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True Chapter 2: A Unbelievable Request

Dimension: Unknown

Location: Enigma Reality

Time: 12:00 PM

Well…it's been about a month since I've written a log entry. I never thought as an intern, the work I had to do would pile up so quickly! It's starting to get a bit overwhelming, to be honest…well, I was practically asking for this, so I shouldn't be complaining so much.

Aside from work piling up and not having a lot of free time, nothing really happens…yeah, must be a BIT surprising to find out that nothing new is happening in a research facility.

Now that I think about it, I should probably make this whole "logging" thing something I do every month. I mean, it is usually this time of the month that work slows down drastically, and I'm left with not much to do… Hmm…

…

…

…

Wait a minute! I'm getting sidetracked again! Gah! Why is this something that runs in the family?! I swear, that this trait of mine is going to be the end of me one day…

Anyways! I probably sound really depressing to anyone who just so happens to be reading this, so allow me to add more exclamation points to my sentences so I don't sound so depressed.

Last time I wrote a log entry, I wrote about something very interesting that me and Naomi had overheard. This thing we overheard was actually a conversation between our boss and one of the researchers in this facility. Apparently, my brother's "first trial" had been completed...

They said that they were supposed to hold a special meeting sometime soon…Well, that meeting was today, and after everything that has happened within the last few hours…I think I might be closer to getting Jason back than ever before!

(Time: 12:30 PM)

It was 30 minutes after 12, everyone was doing their own thing and minding their own business. I was filling out paperwork for my boss (I thought I was an intern, not a secretary!), and I'm pretty sure Naomi was working in the lab…I don't exactly know what she does though…I seriously need to ask her when I get the chance.

But anyway, the day was pretty much going by relatively fast, before I knew it, it was close to our lunch break. As I was putting some stuff to the side for later, there was a little jingle that played over the intercom, which meant that there was going to be an announcement.

"Good afternoon, would all staff members please report to Conference Room D?" It was Henry who was speaking over the intercom. "There are some very urgent matters that need to be discussed."

At first, I didn't really think that this meeting was about Jason. For the last month, everyone has actually taken their attention off of him and onto Engima Reality's other test subjects.

And now that I think about it, I think this is the first actual meeting that I'm allowed to go to. Some meetings only allow certain staff members to attend, while others weren't anything major at all

So the fact that practically everyone in the building has to attend the meeting must mean that this is really urgent. "…Which also means that I shouldn't really be sitting here and thinking to myself…" I said as I got up from my desk.

The moment I left turned the corner to the conference hall, my jaw almost dropped to the ground when I saw a large number of people who were crowded in the hallway. How am I even supposed to describe the madness that went on in that hallway?!

"it's like Black Friday…"

"Yeah, it is-EEK!" I shouted before bonking the person who teleported right next to me on the head. Of course, you already know who this person is. "Naomi, can you not go a day without being a ninja and scaring the daylights out of me?!"

"Only when you stop hitting me on the head like that!" Naomi said before placing her hands on her head and puffing out her cheeks. "Really, that hurts way more than you think it does…"

Naomi and I soon moved over to the crowd, since all the chaos had seemed to die down just a bit. We soon found ourselves inside the conference room, each of us took our seats and waited for further instructions.

At this time, people were chatting among themselves, most of the things I overheard were speculations on what this meeting could be about…Well, might as well join in.

"Naomi, do you have any idea what this meeting could be about?" I turned to her.

"Well, from what I know, we don't usually hold these "Urgent All Staff" meetings unless this has something to do with a test subject, and if I remember correctly...this is the first time we had this type of meeting in four years," Naomi told me.

"F-Four years? Maybe that's why it was so chaotic out there then…" I looked around the room and noticed that many people were a bit…Fidgety. "So…If this is about a test subject, then which test subject could it possibly be?"

I immediately noticed that Naomi giving me any sort of response, all she did was…Stare at me. It looked like she was expecting something from me…I think she wants to me to figure this out on my own.

…Wait a minute… This is an urgent meeting…Urgent meetings are for test subjects…And not even a month ago, we eavesdropped on a conversation that was about- "Good afternoon everyone, maybe please have your undivided attention?"

It was at that point my heart skipped a beat, every thought that I was having had suddenly vanished. I slowly turned towards to the source of the heart stopping voice, and smiled at them. "Damn it Alyssa! You almost had it!" I heard Naomi say.

"Thank you, everyone, for taking time out of your busy schedules to attend this meeting," Henry said. "I assure you, this meeting will be the one that decides the future of Enigma Reality."

If I can remember correctly, I think I said something along the lines of: "Take as much time out of our schedules as you want, it'll still be a win for me~"...Yeah, that seems about right! I'm pretty sure Naomi wanted to smack me on the head for saying that (especially with the perverted grin growing on my face).

"Now, as some of you may know, a certain event occurred a month ago involving one of our most well-known test subjects." There were a few whispers going around the room for a minute but everyone turned their attention back toward to Henry. "As for those of you who don't know...Subject JDB-478 has surpassed their first trial."

This news was enough to cause everyone in the room to start applauding, I think it was at this time I was able to snap out of the little trance I was in and regain all of my senses. At first, I didn't understand what he meant by JDB-478, but it hit me when he said the first trial.

All test subjects at Engima Reality have some sort of code name, I think they do this so it's easier when they have to file some documents or whatever. You might be a bit surprised to hear that I never knew what my brother's code name was...but remember, aside from Naomi and Henry...Everyone here pretty much hates me.

"This couldn't have achieved without our efforts and cooperation with one another." Henry's smile almost caused me to fall back into a deep state of infatuation, but Naomi pinched me on my neck before that could happen. "However...we didn't obtain enough Fragments to call this operation a success..."

"Fragments?" I looked at Naomi, who was trying her hardest to pay attention. "...What fragments? What is he talking about?"

"In order to gain more Fragments, we must delve deeper into the mind of JDB-478...we need to go further than ever before!" Why do I get the weird feeling that Henry was some sort of pastor before all of this? "That is why we must initiate...a second trial."

The room almost turned into an uproar, I was seriously starting to get the Black Friday vibes once again just sitting in the middle of this chaos. I looked over to the front and saw that Henry had pulled up a chair and was waiting patiently for everyone to calm down. "Another trial..." Naomi muttered. "...If that happens then..."

Before I knew it, the whole room had gone silent again. I turned to Henry, who was standing once again. "Yes...A second trial...This one will guarantee us success." Henry continued. "However, there are some changes that need to be made...that's where our special guest comes in."

At first, I was really confused (but then again, that's pretty much normal whenever everytime I step foot into this facility), but then I saw something in the corner of my eye move. When turned my head, I jumped a bit to see a man get from his chair in the corner and walk over to Henry. That guy was literally sitting there this whole time, and not even a single person noticed him!

"I will now proceed to hand the mic over to Mr. Takahashi." Henry then proceeded to place the mic in Mr. Takahashi's hand and walked off to the same corner that he was sitting in before.

"...Good afternoon fellow staff members, my name is Surya Takahashi. The pleasure is and will always be mine..." Takahashi introduced himself. I sort of noticed that most people in the room were stiff as statues, they sort of became like this when Mr. Takahashi introduced himself.

Mr. Takahashi looked relatively young, so I'm guessing he's in his early 20s. Mr. Takahashi had pure black hair that was practically covering one of his eyes, and I have to say that this kind of match with his light skin complexion and what seemed to be black eyes. He wasn't really wearing much formal wear, but more casual wear. He had on a white collared short sleeved shirt with black tie on, he really didn't seem to care that much from the way he was dressing, as he wore regular jeans and black shoes.

After looking at Mr. Takahashi for a bit and thinking hearing his name...I started to get the feeling that I've seen him somewhere before, and not on TV or anything, but in real life...but unfortunately, I can't remember where. "As I walked into this facility earlier this morning, I took notice on how committed everyone here was to their work." Mr. Takahashi started. "Especially with test subject JDB-471, all of you practically worship him as if he's your God."

People got a bit offended by that statement, but I was a bit too interested to actually care about what he was saying, so I just shrugged it off. "Sometimes, you need to learn when to stop, even when you know that if you continue, you'll be able to prosper..." At that point, me, as well as everyone else, were confused (for once, I wasn't the only one who was clueless!)

Mr. Takahashi looked over to Henry's direction for a minute, Henry seemed to be motioning him to do something. "But please, just disregard what I said. I was a bit unprepared for this after all, and I could barely sleep last night at all, haha."

It's pretty obvious that he said that for a reason, otherwise, Henry wouldn't have been motioning him just a little while ago. "Anyways, let me shed some light on what Mr. McAlister was saying just before." Takahashi cleared his throat. "As some of you may already know, JDB-471 is a unique person. From my understanding, he has the ability to shape the world in his own image, and is able to become whoever, and whenever he wants. On top of that, he's able to split himself into multiple entities..."

I would just like to state right now that my brother has NO actual powers what so ever, so I'm pretty sure the stuff he's talking right now has something to do with his mental state...though, I thought that stuff was something we can all do... "With all of the abilities he is capable of, this opens many new opportunities within the human mind, and that is the reason why he is such a valuable subject."

I never really thought that all of this had something to do with the human mind, I thought this was all for something else... "Our valued subject has completed his first trial recently, and now he must begin another one. If only-"

"You could just quit wasting our time and get to the point?" I recognized the person who said that almost immediately, turned around and saw that Naomi was standing up. For the first time, I actually saw what Naomi's serious face looked like. "What is it about this simulation that is different from the rest? What is it that you need for us? And what is your purpose in all of this aside from wasting our time?"

We all stared at Naomi for a full minute in silence, it wasn't until we heard chuckling that we turned back to Mr. Takahashi, who was the one who was chuckling. "Oh, Ms. Muaris...I've heard so many things about you from Mr. McAlister. You seem to always be on task and don't like messing around, you're one of the most dedicated workers here in my opinion." Naomi only stared at Takahashi in silence, she seriously didn't look too happy. "...I like your attitude...Very well then, I'll jump straight to the point."

Naomi seemed to have eased up a bit, but she still sort of had that look on her face and was still standing and giving Takahashi a death stare. Takahashi proceeded to raise up a finger. "This second trial JDB-471 will be partaking will be one of the longest and most dangerous trials a subject has ever had to go through in this facility." ...Dangerous...? "This trial will require everyone's cooperation, knowledge, and more..."

Takahashi raised another finger up in the air. "As of right now, there are many blockades that are in our way. In order to clear them...we need people to enter the simulation." And so, returned the Black Friday stampede! This time, everyone was on steroids! I looked over to Naomi, who just stood there with her mouth wide open.

"N... Naomi...?" I said her name, but in that room, I could barely even hear myself. "...What does all of this even mean...?"

"...We will be searching throughout the whole world for people who match our criteria...Who knows? Maybe a few of you in this room might already be a perfect fit for this task...?" The room was still out of control, and there were NO signs of it everyone calming down. Takahashi silently put up another finger. "I will act as a second in command for this operation, hope we all get along! Meeting adjourned!"

...That...was...CHAOS!" I shouted out. After that meeting, the work day came to an end early. People went home, while others stayed to work overtime...like me (Thank God, I'm not an unpaid intern...). Naomi and I decided to take a break and eat lunch in the back of the facility...and to be honest, the place was really nice! We were able to get a good view of the whole city, and the place wasn't messy at all! "Sometimes, I think it's a good thing that I don't understand most of the things happening here..."

"…" Naomi had not said a word since we got out here, all she did was stare at her drink and didn't even look in my direction at all. I already knew something was bothering her, that was the whole reason why we're back here, but now, I can't really figure out WHAT'S wrong with her...

"Hey...Uh...Naomi? You doing alright?" I nudged her in her shoulder. "Usually I'm the one who's quiet and depressed, this really isn't like you, you know..."

"...I'll never get a chance...will I?" Naomi spoke finally...although, it wasn't something that I was expecting to come out of her mouth. "Things never really work out for me at all here..."

"Hey! What did I just say about being depressed and quiet? That's my thing!" That doesn't really sound like something I should be proud of...As I'm writing this, I think I just realized...I might have low self-esteem...oh boy... "Now, tell me what's wrong!"

"...Ever since I was really small, I've always dreamed of an alternative world... I've always dreamt about traveling to those different worlds...becoming someone completely different...starting everything all over again..."Naomi said. "...Alyssa...I don't know if you understand this fully, but Takahashi wants people who are fit for the task, to enter the world that Jason has created inside his head."

...I wish I could say I was surprised by this...but I was more surprised by the fact that Naomi was all upset about something like this. "So...this is what you were upset about?" I asked her. "If this is it, then don't worry! They'll definitely start searching for people in the facility first, so there's already a huge chance that you'll get selected! You're one of the most important in this facility after all!"

"Uh...Alyssa...The real reason why I want to-"

"Oh? It seems like we aren't the only ones who had the idea of coming back here." Naomi and I turned to the door, we saw both Henry and Mr. Takahashi standing there looking at us. "Good afternoon ladies, you don't mind if we sit out here, do you?"

"Not at all Henry!" It probably doesn't look like it, but I was really trying my hardest not to lose cool every five seconds as soon as Henry came outside, but as you probably have guessed, that's really difficult to do...

"It seems that we meet again after such a short time, Ms. Muaris," Takahashi said to Naomi. "I feel as if I should apologize for delaying the meeting earlier, I did not realize that you were that dedicated to your work."

"...I don't care..." I was already able to tell from what happened at the meeting that Naomi didn't really like Mr. Takahashi that much...but I never really thought that she was so dedicated to her work.

Takahashi then turned to me, and for a minute he seemed generally surprised. "And who might you be...?"

"Oh, um...Alyssa; Alyssa Sorrel." I introduced myself to him. ""It's a pleasure to meet you sir!"

"Sorrel...Huh?" Takahashi repeated my last name. "...Say, by any chance, are you perhaps related to-"

"He's my brother..." I had already known what he was going to say before he even said it. Whenever I introduce myself to somebody, everyone always asks me if I'm related Jason. Let me just say this now, when Jason was chosen to be a test subject, it became the talk of our town, it didn't take long before it started spreading to other parts of the world.

"...I see..." Takahashi now seemed less interested in me...I'm not surprised though, everyone doesn't really seem interested in me since I don't really have that many redeeming qualities about myself...

"Err...Sorrel, do you think I could take a few minutes of your time and talk to you...in private?" I'm pretty sure I nearly fainted when I heard the words 'in private'...God, I'm such a hopeless romantic... "I need to speak to you about something very important..."

"Y-Yeah, whatever you say, sweetheart..." Naomi punched me in the arm, which snapped me out of my trance...again... "I-I mean, whatever you say, boss!"...Yup, hopeless romantic...as well as an idiot.

We didn't really move far from Mr. Takahashi, and Naomi, we just simply went to the opposite side of the building. I had my back against the wall while Henry simply stood in front of me. I'm just going to say this now if my skin wasn't so dark, then my face would probably be very red right now...

"S-So…Um…What did you want to talk about?" I asked Henry.

"Well…How should I put this…" To me, Henry looked like he was trying to find the right words to say to me…Which is never good. "Sorrel, from day 1, you've been working hard and putting much more effort into your work more than normal."

"Um…T-Thank you?" Usually, when your boss starts to flatter you, he's either going to fire you, or give you a promotion…And I'm leaning more to the second one.

Henry stared at me for a full minute before sighing. "Sorrel…Let me just cut straight to the point…" At that point, I was bracing myself for the worst. In my mind, I thought I was either going to get fired or something worse."Would you like to be a subject for your brother's second trial?"

"…" I stared at Henry, I never even noticed that my jaw had dropped. "…I-I'm…Sorry…What?"

"From what I've heard around the facility, the reason you took this job was so you would able to take your brother home, correct?" I hesitantly nodded in response. "Do you remember when Mr. Takahashi mentioned that for this second trial, there would be blockades?"

"Y-Yeah, sort of…" I told Henry. "But I didn't really understand it until Naomi explained it to me."

"I won't get too in-depth with this, but from what I know, most of the blockades within the simulation will require someone who has a personality and role quite similar to your own," Henry said. "To be quite honest, I wouldn't feel comfortable allowing anyone aside from you to take this role."

"This…Sounds really cool…But what does this have to do with me being able to take my brother back home?"

"If you were to accept, the chances of taking back your brother after this simulation is finished will be very high," Henry said. "I assure you, once this simulation is done, we won't need him anymore."

This was truly something I was going to regret if I didn't take Henry up on his offer…Then again, why was I even thinking about declining? This is something that only happens once in a lifetime!...Though I felt bad, I didn't know why…Until it hit me.

"Well…What do you say?" Henry asked me.

"…Only on one condition…" I never thought I'd be doing this type of thing with my boss, I had to pray that this didn't backfire. "Could…You um…Let Naomi…Be apart of this whole…Trial thing…Please?"

Henry didn't respond to me right away, he stared at me for a moment before looking to the side. He was thinking long and hard about this, which…Is actually a good sign…? "Is that your only request?"

I shook my head in response. Henry continued thinking for another minute or so before looking back at me and smiling. "Then it's a deal." Henry extended his hand. "I'll let you and Naomi partake in Jason's trial."

"R-Really?!" Even though Henry wanted Mr to shake his hand, I didn't do it…I hugged him instead. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

It was only a matter of time before I realized what I had just did, I slowly looked up at Henry, who was taken aback by my sudden action "Oops! S-sorry, I couldn't contain myself…"

"N-no, no, it's fine. I understand that you're excited…" Henry brushed off his vest. "I'll send you everything you need to know via email before the end of the week…"

And ends my third log…I can't believe that I'm actually getting a chance to be apart of something this big! I have to try my hardest to reach Henry's expectations, so no more slacking off!

As I'm writing this, I just got an email from Henry. I'm guessing that this is the thing that he was going to send me.

Apparently, there's a document attached to the email, so I'll have to read that once I finish with this log entry. Although, the name of the document is kind of weird…The document is titled…Silver Tamazaki…Huh, what a weird name…

Wait…Crap! I forgot to tell Naomi! How could I forget to tell someone so important something this important?! I gotta find Naomi before she leaves for the night! So uh…Alyssa Sorrel signing out!

END OF LOG