{Observation 7; The strangest things can happen in life}
“-in time. Go and suppress his memories.”
Laurence could barely make out an unfamiliar voice.
He wasn’t sure if he had blacked out from the pain, or if something else caused him to become unconscious.
“Got it. Sorry about this…”
He wouldn’t even remember thinking this, however, as a throbbing pain seared throughout his head, his mouth trying to scream, but not a single noise escaped, since his mouth was covered by something.
Soon, he blacked out again, and those memories that started to resurface faded into oblivion.
* * * * *
“-ey, how long are you going to sleep?”
Laurence could barely make out an unfamiliar voice.
He wasn’t sure if he had blacked out from the pain, or if something else caused him to become unconscious.
He groaned for a bit, clutching his head, and sat up gingerly.
Opening his eyes, it was blurry, but he could make out a few shapes.
“Fantastic, you’re up. We’ve taken you out of danger for now, but we’ll need to get moving as soon as you’re able.”
Another voice made it’s presence known, this time he could recognize it’s tone as a man’s.
He couldn’t tell whether the first voice was a woman’s or not, as he was completely disoriented, and the headache he had wasn’t helping.
That’s when a thought was made through Laurence’s voice.
“Lucy?”
He spoke it without thinking, as the last thing he remembered was that he was with her before being ambushed.
“I’m here.”
He heard the familiar voice as he turned, his blurry vision finally starting to gain some clarity.
He was able to see her relieved expression, as well as the details of her clothing, so he knew he should try to move.
The first person that spoke said they needed to move when they were able, and although he had questions, he knew there was no time.
Laurence slid over to a brick wall near him and used it as he steadied himself into a standing position.
That’s when he noticed that the pain in his foot was gone, and looked down, gasping at what he saw.
His shoe was off, but the foot that he knew was stabbed through showed no wounds.
Before he could dismiss the earlier pain as imagination, he saw his sneakers off to the side, a large, red nash running through it.
“Ask later. Right now we need to escape.”
A woman’s voice, who he guessed was the first person that spoke to him, addressed him upon noticing his expression.
Laurence turned to her and realized they were in an empty, run down room of some sort, probably not too far away from where they were attacked, as the tone of urgency was still in everyone’s voice and expressions.
The woman had dark circles under her eyes and long, messy black hair.
Her narrow, dark brown eyes were irritated, and she wore a black dress, giving her an overall dreary feeling.
That’s right, it was my pawn; gloomy girl!
...Er, anyways.
The man, who was peeking through a crack in the door, had brown hair like Laurence, but his hair was slick and straight.
He also wore a hawaiian shirt, which left a bitter taste in Laurence’s mouth from the memory of Gregory.
“We’ve got the thumbs up from the networker.”
The man stood up and opened the door widely, signalling the group to make their way through.
Laurence shimmed his foot into the destroyed shoe, simply to give him some more balance in his steps, and walked.
As they made their way through the door, Laurence noticed that they had one more woman with them.
She had long blond hair and wore a long trench coat along with an inappropriate smile.
“Oo, this is quite exciting!”
“Sharon, can you please take this seriously for once?”
“I am, of course, but I never get to leave the base! ...Well, almost never~”
“Honestly…”
As the women exchanged those words, Laurence could see someone familiar down the hallway.
The networker that signalled them was…
“...Bug.”
Bug looked at Laurence with a bitter smile.
“Just pretend I’m not here, alright? Anyways, the mob is searching the buildings to the left; before they come here, we should use the exit ladder in the room over here.”
Bug was already walking to the right end of the hall before he finished his explanation, and everyone followed.
Laurence noticed a trail of blood across the floor towards where they came from and frowned at the prospect of it being his.
There really were too many questions about what happened while he was unconscious, as well as why they were being hunted by an abnormal amount of people, but his desire to survive won over his curiosity.
Without giving the room so much as a once over, the group followed Bug as he moved out the window and onto the metal ladder.
“Keep moving.”
It was an obvious statement, but when working with a networker, there were times when they would tell you to stop moving altogether when danger was near.
They were good at moving around and avoiding traps and ambushes.
This specialization made them valuable assets, and a ‘trusted’ networker could help you out of the direst of situations.
That’s why, when they say something as obvious as ‘keep moving’ they weren’t saying it to insult you, but rather to remind you that you hired them to do a job.
Not following the guidance you seeked was a stupid thing to do indeed.
This reminder also served as a warning of sorts; “If you don’t want to be put in danger, follow my instructions carefully from this point on” is what it said.
In other words, here was the most dangerous part of their job.
When they were all down the ladder, Bug motioned for them to continue following him.
It was a rather straightforward path of moving away from the crowd of people, but for some reason, Bug was avoiding the main streets, which would have meant safety.
“Where-”
Laurence spoke that one word before a glare from the black-haired girl shut his mouth.
He kept silent and thought about it on his own.
If we are staying away from the main streets… then does that mean that even they are unsafe for us?
Laurence frowned at this idea, as he couldn’t understand why it would be so dangerous for them to be in the main streets; surely the alleyways were the most dangerous place in the city, he thought.
He kept on being quiet as Bug motioned for them to climb up another ladder after moving through a series of alleyways connected to each other, out of sight from the main streets.
They didn’t stop until they reached the roof, where Bug let out a sigh of relief.
“Okay, we should be fine here. When night comes, we’ll be able to safely do the rest.”
“Night!?”
Laurence spoke in shock, unafraid to do so as Bug just spoke in a talking tone himself.
He still received a glare from the black haired girl, however.
“Haven’t you figured out what’s going on right now? Why there would be a large group of people chasing after you carefully with the intent to kill?”
She spoke the words with irritation and Laurence shook his head, her glare getting worse.
“Under what circumstances does a large group of people come together?”
At this question posed to him by the male, Laurence thought about it for one moment longer, and finally had the answer.
“Mutants…”
When someone was made known to be a mutant, it made people band together in a ‘witchhunt’ so to speak, in order to kill them.
This also explained their silence, since they wanted to keep both their locations and numbers hidden, as mutants were known to only use as much power as was necessary.
If the small group that led the charge got affected, then the others wouldn’t as the aforementioned mutants didn’t know they were there.
It was why Laurence and Lucy hadn’t realized there were more people there than what they originally thought.
“And that’s why we can’t go out to the main streets. But where did they get the information that we’re mutants?”
Lucy spoke up, asking a question of her own to the group who rescued them.
The blonde, who the other woman called Sharon, waved her hands in the air.
“Oo, oo, I can answer that! You see, um, the chosen have worked out that Lulu here was one of the valkyries, so they threw her under the bus hard~~~!”
Sharon spoke with such cheerfulness that Laurence and Lucy immediately became disillusioned with her, despite the fact that she was a part of the group that saved them.
But Lucy didn’t let a certain comment slip by unnoticed.
“Lulu… Come to think of it Laurence, you called me that when you fell from the ladder. What was that about?”
Laurence looked at Lucy blankly.
“What are you talking about?”
“You know, when you were looking at me on the ladder, you looked… I dunno, like you remembered something and then you called me Lulu.”
Laurence tried to think back to the moment when he was on the ladder, but all he could remember was being stabbed through the foot and catching a glimpse of Lucy’s face before being pulled down.
“I don’t remember.”
At this statement, Lucy frowned, but didn’t seem to be upset at Laurence.
“Well… I do remember. Not just that moment, but… when you said it, I felt like I was about to remember something as well.”
“Remember?”
Lucy nodded at Laurence, but directed her attention elsewhere as she saw that the others they were with were talking among themselves.
“Is there something wrong?”
At Lucy’s question, the others turned to her and shook their head.
“Suspicious…”
The black haired woman sighed and responded to Lucy’s assertment.
“Say what you will, but we saved you.”
“Why?”
“...As irritating as it is, someone doesn’t want either of you to die just yet.”
She turned her head, refusing to say anything else on the matter.
“How did you save me?”
Laurence asked the question in hopes of understanding what happened while he was unconscious.
The man spoke up this time.
“We had someone toss aside the normals who were on you. He then acted as a distraction while we brought you to safety. Lucy was informed by Sharon, who opened the window next to her and led her to us.”
“Normals… You’re all mutants?”
“Yesss~! You are correct~”
Sharon butted in, her voice still ditzy and energetic.
The man coughed and continued.
“For the record, said distraction has insane strength, so he can pretty much punch through walls with his bare hands. We don’t have to worry about him, since he’ll just push away the normals hunting him, and he has a secure escape route too.”
“In other words, you planned this all ahead of time.”
Laurence finally caught up to what was happening, and stated that, to which the man smirked at.
“Yup. We have someone that can predict things, so it was with his power we were able to set this up.”
Oh gee, I wonder who that can be?
“At any rate, I guess you can say you owe us one.”
“...I guess.”
Laurence answered cautiously, since he still had no idea what the goals of his rescuers were.
His feelings didn’t get unnoticed by the man, who laughed.
“That’s the right response! I feel a bit better saving you now, since you aren’t as naive as I thought you’d be.”
“Um… thank you?”
“No problem. Anyways, to answer the obvious question of why your foot is healed, Sharon here can disinfect and heal any wounds thanks to her power in no time. We did it while you were unconscious.”
Laurence looked back to Sharon, who still had that wide smile, her green eyes narrow with glee.
“Hm? No need to thank me, since I wouldn’t have gotten outside if not for you~.”
“Ok…”
Laurence scratched the back of his head and turned to Lucy, who seemed to look back at him with the same thought.
Silently, they agreed.
This woman is weird.
Lucy directed her attention to Sharon.
“You called me Lulu just now, didn’t you? Why?”
Sharon tilted her head and gave a ‘Hmmm~?’ in response.
“Your name’s Lucy, so I shortened it to Lulu~!”
“That isn’t shorter!”
“How about Luuuu~?”
“...Are you retarded?”
Sharon’s ditzy laughter filled the air, along with chuckles from Bug and the man as Lucy sighed in resignation.
“I think she’s doing it on purpose.”
Laurence suggested that to Lucy and she nodded bitterly.
“Yeah… Hey, don’t change the subject! Tell me why you called me Lucy!”
“I didn’t call you Lucy. I called you Lulu~.”
“Dammit, you know what I mean!”
The verbal mis-step only further enraged Lucy, whose patience was wearing thin.
“Nooooo, I have no ideaaa~?”
As Laurence watched, even he started to have trouble holding back his laughter.
Lucy turned to him, appalled.
“Laurence!”
“Sorry, but this is actually really funny.”
“...Traitor.”
Lucy spat the insult as she walked up to Sharon and looked her dead in her smiling eyes.
“Why.Did.You.Call.Me.Lulu?”
“Because it’s a cute nickname, isn’t it~?”
“Liar!”
“It’s the truth, cross my heart and hope to die~!”
Sharon’s unwavering cheerfulness exhausted Lucy, who grit her teeth and turned her back on her.
Laurence nodded in admiration.
“You fought valiantly.”
“Would you please shut-up.”
Lucy half-heartedly kicked Laurence in the shin, then walked over to the ladder they climbed.
Grimacing from the discomfort, Laurence sighed.
“How much of your smiling is an act?”
Having another question directed at her, Sharon tilted her head he other way.
“An act~?”
“...Nevermind. I think I’ll save some sanity by leaving it alone.”
Sharon beamed at the comment and nodded her head, satisfied from something.
Laurence then turned to the man.
“So are you going to tell us specifically why we’re still alive, mr...?”
“‘Mr’? How polite of you. Call me Rucker; everyone else does. And as for why we saved you, it’s simple; you’re a mutant just like us who seems to know not everything is as it seems in this city.”
“You know?”
“It’s more or less a vague feeling, but it’s been getting stronger as of late. I think some of the normals are realizing it too, even if they can still arrange a hunt for mutants…”
“Yeah… How did they lock onto us right away, now that I think about it? Just a few days ago, Lucy was out on the streets, looking for another mutant… So it couldn’t have been too long ago that they spread her likeness and nature as a mutant throughout the city.”
“It’s not just hers.”
The black haired girl spoke up and help out some parchments of paper for Laurence to see.
He was taken aback by the detailed pictures on both paper, a colored sketch of Lucy on one, and Laurence on the other, with ‘mutant’ scrawled across the paper in big, black letters.
“Me too…? But I’m not a valkyrie. Not only that, but these pictures-”
Rucker interrupted, answering Laurence’s question.
“The chosen have a mutant that can draw really well. Whether this is simply ability or part of his or her power, we don’t know, but papers of your and Lucy’s likeness have been spread all across the city. It also doesn’t help that they’ve been moving all over the city, claiming to have witnessed you two in action.”
“So that’s why they were able to organize a party to hunt us… It’s easy to imagine a single person spreading lies to take out a rival, but an entire group along with papers having detailed descriptions? Such effort adds believability to the story… But how did they know what me and Lucy looked like?”
“Another mutant power, I would assume. This is a group of numerous mutants, and we don’t know what powers each and every one of them have. It’s not hard to imagine they have someone who can view someplace in the city without being there.”
“That still doesn’t explain why they’re targeting me as well… unless it’s by association?”
“Your guess is as good as mine when it comes to that. Anyways, to sum it all up; you and Lucy are now being hunted by everyone in the city. The chosen are no exception.”
It was a simple enough thing to understand, but for it to happen so suddenly made Laurence get a headache.
That’s when he realized that his other allies could be in danger as well.
“I don’t suppose there are any more of these mutant posters going around of other people, are there?”
“Nope, it’s just you two. Come to think of it, he did mention something about you two having three more allies… are you worried about them?”
Laurence gave a frown, feeling uncomfortable for having been seen through.
It wasn’t a very pleasant feeling when Thomas did it to him, but it was especially unpleasant when he had no reason to trust the person reading him.
“...No, they can handle themselves.”
Laurence stated that firmly.
Ruri probably would have understood what's been going on through communicating with the dead, so there was no reason to think that she would let her or the others stay still if they were in any danger.
“I see. Well, in any case, it seems like we’re going to be up here for a while, so let’s get along for that time, yeah?”
Rucker extended his hand for a shake, which Laurence cautiously accepted.
Rucker seemed amused by this reaction, nodding his head in understanding.
At any rate, Laurence felt like he had gotten most of what he wanted to know from Rucker, so he started looking around for the person he wanted to talk to next.
Looking off, near the far corner of the roof, was Bug, who averted his gaze when Laurence looked in his direction.
This reaction was to be expected, considering Bug’s part in Yuna’s death, and how Laurence treated him when they last met.
Laurence walked over towards him, and when Bug realized this, he just sighed in resignation, realizing there was no way to avoid the conversation.
When he reached Bug, Laurence just stood there, wondering what to say to him.
He knew he had to talk with Bug, but he just didn’t know where to start, or what to say.
“...Hello.”
Bug offered the first word of greeting, when he saw that Laurence had clammed up.
“Hey.”
The response was short and laid-back, which seemed to surprise Bug.
Laurence sat down, as if it would have progressed the conversation, but it just made an awkward silence come over the two.
Bug scratched his curly black hair, seemingly cleaner than before, and frowned.
“...So, uh… what do you want to talk about?”
Bug didn’t mean to sound so cold, as he was at a loss for what to say as well.
It was ironic that they had no idea what to say, considering how they knew this talk needed to happen.
“...Thanks… for helping me and Lucy escape.”
“Huh?! ...Oh, yeah. No problem.”
The silence came back for another moment before Laurence shook his head and sighed.
“Screw it. I still hate you for the role you had in Yuna’s death.”
“...Yeah, I figured as much.”
“...But, I don’t think I have the heart to kill you anymore.”
Bug looked at Laurence in the face, as though he were looking at him for the first time.
“...I wish I could take everything that I did back, even though that’s not possible.”
“Are you saying that to make me feel better?”
“No, I’m saying it because I wanted to say it to you.”
Laurence gave Bug a similar look at those words.
“...What have you done since then?”
Bug thought about it for a moment.
“I’ve mostly been staying away… from tasks that involve killing others. I’ve been scouting out places for people, as well as the odd escort job… like this one, from mutants.”
“You’ve worked with other mutants?”
“...Yes, although it wasn’t specifically said. After helping someone out without questioning why they needed it, the requests just came in after that.”
“Hm… That makes sense.”
“That being said…”
Bug looked over at Rucker’s group.
“...they came to me, openly admitting they were mutants and that they needed my help. They also mentioned you were in trouble too. I wondered how they knew so much… then they explained-”
“Someone in their group can predict the future, right?”
“Y-yeah. They saw what had happened some time ago…”
Laurence took a deep breath in, then gave Bug a sharp glance.
Bug didn’t flinch from this, also giving Laurence a serious look.
“They could’ve prevented Yuna’s death, if they saw what was going on before it happened.”
Bug stated this, even though Laurence just came to that conclusion himself.
If they knew Bug knew Laurence, then the only way for that to have been possible was for them to have either observed them (which made no sense) or to have seen what happened between them before it occurred using that power.
They probably didn’t have any reason to help us back then, but… Laurence gritted his teeth, still upset at this information.
Still, Laurence knew that would have been passing the blame on Yuna’s death, which he thought he had already moved on from.
He just bit his lip and shook his head.
“Nothing will change what happened. Right now, what I need to focus on is getting to safety.”
Laurence stated that, and Bug nodded.
“And I need to make sure that happens.”
Despite the past, the two had managed to come to an understanding.
All they had to do now was wait for night to come… unless, of course, their pursuers checked the roofs.
* * * * *
Luckily, they encountered no such problems as it became nightfall.
Bug explained that an earlier mutant hunt ended in disaster when it was on a roof, as the pursued in that instance used their powers to push off dozens of people at a time, resulting in many casualties as well as said mutant’s escape.
Since then, the hunters only decided to attack mutants on ground level, or in a building.
As hated as mutants were, it wasn’t as though they wanted to do a suicide attack when hunting them.
Self-preservation was still the goal of residents in the city.
Bug went down the ladder to examine the area around them in the blanket of night, the only source of light being a crooked moon staring down from above.
Lucy was sitting down in the corner where Bug used to be, hanging around Laurence.
She looked up at the sky, pouting.
“I never imagined I would be on a roof with complete strangers at night time, waiting for a normal to guide us without questioning his motives at all…”
Laurence also gazed up at the moon, lazily responding to Lucy.
“Things are changing fast.”
“Yeah. Just yesterday I was with Erika and Hana… and you guys lived in that comic book store.”
“Mhm…”
“...Are you tired?”
“Yeah. It’s… been a long day.”
“No kidding.”
Laurence yawned, and lay down onto his back, ignoring the fact that his shirt would get dirty.
“...Oy, don’t go to sleep yet.”
Lucy poked Laurence’s cheek, and he grumbled.
“I know, I know.”
Lucy put her head in her hands and looked at Laurence curiously.
“Looking at you right now… It’s hard to think that you’re the same person who so passionately tried to stop Gregory from killing.”
Laurence tilted his head in Lucy’s direction.
“Come to think of it, you were there…”
“Yeah. Me and the others were watching you from the roof. You protected Birdy and did nothing to harm Gregory either. It came as a complete shock to see someone act like that.”
“...Erika didn’t strike me as the type who would harm people without a reason.”
“Oh yeah, she had this grin on her face the entire time! Hana didn’t see it because she was too busy watching you guys, but I saw it in the corner of my eyes… and…. She looked hopeful, you know?”
“Hopeful?”
“Yeah… She’s never seen someone act so selflessly before, so… I guess it looked like she was thinking, ‘Maybe people aren’t so bad after all’, you know?”
“...Why was she going around killing ‘evil’, then? If she didn’t do it because she had faith in humanity, then…”
Lucy looked somber.
“Erika was probably the one who wanted to believe in humanity the most, but with the daily killing and selfishness on display… I guess she was just doing it to hold onto that small hope that there was someone out there worth protecting. But… it was when you didn’t kill Gregory that I saw her demeanor completely light up.”
“...”
“I… Erika didn’t want to kill him after that, you know? But Hana insisted and… well…”
“What point are you trying to make?”
“...I don’t know, honestly. I guess I just need to talk about it. It’s like… all my emotions are swirling around in my chest, and they need to get released, you know? So I need to keep talking about it, even if I don’t know why. I just… I know I need to save Erika and Hana from themselves. There’s no way that they truly believed that killing Gregory was the right thing to do, yet they did it anyways. So when I see them next, I’m going to convince them that what they’re doing is wrong. Even if they feel hurt or betrayed… even if they don’t want to listen, I’ll convince them somehow, you know?”
“...That’s optimistic.”
“I’m a kid, alright? Besides, out of everyone in this city… I think you’re the most optimistic out of all of us, believing that everyone is good, even the ones you don’t know.”
“Oh, I guess that’s true. ...Wait, why are you speaking so familiarly with me?”
Lucy blinked, looking confused.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean… you just sound like you’ve known me for a while, with the way you’re speaking.”
“...Hm, I dunno, I just felt as though you were that type of person.”
Before Laurence could respond, Bug’s head popped up from the side of the roof.
“It’s clear; let’s get going before that changes.”
Rucker’s group wasn’t too far from the ladder either, after Bug went down to ensure their safety, so everyone was on the same page and lined up to go down the ladder.
Laurence decided that the conversation with Lucy wasn’t worth pursuing anymore, so he forgot about it and followed.
It was pitch black in the alleys at this time, the moon having been off to the side in the sky so it’s light didn’t reach that far down.
Bug still moved with certainty and purpose, however, having been accustomed to the streets of the city.
If one asked a networker to walk through the streets in the dark, only a few would actually be able to do so.
Laurence now had a newfound respect for Bug, as he never expected him to be one of them.
“...The abandoned warehouse on the flood.”
Laurence looked towards the black haired girl, who spoke so suddenly.
“Huh?”
“When you’re at a loss for where to go next, go there. That’s what I’ve been told to tell you.”
It was confusing to Laurence why she would choose this exact time to tell him, while they were in the middle of being led to safety.
But in the next moment-
“Okay, this is our stop.”
Rucker stated their intent on parting ways here.
The building that he had stopped in front of was the same as any other, so it was a wonder how he could know that it was his stop, especially in the darkness.
“Thanks for your services, Bug. We’ll be in touch.”
He offered that bit as farewell, and Sharon and the black haired girl followed him without so much as a word.
“Are you sure?”
Bug was skeptical that they knew where they were going, but Rucker offered a smile in response.
“Yeah, we’ll be good from here on out. Just make sure those two make it back home and your job’s done.”
This hushed conversation left nothing else to be discussed, as it was better to not waste too much time when trying to get to safety.
Bug didn’t look back, having made that necessary decision to leave things as they were.
Laurence and Lucy followed suit and the group made their way back to the others.
* * * * *
They were waiting in the basement for their arrival.
Although it seemed cold for them to do nothing, it was the correct choice, as Ruri already would have known they were in the middle of being escorted to safety anyways.
Coming to help would have had the opposite effect in this case, as more numbers would simply make it harder to move unnoticed.
Upon entering the worn down room, Birdy let a sigh of relief escape her mouth, while Thomas and Ruri simply nodded, having already known where they were.
Thomas was getting used to reading Ruri’s mind, so he now got information at about the same rate as her.
“That was something.”
Laurence offered that statement as he lay down onto the spread out blanket.
At this casual statement, Lucy seemed exasperated.
“That’s one way of putting it…”
Lucy made her way to a small mattress in the corner, and flopped on top of it.
It was as though that was the last of her energy, with the way she became still, but she craned her neck to look at the others.
“Ruri, did you catch their conversation on the roof?”
Lucy was referring to something that had bothered her; Rucker’s group had been conversing amongst themselves when they were all on the roof, acting strangely.
Ruri shook her head.
“I did, but not much; Sharon was confused about something, but Elise cut her off, reminding her about the spirits around them. They know much more than I expected.”
“Elise…? Oh, that must be the black haired girl.”
“Yes. For the most part, they let nothing on except that something happened the moment you all made it to the roof, enough to make one of their members visibly confused.”
“Hm… What part?”
“When you said that you were on the verge of remembering something.”
“...I knew it.”
Lucy had gotten annoyed when Sharon refused to tell her why she called her ‘Lulu’, as she didn’t believe for one second it was a coincidence she said it so shortly after Laurence did.
“But enough of that, just get some rest for now. We need to be able to function properly tomorrow, after all. Thomas was able to get some food while you two were out, so you can have some in the morning.”
“Mm… Alright.”
It didn’t take much convincing from Ruri to make Lucy drift off to sleep, as she was pretty exhausted.
Laurence was still awake, but that was because Bug was still there.
Thomas took notice of his reason and approached Bug.
“...It’s okay, Laurence, you can get some sleep.”
Thomas gave his approval that Bug had nothing bad in mind, so Laurence nodded and slept where he was.
Despite saving him and saying he changed his ways, the scars of what he had done before still ran deep, so it was only with the certainty of Thomas’s power that Laurence was finally able to fully relax his guard.
Bug looked confused, but Thomas answered before he could ask a question.
“I can read minds. It’s part of the reason we can all trust each other.”
“O-oh.”
Bug was momentarily taken aback when he found out the young boy was a mutant, but he wasn’t surprised, per se, as Lucy was one too.
Birdy also approached Bug at that time and spoke.
“Thanks for helping them out, Bug.”
“I got paid for it, so it isn’t really anything to thank me for.”
“But you could have refused, especially when you learned who you were going to escort, right?”
“...”
Bug scratched his head and looked down at Laurence.
“...No. I think even without payment, I would’ve helped out. I need to do all I can so that I can forgive myself… right?”
Birdy smiled and nodded, making Bug self-conscious as he averted his eyes.
Thomas kept his mouth shut at Bug’s thoughts of how nice and pretty Birdy was, as that would’ve been rude to mention.
It would’ve been as rude as him mentioning to Laurence what Birdy thought of him.
Ruri joined in on the conversation and addressed Bug directly.
“Bug, do you have any interest in helping us while you’re here? We can’t guarantee payment, but a great deal of lives can be saved if you helped.”
Bug’s eyes widened at the mention of people’s lives.
“Wait… what? Helping you with what?”
“Right now, there's a group of mutants planning to commit mass genocide against normal people.”
It was stated without so much as a flinch, and so bluntly, that Bug’s head spun.
“Woah, woah, woah… wait a minute.”
Bug held out his hand to say ‘wait’, as one should when getting an overload of information.
“Um… helping mutants isn't the safest job, but I’m not exactly keen on doing suicide missions.”
“Of course not. But now that I’ve told you that, will you just stand by?”
Bug flinched and Birdy sighed.
“That’s not playing fair, Ruri.”
“It can’t be helped; we need all the help we can get right now.”
Bug frowned.
“...What is it that you want me to do?”
“Just gather information. Right now we need the location of the group of mutants I was talking about.”
Thomas looked at Ruri with confused eyes.
“I just thought of this, but haven’t you asked the spirits to search for the chosen’s base?”
“I did. However the spirit's working with me are limited to those that I’ve come in contact with, and despite time moving slower for them, their movement is limited.”
“It is?”
Ruri wasted no more time speaking the answer, simply pointing to her head so that Thomas could get the answer that way.
She then turned back to Bug, who was understandably confused from that exchange, but not so much that he forgot what he was asked.
“Anyways, you don’t have to go blindly into dangerous areas; just come up with a few locations without entering them and we’ll check them out. How about it?”
“‘How about it’, you say… Well, if it’s just keeping an eye out for potential hideouts, then I can do that much.”
Ruri smiled and nodded, satisfied with Bug’s answer.
She held out her hand energetically for a handshake, which Bug took a few seconds to accept.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Ruri by the way, Birdy’s sister.”
“Aren’t you supposed to introduce yourself first…? ...I’m Bug.”
“Oh, oh, and I’m Thomas!”
“Huh? ...Oh, nice to meet you too…”
Bug and Thomas did a handshake as well.
“And I’m Birdy!”
“Nice to- wait, I already know you.”
Birdy jokingly took Bug’s hand in a handshake.
“Well, I just don’t want to be left out, you know?”
“I guess…”
Bug trailed off as he realized he was touching Birdy’s hand.
It was just a handshake, but his cheeks turned the slightest shade of red while he wondered if Birdy knew about his feelings, and was doing this on purpose.
“She’s not.”
Thomas offered that answer to Bug who, startled, pulled his hand away.
He made a note to be careful with his thoughts around Thomas from now on.
* * * * *
The sounds of pencil to paper.
It echoed all around the wide, empty space of the tunnel, the drawer’s eyes strained with focus.
“Phew…”
His sigh of relief also signified the end of his focus, his eyes closing for a rest.
In his hands was another completed picture of Laurence, his entire face on display for others to see, with the slight hinderance of a ‘MUTANT’ plastered over the picture.
The drawer took a few more deep breathes before finally re-opening his eyes to the sound of approaching footsteps from down the tunnel.
Looking in that direction, he saw a fellow chosen, his long, blonde hair as wild as ever, and his grin as disturbing too.
“Hey-o! How’s the pictures turning out?”
“...Don’t waste my time with pointless questions.”
Every single one of the drawers pictures in question were near perfect in detail.
No doubt, the man knew that when he asked how the pictures were coming out too.
His high pitched laugh echoed across the tunnel, irritating the drawer.
“Do you have any actual reason to be here right now?”
“Of course I do!~ ...Our supposedly great leader no longer wants to bring any harm to those two.”
“...What was that?”
The drawer’s voice turned angry at this news, knowing that even this man wouldn’t make up such a lie.
“Yup! Not only that, but he wants us to hold off on killing any normals for now. He’s like ‘Just wait, I need to think about something…’ Can you believe it?”
The man’s shoulders shrugged as he shook his head, still grinning.
His attitude always put off the drawer, but at a time when he received such incomprehensible news, it made it seem that much more infuriating.
“...So, he wants me to stop drawing then?”
“Mhm. Buuut… I wonder? From the way he’s been acting, it’s like he wants to resolve everything peacefully.”
The drawer looked at the man with stern eyes.
“You will not lead me on.”
“I’m doing no such thing! But if that’s exactly what he has planned, what are you going to do?”
“Why should I listen to you, when you’re constantly trying to create chaos?”
“Simple! As much as I love getting people to fight each other, when have I ever tried doing that to fellow mutants, hmm?”
The drawer frowned as he stared at the man.
It was true; he never has done anything to harm the chosen before.
If he did, then he would’ve been killed off from the group a long time ago.
“Anyways, I just had an idea; as long as we do something that would cause suffering to the normals and Valkyries, it doesn’t matter if we weren’t told to do it, right? Even our leader wouldn’t reprimand us for it, since everyone else will defend our actions, right?”
“...It’s much too soon. For all we know, he’s found out something that would hinder our plans.”
“Hmph. Fine, but what if I’m right?”
The drawer sighed in resignation and said the words the man wanted to hear.
“Okay, already. If our leader does such a thing, then we’ll go and cause that chaos you so love, alright?”
The man grinned widely.
“That’s all I wanted to hear, thanks so much Reynold.”
The man bowed out and walked back from where he came.
Reynold sighed and shook his head.
He was about to start drawing again, but that's when he realized there was no more need to.
“...Dammit. What are you even thinking, Kenchi?”
* * * * *
“Alright, time to get up people!”
Ruri’s voice was followed by some loud clapping, the sleeping residents of the basement jumping up, startled.
Everyone immediately went on guard, but Ruri waved her hand half-heartedly.
“Ah, to clarify, we aren’t in danger right now.”
“...Then why even wake us up?”
Lucy sighed and flopped back down on the bed, before jolting up almost as quickly as she did so.
“Ah, Hana and Erika!”
Ruri nodded, and Lucy was suddenly wide awake.
“So they’ve started their ridiculous plan?”
Laurence asked to which Ruri shrugged.
“Well, where are they now?”
“Why would I know?”
The room went silent as Lucy stared wide-eyed at Ruri.
“You had spirits watching them, didn’t you!?”
“But if they teleport to the next location, then there’s nothing I can possibly do about that, can I?”
Even Birdy was rendered speechless at this obvious flaw in having Ruri watch over the two remaining valkyries.
Ruri was completely calm in the face of this problematic circumstance, however.
“You knew?”
Laurence asked this, but it was Thomas who answered.
“She knew.”
“Then why the hell didn’t you say anything before!?”
Lucy got up into the face of Ruri, who still remained perfectly calm.
“Are you calm enough to listen to my reasoning?”
“...Yeah, now tell me.”
“If I told you about the problem with my looking over them, you would’ve went to them straight away, with or without us. After you confronted them, then what? They would just teleport away and then we’d have absolutely no way to know what they were doing. That was probably the reason why they felt safe going back to the base in the first place; even though you knew where it was, it’s not necessarily unsafe for them to be there thanks to Erika’s power. It was a better option for us to see what information they would let slip while they made the decision of going back to their base rather than risking them leaving altogether and having no clue what they had planned.”
Lucy backed off and bit her lip, knowing that Ruri made the right decision.
“Alright, fine. So did you get anything from them?”
Ruri finally let the mask of calm disappear at that question and frowned.
“Unfortunately, it appears they figured out that I could spy on them with the help of the spirits. They teleported away just now without letting any important details of when and where they planned this ‘mission’.”
Lucy’s face scrunched up and she looked infuriated, turning around to the mattress she had slept on and wailing on it with her fists.
“Dammit!”
It looked quite silly from Laurence’s perspective, but he still felt sympathetic despite her tantrum.
Lucy’s friends were in way over their heads yet they were still able to realize they were being watched.
To say it was frustrating was an understatement.
“So then… we don’t know where they went?”
Birdy asked the question, clearly thinking that it was her turn to shine, being a networker.
Laurence shook his head.
“I think I do, actually. Ruri, can you tell Yuna to search the abandoned warehouse in the flood? She should know where it is.”
Ruri, cocked her head, surprised at Laurence’s words.
“Why do you think they went there?”
“The black haired girl… Elise said that whenever I was at a loss to check out the abandoned warehouse in the flood.”
“Ah, now I see. But I don’t need to ask her anything, since she left the moment you finished asking your question.”
“Ah… I guess I should've directed it to her…”
Laurence scratched his cheek sheepishly and Ruri shook her head.
“She seemed pretty happy regardless.”
“O-oh, I see.”
“In the meantime, I have another thing to share with you all; the spirits weren’t able to follow Rucker’s group last night after you left them.”
“...It’s just one thing after another, huh?”
Birdy’s statement was very accurate, to say the least.
This group had found out more about this city and its circumstances in two days than (supposedly) the (only) month they spent in it.
Not to mention the constant problems that were arising thanks to the actions of a few mutants…
“Why couldn’t they follow them?”
Lucy stopped mid-tantrum to ask that question, having been curious about that group.
“They don’t know themselves, but it was like a black void was preventing them from following. Like a force field made of pure black? Something like that. They don’t know what caused it, but it might have been a mutant power.”
“They just keep getting more suspicious the more I hear about them…”
Thomas offered that opinion and Lucy nodded in agreement.
“Well, let’s forget about them for now. Our priority should be finding out where Hana and Erika went.”
“Spirits move about as fast as they did when they were alive, despite being able to converse much faster than that, so it’ll take a while for Yuna to get back. If the location truly is where they’ve gone to next though, then it will save us quite a bit of time than if we were to look for them aimlessly.”
“So should we wait for Yuna to return then?”
Ruri nodded to Lucy’s question and continued.
“All of you can go back to sleep if you want, since it seems I’ve pointlessly disturbed your rest.”
“No you didn’t. We wouldn’t have looked into the warehouse, so it was still necessary.”
Laurence reassured Ruri.
“Hm, I guess so.”
“Needed or not, I’ll rest for a bit longer…”
Lucy murmured that before laying back down on the mattress.
The others, minus Ruri, followed suit shortly after, knowing that rest was becoming more and more precious as things became more hectic.
* * * * *
A loud crash startled them all up again, their vision adjusting and looking at what had caused the noise.
The folding chair Ruri was sitting in had tipped over onto the ground with the momentum of her standing up so suddenly, and she was making a tense, smiling expression, one that no one had seen her make before.
It was the first time anyone, Birdy excluded, had seen her so bewildered.
“...Is that some sort of bad joke, Yuna? Seriously!?”
With those words, Ruri grabbed the braces situated in the corner and threw them over to Laurence, who almost didn’t catch them in time.
“What’s going on?”
Ruri just laughed at Laurence’s words, but the panic and haste was plain on her face.
“One of the worst coincidences that could have ever happened! Your friends-”
Ruri looked at Lucy’s face, as it turned to complete despair from her words.
“-decided to make a new base on top of the chosen’s base!”