{Observation 9: Phoenix vs. Erika}

“After they see us, I don’t think they’ll run away.”

Laurence was adjusting his scarf when Lucy stated that, and he turned to her.

“Hana is dead set on going through with this, so when we show up as hindrances, she’ll want to make sure we can never interfere again.”

“And she’ll be fine with fighting you?”

“...I honestly don’t know. If my memory is to be trusted, she’s pretty stubborn… and vengeful.”

“Vengeful? Did something happen to make her that way?”

Lucy simply nodded, not elaborating any further.

“She doesn’t forgive, or forget. ...But I don’t know how she’ll act towards me. We were the closest things we had to sisters, Erika included, and this is the first time one of us has betrayed another, of course.”

“You’re worried that she’ll treat you like everyone else she’s vengeful towards.”

“...Yeah.”

Ruri then spoke towards the two.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but the sooner we get to them, the better. As for who’s going, I suggest myself and Laurence. I’ll be able to warn you if the chosen notice us, and Lucy doesn’t seem ready to-”

“Don’t decide that! ...I’m going, with or without your approval. She may hate me for it, but as much as that bothers me, I don’t want her to get herself killed.”

“Hm, alright. Myself, Laurence, and Lucy-”

“I’m not letting you go without me.”

Birdy spoke up and Ruri looked at her with a troubled expression.

“Are you able to phase through walls without anyone seeing you?”

“No, of course no-”

“Denied.”

“Will you stop deciding everything already!? I’m your sister!”

Ruri looked slightly taken aback by Birdy’s tone, but then she straightened herself out.

“Rumi… But it’s better if not all of us go-”

“Denied! I’m going too and that’s final.”

Ruri tried making a displeased expression, but everyone could see she was smiling.

“Fine, fine. In that case… Thomas, are you coming too?”

“Yeah, since it’s usually better to stick together, in the end.”

Laurence had finished latching on the last brace and put the goggles around his hooded head.

Lucy was covered with a small, hooded cloak, to hide her face, and was carrying her bag of various tools.

Thomas had a small knife for self-defense and hunting, Birdy had nothing, but could outrun anyone, and Ruri could avoid any trouble thanks to a system of spirits who cooperated with her (as doing nothing but floating around would have been boring).

“Let’s not waste anymore time then.”

They were prepared, one way or another.

* * * * *

They hastily made their way through alleyways, most hunters prowling them backing off from the numbers they had.

Two of them were kids, but that still didn’t change the fact that they would be outnumbered if they tried anything.

So it was relatively without much trouble as they reached the flood.

The slanted, sunk in middle of the street was filled with grimy water, but there was a few boards running across the area, allowing access to the other side of the street.

No one really knew who put those planks there, but it didn’t really matter.

Making use of them, the group made their way across and continued down the street of broken, water-damaged buildings.

Ruri was following Yuna’s instructions, as Yuna was the only one who knew where it was, having made frequent trips to the flood before.

They came across an alleyway that had potholes filled with water strewn across it, but they were easily avoided as they continued along.

As the got farther down the alley, however, there was a small pool of water that formed on the street, and they were forced to continue into it.

They turned around another corner, and the water just kept rising while the street kept sinking down.

It was up to their ankles by the time they found a clearing where the abandoned warehouse was.

“Wow… I never knew there was a place like this.”

Birdy spoke those words of amazement at the sight that had opened up before everyone's eyes, who silently agreed with her.

The street they were walking on cut off before the clearing, and the brick ground was replaced with green murky water, as far as the eye could see.

The clearing was vast, probably the largest one they had ever seen, and in the middle of it, poking up out of the ‘lake’ a couple blocks away, was a large, flooded in structure.

The abandoned warehouse.

It was obvious why no one had tried living there; you had to swim across the dirty water to arrive and leave, and there wasn’t a roof near enough to even consider trying to enter it from a higher floor.

Erika, however, could completely bypass the water with her power of teleportation.

It was a good idea for a new base, but the problem was…

“The chosen are underneath all of this water?”

Laurence asked that, a little skeptical, to Ruri, who nodded.

“Underneath all of this, is a place made of white stone, that connects to the sewers. Quite convenient, really.”

“...That stone was made from one of the chosen’s powers. I’ve seen it before.”

Lucy explained.

“Oh? Then that explains it.”

Laurence looked at the distance between the warehouse and where they were.

He could carry himself and Lucy using the brace’s power to channel Yuna, but he was unsure if he would be able to bring anyone else.

“You three should head on back. You won’t be able to communicate with us from so far away and even if you followed us, you wouldn’t be able to get away quick enough because of the water.”

Laurence stated that and Ruri frowned.

“That’s very true.”

“You should have thought about that before we all came here.”

Thomas said that, sighing.

Ruri shook her head, indicating it wasn’t her fault.

“Yuna had forgotten to mention the state of the warehouse.”

Laurence frowned and gave Ruri a sour look.

“If she said, ‘Whoops, my bad’ or ‘tee-hee’, tell her that it doesn’t make it better.”

Ruri made a wide-eyed expression, then covered her mouth, silencing the laughter that came from her throat.

When she had calmed down, she gave Laurence a smile.

“You were on point. The face Yuna made was priceless, so I thank you.”

Laurence then gave a smile of his own.

“You can see her face?”

“Ah, I can. I guess I forgot to tell you about that. Sorry.”

“Come to think of it, you did say she looked happy yesterday…”

“We can talk about that later. Do you have something in mind for getting us across?”

Lucy hadn’t seen Laurence use the flame to fly before, so she was unsure why they could go, but the others couldn’t.

“I can use the flame… ah, Yuna to fly us over.”

“Oh, now I see.”

Laurence summoned Yuna’s spirit then, a blue flame coming forth from the braces, and enveloped himself and Lucy with it, who seemed indifferent to it.

Birdy called out right before they left.

“Why shouldn’t we just stay here and wait for you two?”

Thomas was the one who answered.

“Because we can’t do anything like this. If the reason for not going into the warehouse is because we can’t get away if something goes wrong, then the reason for not staying here is because they’ll worry about us when escaping, and it might slow them down on the way… right?”

Laurence nodded.

“That’s exactly right. Besides, if we can convince Erika, then we can escape easily anyways.”

There was no reason for everyone else to be there anymore.

If Ruri had a reliable way of getting in touch with Laurence quickly, then it would’ve been different, but now that it was no longer the case, with the water being a big hinderance, Ruri’s reason for being there, and consequently Birdy’s and Thomas’s, had disappeared.

Laurence then lifted up himself and Lucy off the ground.

“We’ll be fine.”

He offered that statement as he pulled them towards the warehouse in the distance, gliding through the air.

* * * * *

Birdy was still worried, even as they walked away.

She felt like she wasn’t doing anything important.

Granted, it hadn’t been very long since they started working together, but she was worried that if she kept leaving things up to others, then she really had no point in being there, other than being a sister to Ruri.

“It’s okay.”

Thomas heard and answered her worries.

Ruri, likewise, seemed to be aware of Birdy’s insecurity and held her hand.

“...How is it okay when I’m the only one not doing anything?”

“That’s not true. Not even the spirits can beat you when it comes to gathering information, you know?”

Birdy frowned, thinking that her sister was pitying her, but Ruri shook her head.

“I’m serious. They can go through walls, but they aren’t nearly as fast as you, even on an off day. Your eyes and ears are much sharper than theirs and-”

“I didn’t ask what I can do, I’m asking why haven’t I been the only one not doing anything? Why have you asked the dead to help you instead of me?”

Birdy said that a little coldly, but Ruri only held onto her hand tighter.

“Because I don’t want you to be in any danger, Rumi. And don’t say that’s unfair, because I know it is, but you’d do the same and don’t deny it.”

Ruri spoke those words quietly as she pulled Birdy along, who’s pace had slowed.

Birdy was upset, but she knew Ruri was right; she didn’t want to expose her to any more danger than she had to either.

As they had crossed back over the boards, Birdy finally responded.

“You’re damn right I can do better than those spirits, so the next time you need to know something, ask me for help, okay?”

Ruri smiled a tired smile.

“I guess I don’t have a choice now, since you asked me.”

* * * * *

“It looks like there’s an entrance near the water. I’ll try to keep us dry.”

Laurence said that as he flew them towards an opening that was mostly submerged in water.

It was a slightly tight fit since they were trying to avoid getting wet, but it looked manageable enough.

Lucy decided to look at the building, rather than the opening, and narrowed her eyes, apparently seeing something.

“...! Laur-!”

Lucy’s gasp and voice were too slow to warn Laurence.

Suddenly, he found that the blue flames next to him weren’t carrying anything, a flash of someone appearing and disappearing along with Lucy.

Erika!

If Erika was looking outside a window, then Lucy no doubt knew what was potentially going to happen, especially if she caught a glimpse of her.

Just as Laurence was considering what to do next, he felt a hand on his back and the scenery changed into the roof of the warehouse.

“Wha-”

He felt strangely fuzzy and ticklish, but he shook that feeling off when he saw Erika’s furious expression staring back at him.

She clutched the handle of her sword tightly and didn’t even look away from Laurence for a second.

He then noticed that Lucy wasn’t with them on that roof.

“Where’s Lucy?”

“...Why did you come here?”

Erika had completely ignored Laurence’s question and asked a question of her own.

“Simple; the chosen’s base is right underneath us and you're both in danger.”

“...Saves us the trouble of looking for them then.”

Erika’s expression was much different from the times Laurence had seen her; when he had seen her previously, she had a warm, caring expression, as well as one that was troubled.

Her expression right now was threatening, on the verge of violence.

He was surprised, since his impression of Erika was the same as Lucy’s; she didn’t really want to kill anyone.

For her to have such an expression, something must have happened in the amount of time he hadn't seen her.

“It’s suicide to take them all on.”

“We don’t have to. Once we kill their leader, everything will resolve itself.”

“You can’t seriously believe-”

Laurence had taken a step forward while saying that, and Erika freaked out.

“Shut-up! What in the hell do you know!?”

“Why are you angry?”

“Why-!? T-that's obviously because you’re trying to stop us from killing the evil!”

“Now you sound like Hana. You didn’t strike me as the type-”

Laurence didn’t finish as Erika vanished before his eyes and a hard impact hit the back of his left knee, just above his brace.

As he knelt involuntarily, he felt and saw a long blade pressing up alongside his neck.

“What do you know about me? You don’t have any idea, none whatsoever. That’s right, just because you say our memories are false… doesn’t mean that’s true!”

Laurence could hear some panic in her voice as she spoke those last words, then he had an idea.

“So you’re bothered by that statement I made about our memories?”

He felt the blade against his neck shake for a moment, and he could hear Erika hold her breath.

But she didn’t act like this the first time I mentioned it, so for her to have such a reaction to it now…

“Could it be that you’ve re-!”

“Shut the fuck up!”

When the blade left his neck, Laurence knew it was going to come back with a vengeance, so he summoned Yuna’s spirit and the blue flame blocked the attack.

That was when Laurence made a mental note of how her spirit wasn’t teleported with him to the roof, but he could just as easily summon her as blue flame wherever he was, it seemed.

He turned around to look at Erika, but she wasn’t there.

Without a second thought, he spread the flame around him.

One thing he knew about it the power was that he could ‘feel’ whatever it was the flame was touching, so wherever the attack came from, he would instantly know where it was.

He felt the pressure of a strike above him, but it wasn’t just any feeling; he could feel the blade cut through the thin shell of flame he made.

Quickly, he gathered the flame in the way of the blades trajectory, but couldn’t stop it from digging into his shoulder.

And, just as he was pushing it back, the blade disappeared yet again.

Dammit!

He threw flame around him yet again, and this time the pressure came from behind him.

He used more flame to block it, like before, but he also moved forward, this time coming out without a scratch.

He flipped around to see she was no longer there, and was about to throw up another shell when he felt a hand on his back and suddenly found himself upside-down in the air, right above the water.

His first instinct was to summon flame to prevent himself from falling, but this was a mistake as he felt a numb pain rip across his back.

“Goddammit!”

Strangely enough, it was Erika who was cursing, and not Laurence.

He guessed that she was cursing because it felt as though she hadn’t put much force behind her attack.

He felt that it was another sign that she truly wasn’t acting with conviction; if she really wanted to, he felt like she would’ve easily been able to behead him.

Laurence then got himself upright and threw a flame around him, levitating with a small amount of flame underneath his feet.

He prepared for some pressure from somewhere, but it didn’t come.

Is she back on the roof, considering her options?

Laurence manipulated the flame to give him some sight, and he looked for the roof of the warehouse.

He knew he wasn’t too far from it, since he saw water underneath him as he was falling (there probably wasn’t another place in the city that had that much water all pooled up), so he easily spotted the roof of the warehouse, but saw that she wasn’t there.

Looking all around him, he still couldn’t find her anywhere.

“Where…?”

A good fifteen seconds had passed of Laurence looking around, then he saw Erika right in front of him, winding up for a swing with her blade.

Laurence wasn’t stupid enough to pool the limited flame he had for defense unless she was going to follow through with the attack, and not faint it, so when she reached his flame, he then pooled the flame there, and a split second later, Erika was gone, but the sword remained.

He couldn’t even mouth the word, ‘What?’ as he felt a damp hand touch the back of his neck.

Then, his entire world was submerged into a pitch black area devoid of air or dryness.

He was teleported into water, he knew that, but he couldn’t see a single thing.

His only tool still being the braces, he summoned Yuna’s spirit, hoping that her flame was unaffected by the water, and was soon rewarded with a blue light surrounding him, illuminating the water.

That was when he realized his situation was truly dire; he appeared to be boxed into a tightly enclosed space, where all he could see was solid surfaces, like concrete or tiles, and rubble that wouldn’t allow a single pebble to pass it’s intricately messy structure.

There was only one place he could have been; in the abandoned warehouse, in one of the submerged areas.

That’s when he knew his earlier assumption of Erika lacking conviction was false; she was truly trying to kill him.

As much as he wanted to ponder some odd points in the fight with her, now that he knew that, he had a mind to try not drowning for now.

First, he tried to throw Yuna’s flame at the tile above; No good.

Next was the floor, which was also no good.

That left the rubble, and he threw the flame at it with all of his might, thinking it might be his last chance.

At the first impact, he noticed that a giant rock near the base of the structure appeared to move, so he focused all of his power on that spot, with hopes that it would somehow magically give him some space to move in.

The flame hit it hard, and the rock tumbled off the structure of rubble, but nothing else followed.

Considering he was going to die otherwise, he didn’t let this discourage him and examined the hole where the rock was, and found that there was some space to move into, by some miracle.

He hadn’t prepared to be put into water, so he didn’t have much air left, making this one hole his only hope.

Without hesitating, he thrust his body through the hole with the flame, careful not to hit anything else, and soon saw another source of light off in the distance.

As he exited the rubble, he went down towards the light, as he had been upside-down in the water all along, and saw that he was outside.

Turning around, he saw that the place he had just exited from was the supposed ‘entrance’ him and Lucy were going to take.

The rubble there was only visible once you were low enough to the water, which covered the rest underwater with it’s murky color.

Now that Laurence was finally able to breathe some air, he looked around for Erika, who he couldn’t find.

I wouldn’t be surprised if she just left me there and didn’t bother staying around to make sure.

Laurence lifted himself from the water with Yuna’s flame, carrying himself towards the roof, and thought about why Erika hadn’t killed him yet.

To put him in a situation that was nearly impossible to escape suggested she wanted him dead, but she hadn’t killed him yet?

Her power was teleportation, so it should have been easy to stab him the moment he let his guard down, yet all she ever did when he had was teleport him around.

Not only that, but there was the fact that she only swung with her sword.

The first time was understandable, as she was furious and probably wouldn’t have been satisfied with simply slitting his throat.

But as the fight progressed?

He couldn’t have imagined that she would have let a chance to kill him slip by, as it looked like she was truly getting frustrated from not being able to kill him.

Yet she always winded up for a swing whenever he saw her.

If she didn’t take the time to do so, then he imagined he would have been dead ten times over already.

And, then there was the swing that connected with him in mid-air.

He had thrown all of the flame down towards his head to stop his falling, so he guessed that was enough to deter her from swinging there, but the question was why she hadn’t been able to cut deep enough into his back to kill him?

He tried thinking back to when he received the gash across his back; he hadn’t thought about it before, but it felt… odd.

Laurence put a hand to the wound on his back and found that it wasn’t a straight line, but crooked, as though Erika hadn’t been able to swing properly.

Wait, does that mean-?

Laurence had made a mistaken assumption about her power; it was indeed teleportation, but with her being unable to kill him, yet trying so hard to do so meant…

“...Hey Erika, I’m still alive!”

Laurence called out boldly and had to wait for ten seconds before Erika re-appeared once more on the roof, holding her sword with both hands, looking frustrated and… it seemed as though she was terrified as well.

“Why won’t you die!?”

“It’s a given that superheroes don’t die due to plot-convenience.”

It was something that Laurence had learned from Thomas, although he still questioned just how true that knowledge was.

Considering how he was able to get out of the water by chance, however, he decided it must have held some truth.

“What the hell does that mean!?”

“It means you can’t kill me.”

Erika’s face turned pale for a moment, and her hands trembled, almost letting go of the sword she was carrying.

“No, that’s not true…”

He hadn’t expected her to take him so seriously, but it appeared that it had shaken her up more than he thought it would.

“Erika?”

“Everything… absolutely everything you’ve said is lies… I didn’t do it… I swear I’m not that type of person… so the only fake memories are the ones that came after you said that… That’s right, you’re the cause of all this! What did you do to me!? Can you manipulate memories, is that it!? Why would you do such a thing!?”

“I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.”

Erika regarded Laurence with a tired smile and laughed.

“Yeah, of course you wouldn’t admit it. You are a liar after all. And to think I thought you were a good person, but… if you truly wanted me to believe that our memories were fake, you should have given me more believable ones.”

“So then you do remember.”

“...’Remember’? How can I ‘remember’ something if it was put into my head by you?”

Laurence had a basic understanding of Erika’s motivations now; she didn’t want to admit he was right because whatever she was remembering was something she wanted to steadfastly deny.

In other words, she was okay with these fake memories, because they were much better to her than her old ones.

Laurence took a deep breath in, and stated a problem with her conclusion.

“...Can mutants have more than one power?”

Erika’s face scrunched up, and she bit her lip.

She convinced herself that Laurence was the cause of it all, but she had seen his ‘power’ and it wasn’t manipulating memories.

Of course, Laurence was taking advantage of the fact that she had no idea the power was coming from the braces, but even then he was still powerless without them.

“Your memories are real.”

Erika didn’t even scream, she just vanished before Laurence's vision.

Much like before, he threw out flame around him and was able to block her attack using the same method; this time however, he had a plan to catch her based on what he knew from her power.

Like he had guessed, she teleported into another blind spot and tried to cut him again.

He couldn’t guess where, but he didn’t need to.

When she had reappeared just slightly above him, she was in a position for a swing.

What was missing from her hand, however, was a sword.

“What!?”

Erika yelled in surprise and shock, much like Laurence expected her too.

The thing that he knew from her powers was that it wouldn’t let her teleport anything into a space that was already occupied.

This didn’t include air or, as he had found out from their fight, water.

But, what about the soul of a person no longer of that world?

Every time he summoned Yuna after being teleported, he noticed that there wasn’t a single flame remaining in the braces, as thought it couldn’t be teleported, even by accident.

By that definition, he wondered if it meant it couldn’t be teleported into either.

Under that assumption, Laurence had thrown out the smallest of flames and scattered them around with the intention of letting Erika, and only Erika, teleport.

Her sword was still firmly embedded into the flame behind him, having been unable to teleport with Erika as the space it would have gone into was currently occupied by Yuna’s soul.

Not only that, but she always went for a swing, so it was easy to more or less guess where the sword would have been positioned.

She might have been able to avoid teleporting into a bad spot, but Laurence had made sure the flame he used to block the swing was obscuring her vision of behind the wall as well.

Erika tried teleporting back to retrieve it, but it was already too late as Laurence threw out more flame to prevent her from doing so, and he had grabbed the sword.

Then, using as much flame as he could manage without removing the ‘barriers’ he set for Erika’s power, he threw it at her with the intent of not letting her touch him.

He had gotten lucky underwater, but there was no guarantee it would happen again if she managed to put him in another, similar place.

Erika knew it was a bad position to be in, so she teleported a good ways away from Laurence on the roof, giving him an irritated glare.

“You can’t kill me.”

Laurence repeated those words, with certainty this time.

She had lost her weapon, and even if she were to get a new one, it wouldn’t do anything to him.

This was because he realized why she hadn’t been able to kill him; why she had to swing her sword every time she reappeared.

“As long as you teleport with no momentum, you can’t do anything to me.”

It was simple; her attacks needed force behind them, so she swung to make them deadly.

When she had teleported with Laurence mid-air, she had trouble swinging from the difference in her position and gravity, so her cut wasn’t as deadly as she wanted it to be.

Whenever she teleported, she appeared completely still before making any movements.

All of this gave Laurence the conclusion he came to, as well as the confidence to say that the fight was over.

Erika looked at Laurence with a grim look, then shook her head, sighing.

“...You said that the chosen’s base is underneath us, correct?”

Laurence was a little taken aback from Erika’s sudden shift in topic, but answered.

“Yes, that is what I said.”

“...Completely putting aside everything else, I can at least agree that it’s dangerous here until me and Hana have a plan. Alright, you just want us to leave, right?”

“...More than that, but I guess that’s the immediate goal.”

“...Fine, I’ll tell you what; I’ll teleport myself and Hana away from here, and even let you try to convince us that we shouldn’t kill the chosen. I won’t, however, hear anything involving fake memories. If you try pushing that topic… I’ll drop a building onto you.”

“You can do that?”

“I could have teleported Hana and Lucy to a safe place first, but I didn’t want to alert the chosen to our presence… if they didn’t already know.”

Laurence thought it was a desperate deal.

Erika seemed really shaken up by whatever it was she remembered, so much so that she was willing to back off as long as he didn’t convince her they were real.

A part of him wanted to take the deal, since it was probably the best one he would have gotten.

But…

What would a superhero do, in this situation?

He thought about it for a moment, then came to an answer.

They would be selfish and do whatever felt right.

Laurence wanted to save them, but he didn’t want to deceive them or turn their eyes away from the truth.

“I can’t do that.”

Erika was still tense, and she was visibly upset, more so than before, perhaps.

“Why the hell not!? Isn’t that why you came in the first place!?”

“No, I came here to save you two in earnest!”

“What’s the difference!?”

“How can I say that I saved anyone if you’re just accepting my help on the condition that I help you look away from the truth!?”

Erika flinched and her fists tightened, a glassy sheen coming across her wide, dark blue eyes.

“But that’s-!”

“You aren’t even blaming me for it anymore. Instead, you’re trying to pretend it never happened… Is it really that terrible, your memories?”

Erika hesitated breathing, her entire body staying still as she stared at Laurence with eyes that shimmered much like an ocean.

The wetness that followed down her cheeks made it seem like such a thing truly lived in her eyes.

“I… I can’t accept this.”

Erika lost the strength in her legs and kneeled onto the hard, dirty roof of the warehouse.

Laurence finally let down his guard and the flame that was surrounding him was no longer scattered to defend against Erika’s teleportation.

He approached her slowly, her sobs quiet and painful.

When he finally reached her, Laurence knelt down in front of her and she looked up-

“You’re so… stupid.”

-to reveal a grin.

Laurence didn’t even had time to react as the world shifted once more, Erika had teleported him once more.

He didn’t understand where he was for a moment; he was looking at a completely different landscape than the one he had just previously seen.

What surrounded him was dirt on the floor, where a few people walked and a bunch of structures made of white stone.

White stone… which was something that Laurence recalled was brought up by Ruri and Lucy.

Shit, shit, shit!

Laurence could hear the sounds of the people below him making a ruckus as he summoned Yuna’s flame and desperately flew off looking for an exit.

Erika had tricked him; more than likely the deal was also a way for him to drop his guard.

She had teleported him the moment there was no flame blocking her… into the chosen’s base.

He knew that he was in even more danger than when he was underwater; everyone here was a mutant with god knows what power and he needed to escape before they reacted fast enough.

Of course, that was almost impossible, since the time he took to realize where he was was about the same time the chosen needed to react to him.

A giant wall of white stone thrust itself up from out of the ground and Laurence tried to move away in time, but he still bumped into the structure.

Then, the stone encircled him and held him still.

No matter how hard he struggled or how much flame he threw out, nothing happened.

He looked around frantically for the person who used their powers, desperate to knock him out with the flame on the off chance the stone went away in that case.

Unfortunately, his face was soon held still by more stone that grew out of the structure, keeping his movements even more still.

Laurence wracked his brain for something, anything that would get him out of this situation, but as the stone lowered itself to the ground, he came up with no answers.

When he finally reached the ground, he felt a hand grab the back of his head and and he was rendered unconscious by some sort of power.

Laurence was captured.

* * * * *

Erika teleported back onto the roof, lying down on top of it, her eyes staring up at the bleak sky.

She had already wiped away the tears-she had forced them out to fool Laurence- and her face was unlike the conflicted, frustrated one she had on earlier.

She was giddy.

“He….hehehehe…...Ahahahahahahaha!”

A resounding laughter, one that chilled all who heard it, filled the air and her body trembled with excitement.

She was afraid of those memories that were creeping up on her earlier, but because of Laurence’s insistence, she had decided to stop pushing them to the back of her mind.

When she had done so, she remembered everything.

She didn’t know why she had forgotten, but she did know what life was like here a month ago.

She had remembered that there was no such thing as meteors falling or radiation or anything absurd like that.

She had remembered where this city truly was, as well as why each and every resident was there to begin with.

She knew who she truly was, what she had done, and who her real family was…

At the thought of her brother, Erika stopped laughing and got up.

“Hm… I haven’t seen him in these past few months. He’s probably in the chosen, if I had to guess.”

Her mouth turned to a wicked smile, the Erika that was former there completely replaced by someone else.

“Ah, how troubling. If I go back there, I’d be more than willing to use my body to see him again, but they’ll probably keep me locked up before I got to see him again… Oh, I guess my body hasn’t been used by anyone before, since all of that was fake.”

Erika continued speaking to herself, as though it were the most natural thing in the world, and finally concluded something.

“Ah, of course! If I do that… then they’ll listen to what I have to say, right?”

Erika let out another laugh, her eyes looking down at the building she stood on, like a hunter ready to sink her teeth into prey.

“In that case… I guess I’ll go see my sisters…”