Guardian of the Angels
3: Parameters Nullified
A/N: Hello again! It's been less than 2 days but I had little to nothing to do this weekend, and really pounded this out, and checked it over several times to make sure that this won't conflict with any of the later chapters, or even really conflict with the canon events. Don't expect every update to be this quick, but I'm adding this to my writing rotation, now that I'm distraction-free for a few weeks, at least.
Also, thank you to X-Blaze99 for reviewing, and for asking a question that ultimately led to one of my new directions I'm taking this in. So again, thank you!
In any case, hope you enjoy the chapter.
"Are you sure that his relation to them won't interfere with the operation?" Tall, pale, white, and virtually featureless, lacking any features besides large, frosty blue eyes, the aide eyed his superior, speaking telepathically.
The identical-in-appearance figure blinked once, and all understanding and information regarding the subject was transferred, while a stream of sounds comprised of words made its' way into the former's consciousness.
"Of course. In fact, this may speed up the progression of the transversal of roles in their lives. You see, the one he is paired to is special, in ways too numerous to list. Her time on the Other Side saw her developing powers that rival our own, and while she didn't manage to escape the Other Side in an unnatural way, she did manage to do something that had unforeseen-until now-side effects.
She created new life, in a space that was previously thought to be only the interim point between the endpoint of an important individual's life, and the beginning of their next run through the living state of their soul.
By doing so, she shattered a great deal of the theories we had held in high esteem concerning the way the Other Side works. Of course, since we cannot enter the Other Side physically, all points about what may lie there are moot.
In all actuality, we are only aware that life was created there because of the girl's conditions for living in her current life, after exiting the Other Side. She was born to a twin, whose soul is an identical copy to her own; the only differences are their prime directives. The original is destined to be of monumental importance to both the world of the living, ourselves, and the Others. The copy, however, has a completely blank prime directive. No data fills that space whatsoever, meaning that while she is still a human being, and while go through the cycle like any other, she will not be affected by anything involving luck, because to her, luck does not exist.
For example, according to one set of calculations put forth, if she were to open Schrodinger's Box, she would not find anything inside. To a normal person, there would either be a live cat or a dead cat, but since this is based entirely on luck, her soul's blankness would nullify the existence of the cat, giving her the static result of nothing.
Or, if the a different set of calculations brought forth by a differing school of thought are correct, the results of the box would be indicated by her conscious mood. In that case, if she were in a positive mood at the time, she would open the box to find a live cat; if she were sad or angry, or otherwise in a negative disposition, she would open the box to find the animal inside, dead. So many different outcomes could change everything, but as has been examined thus far, her emotional state is firmly tied to the original's, so she will be relatively stable."
After what seemed like ages, but may have been no time at all, the aide blinked, sending his response back to to the figure who was now busying himself with tinkering with a complex mechanical device with all of his spindly, tentacle-like fingers, offering many more degrees of freedom than what human appendages allow.
"Yes, I was briefed on that information by the theoretical analysts. But what of the Guardian in the field with them? That is where I believe the problem lies. That particular Guardian may have developed an emotional attachment to the girl in the stage of life in which she was just a normal person. Now that this Guardian is watching over them, there may be some unforeseen side effects of this."
The tinkering of the device slowed, as the other contemplated this view.
"That may be true, but we will deal with any other consequences that come forth in due time, if they ever come to pass. That Guardian has an unsurpassed efficiency rate in successful guidings; there has not been a single failure yet, and it has been nearly half a millenium in the world of the living. That is something quite impressive, and something not even myself managed when I still took out guidings for those of importance. Do not underestimate the powers of subject Number 121, nor her handler. Not everything is known about this situation, as of yet, but when they are discovered, our very way of life could change. Our duty is to ensure that it is for the better, and not a turn of events that results in the destruction of our people."
No contemplation this time, the ade understood exactly what was being referred to.
"They are the key to..."
"Yes. Now leave, I am sure that you have many tasks to attend to, as do I. Farewell."
"Likewise."
...
Oh boy, English class. I never particularly liked the language, and while being a Guardian, I had a natural grasp of all languages humans spoke, in order to gain fluency in any of them, I still had to study them to a certain extent. The Asian languages were closest to our own, but far and away from the flowing structures of our tongue were the Germanic languages; they were hard, unnatural sounding, and in general made a mess of pronunciation.
Of course, Kanade was excellent at it, and Kaede was allowed to skip the majority of the class work, only doing the worksheets we were assigned. As to be expected, the two had different writing styles in English lettering; Kanade wrote in cursive script, as elegant as ever. Kaede was a smorgasbord of various elements of styles; some letters were jagged and rough, others were elegant and curved, still others were slanted one way, some the other. She was a jack of all trades, writing much more quickly than anyone else in the class, almost outpacing myself, but her neatness was...subpar, to say the least.
"Alright class, who can read the third paragraph from the top? You there, in the back, looking like you're stealing a nap behind your book." Ah crap, for once, the instructor had called on me. I calmly stood up without picking up my book, because my laptop had been open behind it. What can I say, I do my best to do my worst; if I did all my work, I would have a perfect average. No, I'm just a lazy genius to these humans. It's better that way. They wouldn't be able to handle the truth.
"Pick up your book." I flashed a smug look at the teacher, who seemed only mildly disgruntled by my aloofness. A shame, to be sure. This guy doesn't care enough to make it fun for me. Well, at least I tried.
"I don't need it." Beginning from the middle of the mental photograph I had developed from the page, I began to recite the ugly language, stumbling only once. Guttural-sounding city names, who the hell does shit like that? Wait. Russian...Communists, while having one of the best ideas about how a government should be run, are just terrible at doing it right, and their language is one of the most grating, for me. Right behind English, funnily enough. Human nature is terrible sometimes...glad I'm not human. Ah yes, the reciting of funny Russian people in English. You win this time, public school systems!
Not to disrespect humans, of course; I still prefer their presence to that of my own kind. Maybe that's what happens when you're away from home for too long...
"For some, the way of life brought about by this new government was less than great. These 'heretics', as branded by their leaders, were rounded up and killed. The city of...Volgograd, was renamed Stalingrad in honor of their 'great' leader, Josef Stalin. After the end of Stalin's reign and the reversal of many of his decrees, the Soviets changed the name of the city back to Volgograd in 1961."
The class seemed shocked that I recited the whole string without looking down at my "book"; my laptop still whirred from behind the book. Well, most of it, anyways; Kanade was looking back with a wry smile, and Kaede hadn't noticed at all, as she was reading an article on her small computer. How odd. I had expected her to at least acknowledge my outward actions, but then again, it may have to do with her...unique...position. Yes, that's it.
"...Alright then, very good. You can sit down now." The instructor just seemed exasperated, but that was to be expected; I had obviously appeared to be slacking off, but in his attempt to spite me, it had backfired. Am I not allowed this little bit of fun?
I sat down promptly, going back to inputting data as I collected it, filling tables and graphs with my calculations about what was going to happen in the coming weeks, concerning these two, at least.
Their energies were quite different from what I had encountered during Kanade's last life, and Kaede's followed a pattern that had only been encountered once before, and only through tracing back residual signatures collected from point-of-death's of thousands of those who entered The Other Side; The Programmer.
This didn't mean that she was The Programmer; after all, it had been confirmed that he was male, and Kaede was quite obviously not a male. It could mean nothing at all, or, as the chances of that were quite slim, it meant she was just as important as he had been. Too bad we don't know how, just yet.
In any case, that makes her more important than ever to watch over and keep safe. Any number of terrible things could happen if The Others got hold of her; they would sense her similarity to The Programmer, and no one really knows what would happen next. Regardless, it would no doubt be disastrous. A cataclysmic event, even.
But I'm the best in the business, so we have nothing to worry about...hopefully.
...
With the last bell, I packed up my book and computer into my bag, walking over to where the two arctic-silver-haired girls were doing the same. Kanade was faster, having here slingbag on her back by the time Kaede was getting up to put her notebooks in her own bag.
"I trust you've had a decent first day?" As everyone else left, I felt a few disapproving glances in my direction, but it was most likely just hopeless romantics thinking I was trying to, quote un-quote, "get it in". No such thing, fortunately. I've much more important activities to engage in then attempting to replicate human sexual interactions.
"Well, other than meeting you and eating mapo tofu, not particularly. The people here aren't the nicest, and while it's not any worse than our previous schools, to get the cold shoulder everywhere you go isn't a good feeling to get accustomed to." Wow, that's the longest sentence I've heard her say in...well, ever, really.
Kaede set her slate on the nearest desk, typing out her response in a few seconds, while Kanade was talking. She held it up for us to see when Kanade was finishing.
'They don't tolerate my disability, and I don't think they'll like us any more when I can talk again (5-7mo.)'
Kanade nodded, before gesturing around us in the now-empty room.
"There's something slightly more inviting about this place, though...I can't really place it, but it almost feels like someone is watching over us."
Well, hell, I think they might be slightly more perceptive than I had previously thought. My energy must radiate enough for them to detect it, but it's masked enough to prevent them from pinpointing me as the source. Still, that's intriguing; I didn't expect any powers that manifested on The Other Side to become active so quickly, or for them to retain any of those in the first place. That was certainly a fact that needed to be brought to the attention of my superiors.
We would need to attempt to prevent any outbursts or accidental activations of these abilities...I can imagine the crisis that would emerge if either of them accidentally activated their passive abilities, mainly OverDrive, or the one that has only come out in reports as "Pulverise", which didn't sound very inviting. That would incite quite the interesting conversation.
OverDrive was an ability that we had had access to for millennia, but somehow they had gained access to it, along with some other low-level abilities.
Hm, good thing I can think at an exponential speed compared to humans, otherwise I might make some awkward silences for them.
"So, shall we be off, then?" They nodded, and we gathered our things and left the room. I led the way out of the school, which was quite large and consisted of multiple buildings, but as I did so, I noticed flashes of recognition on their faces.
Was it the people? Was it the location itself? Something her was a recurring theme to them, possibly something they had encountered on The Other Side...and we wouldn't have any information on that, as such, and that worried me slightly.
I would have to formulate a more in-depth report to send to my superiors tonight, once I made it back to my apartment.
"So where are you two staying, if you don't mind me asking?" As we neared the gates to the school, I jolted the both of them out of their trance-like states'.
"...We live in an apartment complex a few blocks away from here. Likewise, where are you staying?" She almost made it sound accusatory, which was odd. Or maybe she didn't, and I was just throwing things into the air because I thought they were defying expectations, once again. But at this point, that was to be...expected. Heh, I made a joke. That was a human joke, right? I'm not too good at those things. Never have been.
"I'm also in an apartment a little ways from here. Is the landlord the kindly old lady Nana?" Their faces surprise told me it was.
"So we're neighbors; isn't that cool? Can that be another excuse to maybe get to know each other a little bit better?" I said something wrong, because Kanade's eyes gave me a look that I could feel the cold emanating from.
"If that was an attempt to hit on me, then you're looking in the wrong place." Ahhh, they were thinking that I, being a guy, was only being nice because I think with my endocrine system.
I was only slightly confused by this, but could understand this as well. If I were a human, I would most likely be more distrustful of the opposite gender than the average person...
"No, not at all! I'm taken already, for one. I was just asking because you seem like you're cool people, and the first intelligent conversation I've had in awhile. I don't have many friends, and you two don't seem to have any, so I'm just extending the hand of friendship, that's all." That was only technically a lie. I had caught an Other that had been hiding in the world of the living, and as I had became her new Master, I could instruct her to act like a significant other if need be. Currently, she was in the form of a middle-aged woman, posing as my "mother", and maintaining my living space. However, she could switch into another form at any time, so it would be no trouble at all for her to appear to be my 'partner'
She seemed taken aback by this statement, and she remained silent s we began to walk down the street, intent on the same destination.
Of course, it had been arranged previously that we would be in the same apartment complex; in fact, ours were right next to each other, separated only by a single wall. I needed to be on hand in case something happened.
As we finally neared the building, she finally spoke.
"I'm...sorry. It's just that no one has ever really been...nice to us, except for their own gain...so, thank you." She seemed to be hiding her face, but using my powers to see past the veil of silver, I saw that she was blushing profusely.
Awwwwww.
"It's no big deal, really. I just know better than to mistreat a couple of nice girls like yourself." She blushed even harder, but this time, didn't try to hide it.
"Thank you so much...we never received your name, actually." Totally intentional, because I'm worried that it might spur some memories forth, given the sparse information we've gathered about who exactly might have been on The Other Side with them. Actually, I don't think that should matter, because in all actuality, I had never existed to The Others, as I had never been there in the first place. Guardians and Others generally don't enter into each others home territory; the world of the living is fair game, however.
"Sorry about that, my name is Hayato Naoi."
A/N: Yup. I went there. It's going to take a lot of explaining, but believe me, it works. To clarify, "The Other Side" is the Afterlife and "The Others" are NPCs.
