if she was about to explain something, "It's just as Joy said, 'If it ain't big, why bother?'" I'm… so happy she doesn't know what Joy was talking about.
I'm also going to shove my fist down her throat for this.
Why the f*ck, Joy?!
"Why do you look so pained...?" Juliet asked with a worried frown.
My eyelids were pressing against each other, forcing me to not see the world, that was not an interaction I just had, "I'm constipated."
"You… could have said that before, how long have you been holding it in?" Juliet asked with an exasperated smile. Yeah, sure, let's go with this.
What's self-respect anyway? "It looked like you were having fun." Need to look for an out now all of a sudden… I don't like the look of this conversation, I want to not be lumped into this, thank you very much.
"That's such a dumb reason to avoid looking after yourself…" She sighed, then perked up and glared at me.
Not without a reason, because the words 'You are one to talk' were at the tip of my tongue, and since she is already aware of this, I settled by looking amused at her.
Visibly bristled, Juliet crossed her arms and huffed while looking away dramatically, "Idiot…" That I am, sometimes according to my friend circle.
The room flashed green, and I gave her a stare, she responded with a small nod, "We'll meet again eventually, I have… a lot to think about anyway." My hand reached out, and I ruffled her hair slightly.
"Don't worry about it, I'll be back… probably." Work hours were almost over, "Tomorrow most likely, so you have time to mull everything over."
Juliet hummed and as I started to get up she pulled at the base of my shirt, "Hey, if you see Joy and Justine… tell them I'm back."
I couldn't help but chuckle, "Sure, see you around, Juliet." Waving at her as I left the room, that was… very good. It went great, even.
Hmm? Did I see a flash of red string again? Weird… did I really see anything...? I don't see it anymore, maybe I'm going crazy.
In any case, I wasn't expecting things to go so swimmingly, but why would I complain about that? And the hallways of the corporation are as dreary as ever…
"Wow… I never really saw it first hand before, your approach is so bizarre to me…" I heard Hod speak to me, she sounded kind of stupefied, and I would be too if someone suddenly did the exact opposite of how things are usually handled.
"Yeah, I get that a lot. Anything else on our plate, or is it lights out?" My question hanged in the air for a moment as Hod seemed to mull it over.
"Enkephalin quota is completed, no Ordeals presented themselves throughout the day, which is something Malkuth and Angela are discussing about, and the newest Abnormality's E.G.O was collected by one of our agents, the one replacing Yin. It's safe to say work should be over by now." She listed off everything that had happened and what didn't happen.
I gave a brief nod, that's good to know, no more working for today. Amelia is still angry at everything, yet to kill anyone too, good to know nothing changed while I was busy inside that chamber, "What's the new Abnormality anyway?" May as well make some small talk.
"Oh...! Hmm… Crumbling Armor, TETH class. It's very basic and easy to work, but when an agent performs Attachment work or uses a tool Abnormality after receiving its gift, they will be decapitated." Hod informed with a slight shake in her voice.
Giving a shake of my head, I sighed, "Why do these things just randomly kill people for just seeing them...?" Not that people DIDN'T do that already, but I like to think that was just a human thing, not an everything thing…
Not soon after, the Manager announced the end of work hours, not that I paid any attention to it, "Didn't you want me to help you with some training stuff?"
Hod was very quick to answer, "If you have the time, of course!" Quickly, she coughed, which… how? "The idea is to have a more… general purpose training, trying to prepare clerks and agents for the situations more thoroughly, and you are the perfect candidate to prepare them for it."
I paused for a moment and tilted my head, "Because I'm weird or…"
"Ghrm…" Hod seemed to have choked on thin air, which again… how? "In a way… I was hoping you'd managed to convince the Abnormalities that had been to change to help with this."
Well… that isn't a very bad idea, not sure who'd play ball besides Justine, but I can make it work, "Sure, let me go looking for them. I'll meet you in Training's Main Room." With a nod, I walked off to find the rest.
.
.
.
.
.
You know, at the time, I had no idea what the strings I saw meant. And while they were a worry, nothing seemed to happen even after I saw them.
It was all going fine for some time, maybe even TOO much.
The lack of Ordeals had everyone on edge, but there wasn't much to do about that beyond complaining a bit and trying to form theories.
Angela and Malkuth thought it was the changes I performed, Hod seemed to think it was linked to the massive red wave from days ago.
None of that mattered, because everything built up to something… worse.
