It's been a while since I've last visited Josh's place. To be precise, it was just before he was kidnapped and the whole school incident with Crowey. It felt like it happened ages ago because of all the crap we had to deal with recently, but it's only been a little more than two weeks since that fateful night. I couldn't help but wonder; was my sense of ti out of whack due to my lack of need for sleep? Or was this a normal reaction to shit hitting the fan over and over again? Maybe a combination of the two?
I would've probably kept pondering about this for a while longer, but I was knocked out of my train of thought by my sister offering so cola. I thanked her and took a leisurely sip as I looked over my surroundings. We were inside Josh's living room. His parents were nowhere to be seen, just as you would expect from a protagonist type. Reasonable and responsible parents are the kryptonite of exciting, wacky, and occasionally dangerous adventures. Also, for the record, my parents didn't count for the trope, as they didn't even exist. Probably.
But back to the scenery: the short, black wooden coffee table in the middle was buried under a small mountain of pizza boxes, their previous contents already safely stored away in our bellies. Behind those, Joshua and Elly were sitting on a pair of cushions and were having a heated battle of epic proportions on the screen of the Bernstein family's old-school yet fairly big CRT television. The princess was a newbie, but she took to the ga really quickly, and she was putting up a good fight against Josh's cheap zoning efforts.
On my left, Judy and Ammy were having a soft-spoken yet still oddly animated discussion about how to use communication artifacts. On my right, Angie made so space for Snowy to put down her tray of drinks onto the table, and then they both sat down by the two contestants in front of the TV and silently watched the beginning of the third round.
All things considered, things were obnoxiously peaceful, especially considering everything that happened yesterday. Or could it be that everyone was relaxed like this specifically because of what happened? I an, for the longest ti I've advocated enjoying ourselves to the fullest between the occasional episodes of supernatural peril, so it could be that everyone simply adopted my philosophy over ti. Anyhow, this kind of atmosphere wasn't bad at all; too bad it didn't last long.
Everyone raised their brows in unison, save for myself, when a not particularly loud, yet very insistent, whirring sound rung out in the living room.
"That's the doorbell," Josh noted without bothering to look away from the screen.
"Aren't you going to let the guest in?" I asked after finishing up my drink, but my friend only shook his head.
"I'm busy at the mont," he insisted while hamring on the controller with his thumbs in a frantic effort to dodge the super-move my girlfriend just pulled off by good-old-fashioned button-mashing.
"I'll get it," Angie proposed after rolling her eyes at our host, and then she jumped to her feet and casually strode out of the room. For the next couple of seconds there was curious silence hanging in the air, but at last she returned with an entirely unexpected person in tow. Well, for the others, at least. I cheated with Far Sight, as usual.
"Hello, Pascal," Ammy imdiately greeted the guy walking behind Angie, even before she got a chance to introduce him.
Armband Guy stopped just past the threshold of the room and looked over each one of us in turn with barely disguised discontent. The rain actually got worse soti after noon, and even though he was mostly dry, his pants under his knees and his socks were still drenched. More importantly, he had not one, not two, but a grand total of three flying, glowing eyeball things circling around him. Speaking of eyes, his gaze ended up landing on Josh at last, and it was at the precise mont when he let out a vigorous, "Hell, yeah! That was close!", followed by a fist pump.
"Don't worry, Elly. You'll get him next ti," I told my montarily disheartened girlfriend and gestured for her to co over to my side for her consolation prize in the form of a head-pat. She, naturally, complied right away.
In the anti, our host finally noticed the newcor and turned one hundred and eighty degrees in place while still sitting on his cushion and raised his hand in a lazy wave. "Hey." Armband guy returned the greeting in the form of a small nod, after which my friend scratched his chin and asked, "I don't think I ever invited you over before. How did you know where I lived?"
"I knew your address from your school records," Armband guy answered with a tone that clearly wondered if that was really the most important question at the mont. I found myself unexpectedly agreeing with him, but then I was imdiately startled when he reached out to his face and dramatically readjusted his glasses in an eerily familiar fashion. I couldn't help but wonder if the class rep learned this habit from him, or it was the other way around. Either way, after a similarly dramatic pause, he stated, "All of you are here. Good. That makes things considerably easier for . That said, I would be lying if I said I was not surprised to find you so unperturbed, considering the severity of the current situation."
"What situation?" I blurted out without missing a beat, mostly to hasten the conversation a little.
"Have you not heard about what happened last night?"
"Not in detail, no," Judy noted while she indiscreetly took out her phone to make notes.
"If it was important enough to barge in on us uninvited, you might as well tell us yourself," I proposed, only to realize I might be rushing things a little, so I subsequently added, "But before that, how about you sit down first?"
Armband Guy sent a sharp glance but only said, "Please do not mind if I do," and then he promptly took a seat at the only free seat, which happened to be right next to . Just as planned.
Josh's living room had one large and one smaller couch, which ant that with his addition, all the seats were taken up, forcing Josh, Angie, and Snowy to bring over a few wooden chairs from the kitchen. The rest of us patiently waited for them (except for , since I was busy swatting down the observer orbs with my Phantom Limb), and at the end of the day we successfully ford a circle around the coffee table in the middle. The whole thing almost felt formal, if not for the pizza-boxes and the TV playing a demo match of Street Kombat in the background.
Anyhow, once everyone settled down, our unexpected guest pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and turned to Ammy.
"How much have you told them?"
"Everything, though in broad terms only," she responded a little sourly, sothing which Armband Guy either didn't notice or he just didn't care about it.
"I see," he nodded and, after a long mont of consideration, he began his explanation. "Last night, approximately just before twenty-three hundred, soone infiltrated the School complex through presently unknown thods."
The guy's direct, almost militaristic way of reporting montarily raised the tension in the room, so I subtly redoubled my head-patting efforts, and once Elly let out a blissful 'Nyu' sound, things went back to normal. Well, except that now Armband Guy was glaring at us, but hey, sotis sacrifices had to be made for the greater good.
"The identity of the infiltrators is unknown," Ammy cut in, most likely in order to keep the conversation on track, but then our guest imdiately shook his head.
"That is no longer the case," he stated, then after a dramatic pause (he apparently had an affinity to those) he continued with, "But I am getting ahead of myself. Let us establish the circumstances of the cri first." When he said that, his eyes blatantly skimd over us in general, and in particular, obviously looking for a reaction. Maybe he expected that we would know sothing? Or maybe even that we were involved in so way? Well, I was, but it would take more than a few pointed looks to break my well-practiced poker-face, so when his gaze lingered on for too long, I simply raised my brows to urge him to go on.
"After checking the inventory, it beca evident that the only three things they took were the liqueur cabinet, a valuable heirloom of the previous Arch-mages, and a certain docunt." He once again paused while looking for a reaction, but since nobody knew anything, and I was still holding up my nonchalant façade with the help of my overly-affectionate girlfriend, he once again ca away empty-handed. "More importantly, the perpetrators left behind a single written note in Celestial Script."
The mont that was ntioned, Angie imdiately perked up. I figured she still hoped that it was a calling card, the kind that stereotypical phantom thieves in kids' shows left behind at the scene of the cri after they've successfully taken sothing really valuable without anyone being the wiser, only to taunt the authorities and… oh crap. It was a calling card, wasn’t it? Dammit, does that make a phantom thief?
Questions for later. For now, my attention was drawn to Josh, who asked the obvious question that was on everyone's mind.
"What did it say?"
"Celestial Script is notoriously hard to translate, but allow to paraphrase the content based on the reading of our expert." After saying so, he took a big breath and then cleared his throat. "It said, 'Dear Old Fart! You stabbed in the back, so I took your fancy box in return! See you never! P.S.: I took your booze too, because screw you!'"
"That... wasn't very eloquent," Angie noted with palpable disappointnt in her voice.
I inwardly apologized to her; if I knew things would turn out like this, I would've made the note more playfully flamboyant, but at the ti, my main goal was to piss of Lord Grandpa. Also, it wasn't surprising, but Armband Guy purposefully left out the segnt about the contract. That told they were still trying to cover up their connection with Labcoat Guy. How cute.
In the anti, Ammy visibly paled and she addressed Armband Guy in a low voice.
"By 'fancy box', does it actually an…?" He raised a finger to his mouth, but nodded, confirming that it was just as she thought, which made her eyes open even wider with military-grade bewildernt and she mumbled sothing along the lines of 'What kind of lunatic would dare…?'. I gracefully decided not to hold against her, as she obviously didn't know she was talking about .
"So," I spoke up, to keep things rolling. "Thanks for telling us this, but I can't help but wonder if you barged in here just to do so?"
I intended that as a sowhat confrontational jab, but Pascal gave an appreciative look instead, as if I just helped him breach a subject he didn't know how to handle.
"The Lord told to co and tell you about the contents of the letter for a very simple reason. I must ask you this: based on what I told you, who do you think the perpetrator could be?"
There were several seconds of tense silence following that question. I was ready to step up if things went awry and to guide them towards my preferred (and only slightly misleading) deduction, but thankfully Josh had enough brain cells to rub together to co to the obvious conclusion on his own.
"It might be Robatto," he stated with a thoughtful expression, and Elly imdiately agreed with him.
"Right! Didn't he talk about being betrayed during the battle? That really sounds like him!"
Since things were proceeding in the right direction, now my role went from gentle conversation-guide to the devil's advocate, just to make things sound more natural.
"I don't know," I comnted with intentional nonchalance while rubbing my chin. "If it was really Labcoat Guy, where are all the 'Kihihi's?"
"Chief, people don't write those into letters," my dear assistant rebuked right away.
"Well, I do," I double down, throwing the ball back into her court.
"Yes, but that's because you're weird," she told with the utmost seriousness.
I wanted to give a snappy reply, but then my other girlfriend gently grabbed hold of my free hand and told , "But that's why we love you," and then she rested her head against my shoulder with a giggle, making unable to say anything in return. Well played, my dears. Well played.
"As much as I would like to deny that, I can't," Judy piled on with a coy smile only I could see, while Armband Guy was giving a decidedly skeptical look. I couldn't bla him, as while our poly relationship wasn't exactly a secret, we didn't announce it outright either, and since Elly was the more visible out of my two girlfriends, Lord Grandpa and his posse thought I was only dating her. Well, that would probably change now, I surmised.
That said, this was all a tangent we didn't really need right now, so once my mischievous girls cald down a little, I turned my attention to Armband Guy again.
"So, back to the point; do you also think that it was Labcoat Guy?"
"It is one of the possibilities," Pascal answered in a neutral tone that neither confird nor denied our 'slight suspicion'. I waited to see if anyone wanted to pick up the ball, and after so thinking, it was actually Ammy who leveled the next question at him.
"But if that's the case, then what reason would he have to write the letter in Celestial script? And more importantly, how?"
"That, we cannot say for sure yet," Armband Guy freely admitted, so I decided to adapt my most thoughtful expression ever and once again nudge him in a direction that wasn't necessarily the right one, but the most advantageous at the mont.
"Could it be a distraction," I proposed with a conflicted frown hiding just how much I was enjoying leading the whole conversation by the nose. This was rapidly becoming a guilty pleasure of mine.
"Possible," He granted . "However, if he attempted to shift the bla towards the Celestial Intelligence Network, then it was a sloppy job."
Pascal ended up responding quite negatively this ti around, but I didn't let the topic go just yet.
"Not necessarily. After all, you had to spend a lot of ti and effort on translating and double-checking the contents; ti which our perps could use to get a head-start on their escape."
"That... is a distinct possibility," he granted again, if a little tentatively, but then he followed up with, "Nevertheless, it is an awful lot of effort to go through, using Celestial Script of all things, just for gaining a few hours of headway."
"Is that Script that special?" Josh interjected, and I was tempted to give him a subtle thumbs up for steering the conversation in the right direction, even if by accident.
"Yes," Armband Guy declared, but when Joshua kept giving him an expectant gaze, he soon let out a small breath and he elaborated. "Celestial Script is more than a simple writing system. It not only conveys words, but complex thoughts and emotional states as well, leading to multiple possible, often radically different readings of the sa sentences. It is not only exceedingly hard to translate, but due to the way it is structured, only the Celestials themselves can write it. Artificial Script is easily distinguishable from the genuine article, and this note is genuine without a doubt."
"Does that an it was written by a Celestial?" ca the next reasonable question from Snowy, and everyone involuntarily glanced at Angie.
"It wasn't !" she instantly denied the unspoken accusation while frantically waving her hands, which earned an almost amused sounding scoff from our guest.
"We never even entertained the thought. The Script used on the note was a complex yet archaic dialect with at least three aning-layers beneath the surface text. It is not sothing soone your age could produce."
"That's... both reassuring, and a little irritating," our resident Celestial grumbled under her breath, but it only lasted for a second before she bounced back with a question. "You said there were under-scripts, right? What did they say?"
"That's right! Maybe there's a clue there!" Josh backed her up right away, and everyone turned their rapt attention at the upperclassman in our midst.
Instead of answering right away, Pascal's brows slowly knitted into a deep frown, to the point even his nose was scrunched up, and then, after no doubt thoroughly considering how much he should share with us, he finally opened his mouth again.
"As I said, Script is notoriously hard to translate, and the difficulty rises exponentially the deeper one tries to interpret it." He paused here one last ti, probably further considering how much he would say, and after glancing at Ammy for a mont, he seemingly found his resolve and explained, "The second interpretation was along the lines of 'I'm an assassin with extended buildings, a captive of science. A microphone.'"
"A... microphone?" the class rep echoed him, and Pascal slowly nodded.
"As I said, deeper translations get increasingly more unreliable." At this point he let out a mall snort, and anded, "Case in point, every translation attempt of the third layer resulted in unintelligible gibberish about fried cheese."
There was a long mont of baffled silence hanging in the air, during which my assistant was sending an insistent, prickly stare. Armband Guy, fortunately, didn't notice it, and before I could tell her to cut it out, she actually spoke up first.
"I believe that settles it. I don't believe we know anyone else nonsensical enough to write sothing like that down other than Doctor Robatto."
"I agree!" Elly, well, agreed on the spot. "It sounds like sothing only soone crazy like him would do!"
"I think that we are all in agreent now," Joshua spoke up, suddenly adopting the role of a diator. "The one who left the ssage, and therefore the one who broke into Ammy's grandpa's office, was almost certainly Robatto."
I'm not going to lie, this developnt left more than a little dissatisfied, not just because of my girlfriends' jabs at (be they intentional or inadvertent), but because while Josh's assertion was technically correct, the way he ca to his conclusion was completely illogical and even ignored the bread-crumb trail I left for them to follow. It was ever so slightly absolutely aggravating. But then again, there was no point crying over spilled clues, so I let the whole thing go with a small, dejected sigh that nobody noticed.
"I see," Armband Guy spoke softly, and after taking a long breath, he suddenly raised his voice. "This was our suspicion as well. Since you have co to this conclusion independently, I believe I can explain to you part of the reason behind my arrival. For you see, out of everyone on the island, you were the ones who interacted the most with the aforentioned Doctor Robatto, so the Lord felt it was prudent to ask about your opinion before we jumped to conclusions. Thank you for your cooperation."
"You're welco," Josh responded just a little flippantly, but before he could add anything else, his spotlight was taken by his childhood friend again, as she leaned forward and did her whole investigative journalist routine, invisible mike and all.
"You said that was part of the reason. Is there sothing else you are not telling us?"
"As a matter of fact, no, since I am going to tell you right now."
"Oh…" Angie was taken aback for a mont, but then her enthusiasm flared up again like a propane torch in a storm. "Out with it then!"
"I am here to deliver a warning," Pascal proclaid with trendous gravitas, made only slightly comical by the fighting ga music still blaring from the TV in the background. "Due to this incident, the Assembly decided to lock down the island. No one may leave without our knowledge and permission. We are afraid that the Research Society, once they discover they are trapped on the island, might grow desperate and target you again."
"How is that different from everything being the sa as usual?" I blurted out without too much thinking, but Armband Guy only shook his head without taking offense.
"Trust , it is. I recomnd requesting asylum in the School until the agents of the Assembly arrive and capture the perpetrators."
"Oh?" This ti I outright scoffed as I raised a brow. "So when we were constantly being targeted by ambushes, you couldn't spare the manpower, but the mont soone stole Lord Grandpa's liqueur cabinet, you guys imdiately swing into action and offer us shelter. Doesn't that strike you as inconsistent?"
"The circumstances are wildly different," Armband Guy rebuked with a sour bend in his lips, then after a mont of thinking he quickly added, "Also, this has nothing to do with the liqueur."
"If you say so," I responded with an irreverent shrug before swinging back into the offensive again. "More importantly though, considering our track record of keeping that dastardly Labcoat Guy and his rascally robots in bay, especially compared to yours, I honestly don't see any rit in asking for your protection."
"The School possesses the most powerful wards and the tightest security system on the entire island."
"I'm sure it must be super-impressive! I an, it's not like a certain Abyssal Lord and his mistreated sister managed to successfully lock down the school grounds and summon a gate to the Abyss. Or that a ridiculous-looking mad scientist could break into the heart of your compound and waltz away with the prized liqueur collection of the freaking Arch-Mage of the island."
"… Why are you so fixated on the liqueur cabinet?" the class rep abruptly interjected, and I gave her the flattest look I have ever flatted.
"Because the fact that soone could steal an entire cabinet full of booze from under the nose of the 'tightest security system on the island' is absolutely hilarious," I responded with just a hint of pride in my voice, but only Judy was aware of it, at least if the way she imdiately rolled her eyes was any indication.
"Sorry Ammy, he got you there," Josh ca to my support like a good friend should, and he raised his hand to his face and held his thumb and index finger a coin's width apart. "It's a liiiitle hilarious."
For a change, the target of the class rep's nacing glasses tweaking wasn't , but Josh either didn't understand the aning behind the gesture, or he got used to it over the years, as he imdiately laughed it off. In the anti, Armband Guy slowly shook his head and addressed again.
"The Lord told you would most likely react like that."
"Did he now?" I raised a single brow on incredulity, and Pascal gave a stiff nod right away.
"Indeed. It was because of this that he ordered to guard you until the current crisis was resolved."
"Guard us?"
The incredulous question ca from the class rep of all people, and for once, I had to completely agree with her.
"So, just to make sure I get this right," I spoke up with a raised voice. "When we were definitely under attack by a bunch of chanical misfits, you couldn't spare the manpower to look after us, but now that we might be targeted by that scaaary scientific simpleton and his gaggle of goofball goons, now we must have a bodyguard."
"… Yes. That is precisely what I am telling you."
"Oh… Okay, just checking."
After that, there was a long mont of awkward silence in the room while no one knew what to say. It was situations like these where an overly enthusiastic genki-girl was useful to lighten the mood, so I signaled at Angie with my eyes, and she got the ssage right away.
"Hey! Hey! So, what are you planning to do? Are you going to just stand on the side with a stoic expression? Like those agents in the movies? You know, the ones that protect the president and stuff?"
"That was the plan…" Pascal confird just a tad awkwardly, and my friend imdiately shook his head.
"No way. Having soone looking after us like that sounds awkward as hell."
"It's not that bad," Elly comnted with a thoughtful expression, and when she noticed the others were giving her doubtful looks, she hastily clarified herself. "Our family often hired bodyguards, so I'm already used to people like them. They are just part of the scenery."
"Maybe for you, princess, but none of us had bodyguards to get used to them like that," I gently explained to her, but she imdiately retaliated with a smug little smirk.
"All the better! You should consider this part of your groom training!" She let out a triumphant chuckle, but then she gasped and pointed at my other girlfriend in turn. "The sa goes for Judy too!"
"I'm not your groom," my dear assistant deadpanned back at her, but it wasn't enough to break her mont.
"I fail to follow this conversation," Pascal stated with an odd expression.
"You'll get used to that if you hang out around us long enough," Ammy told him with a self-deprecating smile, which only made the guy even more confused.
"Never mind that," Josh suddenly cut in with a smile that said he just had a great idea. "So, since we can't have you just standing around, there is only one thing left to ask!"
"Which is?" Armband Guy asked back with a guarded frown.
"How good are you at Street Kombat?"
"… The ga?"
"What else?"
Our guest slash self-appointed bodyguard fell silent for a mont, but then he stated, "I used to play the original in the arcade a lot back in middle school."
"Were you good at it?"
"It has been a while, but I reckon I could beat you guys with one hand behind my back."
"Oooo! Oooo hooo hooo!" Josh's lips parted in a wolfish grin at the guy's flippant answer, and he raised his hand and pointed a controller at him like a famous defense attorney before declaring, "Those are fighting words, pal! Co over here, and I'll have you eat them!"
"It is your funeral," Pascal shrugged in the company of a rare smile and promptly got up and walked over to the TV. He grabbed hold of the offered controller and sat down onto one of the cushions followed by my unusually fired-up friend, and a mont later, they were already on the character select screen.
"… The heck just happened?" I asked no one in particular, but my assistant, who exploited the fact that the space beside got vacated and moved over, answered it all the sa.
"I believe it's the beginning of a hot-blooded manly friendship."
Hearing her idea, my eyes involuntarily narrowed into a squint, and after a mont of thinking, I whispered back.
"Are you sure it's not just Josh's aura?"
"Not entirely impossible. We need to gather more data on the subject," she whispered back, only to then loudly clear her throat and grab hold of my sleeve. "Sorry, Elly, but I have to borrow the Chief for a mont. It's important."
"Oh… okay then," my other girlfriend reluctantly untangled our fingers, and before I knew it, I was already being dragged out of the living room and into the kitchen (though again, 'gently being led while Judy acted like she was hauling a mountain' was more accurate, but I digress).
Once we arrived, my assistant went as far as to close the door behind us, and once she was sure nobody could see or hear us, he looked in the eyes and let out a tired sigh.
"Chief. Please tell what you did last night?"
"Do you really want to know?"
She lowered her voice even further, and whispered, "No matter what you say, I promise I won't kick you."
"… That was very specific."
"Chief…" she stressed the word, further emphasized by an unholy mixture of a threatening frown over a pair of puppy-eyes.
"Oh, fine," I finally relented and told her all about my misadventures in Lord Grandpa's office.
…
Needless to say, I got kicked anyway.
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