Hello there, it's been a while. I really wish I have more time for my hobbies...shame I do not.
I had a bit of a block writing this chapter, there were some parts that I really was unsure if or not to write up...but here goes.
Thanks as always to those who reviewed: Shaj95, ChihuahuaPup (I know you are GermanSheperdDog), NachtSchatten and Brillerai
Also, Shaj95, I cannot answer the question in the review. Whether I affirm or deny I will be giving positive information about the future chapters so I will just give no (zero) information. ;)
Here is Chapter 26 - Enjoy!
°¤~ ▪《{Arc FOUR: Apple of Carpathia}》▪ ~¤°
PART SIX
~ 026: Halloween Masquerade ~
Kai stands at the edge of the ballroom by himself, lost in thought. Before him, masked students in their Halloween costumes dance, drink and chat the night away.
After safely returning Linnea to campus and attending her part of the show, Kai had searched for and tried to contact A2, but met with no success. Since he heard bits of the concert through her earring, he had first searched through the crowd in an attempt to locate her amongst the audience but none whom he spoke with had seen a strawberry blonde fairy in purple dress. He had also tried to ask staff members backstage but their answer also gave him no leads. When he had no choice but to conclude she had left the concert hall, he tried searching through plausible locations on campus for where A2 could've gone, but like previous attempts, he simply could not find her.
Where could she have gone?
He recalls her ill state when he had left her. Having been unable to locate or electronically contact her, he worries for her wellbeing.
A familiar voice in the distance catches his attention.
Turning to the source, he spots a group of girls coming into view on the other side of the room through some gaps in the dense crowd. Amongst them, is a girl dressed in a form-fitting, green cocktail dress searching frantically through her surroundings. He immediately recognizes her despite her facial mask.
Soon spotting him as well, she waves to him, "Kai!"
Kai steps forward to meet her as she excuses herself from her friends.
During his failed attempt to find A2, he had bumped into Linnea backstage and was requested by her to meet him at the masquerade ball held tonight. Normally he would not have given a thought to attending campus events, but he agreed to it tonight so Linnea could get the chance to talk to him since her phone was lost in the kidnapping incident. She had mentioned to him earlier that something strange had happened backstage during the show and that she's extremely concerned for a friend. Curious if this had anything to do with A2, he agreed to come just for a brief time.
"Hey, sorry I took a while to get here," she apologizes. She explains, "I had to stick around with the crew for a bit after the concert."
"It's fine," Kai calmly tells her. He gets straight to the point, "So what happened?"
"Well," Linnea begins.
She pauses for a moment to try to come up with a coherent way to convey her information.
"Do you remember my roommate Sera?" she asks.
Kai tries to remember. If he's not mistaken, isn't that Linnea's brunette roommate who wasn't present to help with the costumes yesterday? Not that he regularly sees this girl...
"Kinda," Kai responds.
"Well…according to the crew backstage," Linnea continues, "Sera never made it to the concert. Despite that, someone notified the director that both Sera and I will be arriving in time to perform, but will be just a little late."
'So that's why Linnea was able to make her performance…' Kai realizes, recalling how Linnea had been fretting in the Nymph's cockpit. It would be logical that the crew would have altered the concert arrangements to exclude the two missing singers otherwise.
Linnea goes on, "Also, although Sera never showed up, someone performed a completely different song in her place. The staff tried to talk to this person afterwards but as soon as her song was done, there was a brief electrical outage in the building and when the power came back, she was already gone…"
Kai recalls the final fragments of the familiar song he heard over transmission. Although not necessarily identical to what he and Linnea had heard before from the fine arts building, Linnea had previously recognized it as a melody only her family members should know. If it was supposed to be part of the show Linnea shouldn't have reacted the way she did when she heard it...
"Was Sera supposed to perform before you?" he asks to investigate his suspicion.
"Yeah, her turn is right before mine," Linnea confirms. "Why?"
"Nothing," Kai responds, unsure if or not he should disclose what he suspects since he might be wrong and if he isn't there might be a reason behind it.
"I do wonder who it was who did this…" Linnea goes on to say, "It's almost as if they arranged this just for me. I would have probably been unable to perform if it weren't for this person. If you hadn't told me that A2 got sick and couldn't come save me, I would've thought for sure it was her since she's the most amazing person I know. I really wish I can thank whoever it was…"
Kai stays silent, mentally going over the new information.
"But more importantly," Linnea continues on, "Sera...is still missing. I'm worried if something might have happened to her."
"Hm?" Kai refocuses his attention on Linnea.
"Sera was supposed to make the costumes with us yesterday but she wasn't there both yesterday and the night before," Linnea explains. "Normally, she always tells me if she's going away for the night to visit family or to be with some other friends."
"And you weren't able to contact her at all during this whole time?" Kai asks.
"Neither me nor my friends have been able to," Linnea responds, clearly concerned.
Noticing that it's the same signs as when he and A2 found out Linnea was kidnapped, Kai considers the probability that something did happen. However, as this person isn't anyone close to him, nor is it his duty to aid in general search and rescue efforts, and more importantly since he's rather tired from just having performed one such duty to ensure Linnea's safety, he recommends a more systematic approach for Linnea's worries. "If you think something's wrong, you should consult the R.A. or the residential director. They will handle it from there."
Linnea casts her gaze downwards in response to that. She remains silent for a little but nods, "Ok."
…
Upstairs on the second floor of the ballroom, a masked, strawberry blonde fairy stands at the edge of the balcony alone against the glow of crystal chandeliers that light the Halloween ball. Gazing down at the moonlit gardens before her, she notices a lone tree some distance away. The silhouette of the tree evokes an old memory, one from a time when a small, backyard orchard of apple trees supplied her the safest and most steadily available source of nutrients, and the day two boys, one younger than herself and one older than herself, caught and held her by her long hair as she tried to disappear back into the Carpathian forest with her spoil of apples.
A2 smiles, feeling a little nostalgic as she recalls her initial conflict with the boys that eventually led to them discovering her forest habitat and their subsequent offer of shelter from the elements in their impoverished family's shed at the edge of the forest. Despite the meager serving sizes available to them, they even shared with her a portion of their own dinner plates every night and spent their spare time teaching her their land's language. In turn, she repaid them by teaching them basic arithmetic and how to speak, read, and write in English.
However, less pleasant memories also resurfaced…
Of the night the boys' neglectful mother and alcoholic stepfather discovered her presence on their property, the boys' subsequent decision to run away from home for a life on the streets in the city rather than live under threats and severe abuse, and her own naïve confidence in her academic intelligence as an asset to their plight…
Not all of these memories were bad, however. She enjoyed the process of learning greatly and in such a land where child protection agencies were either nonexistent or largely inefficient, she had learned much that cannot be learned from a textbook or in the classroom during that time. Skills in pickpocketing and shoplifting were necessary for her and her friends to survive on the streets and each successful attempt brought her great thrill. Her scientific and engineering genius, coupled with the boys' clever plans for acquiring necessary materials, also rapidly led to the development of a method for the three of them to counterfeit money itself for more comfort, food and mischievous giggles…
But there was one more memory…one similar to the typical bad ending of a visual novel game.
By now, her nostalgic smile has been replaced by a frown of regret.
A2 watches as a lone individual in a Dracula-esque costume and helmet approach. Soon stopping some ways away, the figure makes some kind of hand movement before continuing towards the building entrance. Recognizing the signal, she turns from him and disappears into the lit ballroom.
Once inside, A2 makes her way through the crowd to the balustrade and glances over the attendees on the first floor to search for the figure from before. She is instead distracted when she notices a certain unmasked freshman conversing with yet another familiar underclassman. Alarmed that they might notice her presence, she would have turned to go elsewhere, but a small, solid object pokes against her back. "Nu mişca."
Recognizing the voice and unfamiliar with what the object is, A2 remains still as instructed.
She calmly greets the owner of the voice, "Bună seara, Laurentiu."
"Hmph." Laurentiu remarks, "So you still speak my language after all these years."
"I did spend 8 months with you and Marcu in Romania, after all," A2 retorts with a nostalgic smile.
"Then you should also remember how we work." Laurentiu gets straight to the point, "You know what I am here for."
…
Down on the first floor, Kai watches as Linnea rejoins her friends. To his relief, she had decided to take his advice on consulting the appropriate authorities regarding her roommate's disappearance. Hoping no further danger would befall her, he would have turned to leave and returned to his dorm if not for a brief glimmer of light from a pair of fairy wings on the second landing that caught his eye.
Looking up and searching for the source, he recognizes the objective of his earlier search as she heads for the double doors towards the back of the ballroom.
"A2!" Kai calls her name.
She does not appear to have heard him.
Following behind her, however, is a fully masked figure in a black cape or cloak over a Victorian style suit. Although it was held low, Kai could see he had some kind of unorthodox device pointed at her back, unnoticed by the other attendees near them. Noting the threatening way it had been pointed and the fact that the A2 he knows is unlikely to be roleplaying as someone under threat, he assumes the threat to be very likely real and begins making his way through the crowd to the grand staircase.
After reaching the second level and following them through the double doors to the hallway, to his surprise, neither A2 nor the man following her can be seen. Assuming they must have already turned at the corner a little ways down the hall, he dashes off to search for them.
…
Hearing Kai's footsteps fade down the hall after passing the unlit classroom, A2 verbally signals to Laurentiu, "It should be alright for us to talk now. I've also spoofed the surveillance cameras in this room and the surrounding areas as promised."
In response, Laurentiu releases A2's hands from his grip and repositions himself a little further away from her to give her more room to stand between himself and the classroom wall. Keeping his unusually shaped weapon pointed at her, he asks, "Is that kid someone you care about?"
A2 looks away and but scolds him, "Don't be silly, he's not anyone important to me."
Laurentiu remarks, "Still, you seem to care enough to want to keep him and the look-alike chick safe."
A2 remains silent to this.
He further confronts her, "Earlier, you knew I had the chick's phone so you sent an encoded message to me through it to tell me your sister's goons were planning to get rid of me because the pompous bitch had a change of mind about sending me to kill you. It might not have been mentioned but since the kid and the chick were part of the incident, they were on the same hit list too."
Laurentiu pauses but points out, "It would have been to your advantage to let them silence me, but instead you attached a recording of what you picked up from wiretapping your sister to convince me you were giving me true information. Since you know from our time together before that I would have just gotten away to save myself, you offered to let me come meet you tonight if in exchange I got rid of the hitmen."
"They have nothing to do with the grudge you have against me for what happened to your brother, nor are they guilty of any wrongdoing against my elder sister." A2 explains, "I merely didn't want them to be hurt for no reason. That's all."
"Don't give me that bullshit." Laurentiu tells her as he comes closer to her, poking his weapon against her abdomen.
A2 remains silent and still.
He goes on, "You should know if I wanted to kill you, I only need to bring a weapon that your machines and AI cannot reasonably classify as a weapon. You were correct to deduce the reason I didn't do this from the start was because I wanted to have a chance to speak with you. However, you also knew I would not have agreed with your terms if I was required to come unarmed tonight so you had to lower the security levels enough that if I wanted to, I could kill you and have revenge for my brother."
A2 does not contest that.
"Now then," Laurentiu concludes his argument, "tell me again that you don't care about those two."
Defeated, A2 admits, "You win."
Laurentiu lessens the pressure of his weapon against A2.
He then asks, "So what happened that day while I was gone?"
There is a long silence between them. Although faint, only the sounds of music and partying from the masquerade ball down the hall could be heard
Laurentiu asks again more explicitly, "Why did I come back to find you gone and my brother bloody and dead? I know you wrote that it was your fault on the little piece of paper you left behind, but I want to know what happened."
A2 remains silent still. Laurentiu's reference to that day alone evokes the most violent nightmare of her childhood.
Still, she owed him an answer, one that was long overdue. She especially owed it to him because of her failure to prevent what had resulted...
She begins explaining to him, "The dominant clan came that day."
She pauses, clearly uncomfortable.
Laurentiu lowers his weapon slightly.
She continues, "They got word that a trio of street children living at the abandoned apartments suddenly started living comfortably like those from middle class families."
Sensing her discomfort, Laurentiu asks her instead, "Did they come to rob?"
"No…" A2 answers him. "They came for me."
There is another silence. At this point, Laurentiu realizes for sure his brother's killer was not A2. He lowers his weapon completely.
A2 continues, "By that time, they had already been watching us for a while. Even though I tried to lie to them, they already figured out we were counterfeiting the local currency and with great accuracy too."
"So they wanted to recruit you somehow to copy something more valuable?" Laurentiu guesses.
A2 nods.
"And my brother?" Laurentiu asks.
"He was trying to defend me," A2 replies.
She recalls the sight of Marcu, Laurentiu's younger brother, towering before her with his arms stretched to bar the men from taking her away, how easily his small form was pushed aside, how he retaliated anyway by grabbing the nearest object he could find to use as a weapon, and how it continued to escalate from there…
After a pause, she elaborates, "Because I said 'No' when they asked me to go with them, he tried to drive them away."
Remembering her unchanged fate in a locked, windowless room where she ended up working on counterfeiting foreign currency anyway as ordered by the crime group, A2 repeats the message she had left Laurentiu, "It was my fault that your brother died."
There was neither a need for Laurentiu to ask for more information, nor was there a need for A2 to recount the events in further detail. What A2 did not say, he can figure out based on what he has heard thus far. Although it was dim inside the classroom, he could see a tear gleam in the light from the hall as it rolled down A2's cheek.
He approaches her.
Gently, for the first time since their sudden separation as children, Laurentiu embraces her. The embrace reminded him of their time together when he first ran away from home with her and his brother. Back then, they had not yet found the abandoned apartments so the three of them had to huddle together for warmth at night in lieu of a warm bed or a roof. Even if during all these years, he had thought A2 was the only possible suspect for his brother's murder, she is still one of two people he ever truly considered family at any point in his life.
"You were like a younger sister to me," Laurentiu admits to her. "That's why it shocked me when I saw that note…when everybody in the neighborhood either refused to tell me what happened or said to me that it was you…"
He couldn't say sorry to her for having doubted her. There would be no meaning to it because he did believe the word of others for years and even prepared to kill her.
He could also tell she wanted to place the blame for the incident on herself, that she was still suffering a degree of trauma due to the event. When his captive earlier mentioned her by her old nickname, he realized A2 must have still used the nickname amongst private relations. It was a strong hint that she treasured the bond the three of them shared. After all, it was his brother who gave her the nickname "A2" because he found her real name to be strange and foreign and wanted to make fun of it.
Further recalling his younger brother's fondness of her, he decides to tell a secret they shared as brothers, something his brother might have eventually told her himself had he lived.
"Marcu used talk to me about you a lot when you weren't there to listen," he begins to tell her. "He liked you a lot back then, always admired how smart you were. Once, he even joked that if he ever had to marry when he grows up, he would have picked you to be his bride."
A2 does not verbally respond to that. She sobbed silently, her tears soaking into his clothing.
"Don't cry anymore about him," Laurentiu tells her, letting her go and stepping back a bit. "He didn't die to make you sad, so don't disappoint him."
A2 smiles a bit in response, drying her tears with her hand.
Having reached a resolution in regards to his brother's death, Laurentiu informs her, "I'll be leaving now. Your sister doesn't know about your friends' involvement in this whole shit today so they'll probably be safe. Since I got rid of those goons though, I probably won't be for much longer so I need to go into hiding for a while."
"I see." A2 then asks, "Will you be alright?"
"Yeah," Laurentiu tells her. "There's a high ranking government official who owes me favors back home. He'll help me get another name change and then I'll be leaving the country. Your stupid bitch sister won't find me no matter how much money she spends."
A2 chuckles a little at the comment.
"We won't see each other again for quite some time. It might even be the last since I won't have any reason to visit you," Laurentiu tells her. "If there's anything you still want to tell me, you should say it now."
There is a short silence as Laurentiu waits.
Eventually, A2 responds with a nostalgic smile, "Yeah, there is something I should tell you. I kept it a secret before but…"
…
Kai walks back down the hallway towards the ballroom where the most convenient exit for returning to his dorm is.
He is thoroughly confused. He was sure he saw A2 and the masked man come here through those double doors. Even if he had mistaken someone else for her, how could both of them have vanished without a trace? Every door he tried was locked too and none of the rooms had any indication that anybody was inside…
Nearing the Halloween ball, he begins to hear music and noises from the ball grow in volume. As he is about to pass by the door of the last room before the double doors, he overhears a single line coming from the unlit classroom:
"…For a long time, I had a crush on you."
Kai freezes, recognizing the speaker by her voice.
Was that…A2?
He turns to the door of the unlit classroom.
Was this where she was this whole time he had spent searching for her? Why was there no sign that someone was here when he passed by before? Did she hide from him intentionally? Was she coerced into hiding from him intentionally?
He steps closer.
But what about the line she just said?
A crush on someone…?
A painful, tight feeling begins to grow in his chest…
…
Inside the unlit classroom, A2 continues, "I don't know if it was just because you were the first boy around my age that I got close to or if it was because of your bravery and confidence, but I felt safe when I was with you. It felt like if I stayed with you, everything would turn out fine."
Surprised, Laurentiu does not know how to respond. He's slept with a few hookers in the past but never had it crossed his mind that his adoptive "sister" had feelings for him when they were young.
Regaining composure quickly, he entertains the thought of dating A2 and asks half heartedly, "Do you still feel that way?"
…
Deeming this conversation as one that is none of his business, Kai leaves the area as quickly as he can.
He could feel his chest tightening intensely…
It hurt him to overhear that…but why?
He had thought A2 was in some kind of danger but it turns out, she was just having a friendly private chat with this guy and confessing to him.
Kai pushes open the door at the bottom of the stairwell to exit the building.
Confessing...
But that's not any of his business…is it?
He continues walking.
Come to think of it…that guy's voice…
Isn't he Linnea's kidnapper?
He was aware that A2 knew Linnea's captor but for it to be someone she had a crush on?
The guy's last question also gnawed at him.
'Does she still feel that way?'
He couldn't bear to listen to her response back there. He greatly feared her answer to the question. If he had to hear it, he feared it would devastate him…
In his past, there were situations that better warranted his fear – be it the time when he nearly drowned in Lake Baikal or when he was lured to a rigged island where mad scientists were trying to steal his and his teammates' bit-beasts. Even all the times some 'blader challenged him to a beybattle with Dranzer on the line would be better reasons for him to be afraid, yet he kept a cool head and braved through all of them until the end. So why now…? And why this…?
He feels frustrated…
Confused too…
This wasn't like him.
He thinks back to the last time he felt this way – when he first watched A2 interact with her brother whose relation to her back then was not known to him. Although the intensity of the feeling then was definitely much less, he could tell the nature of the feeling was the same nonetheless.
It was a form of insecurity.
It was the same tight pain in his chest as what he feels now.
But why? Why did seeing A2 interact closely with another man make him uncomfortable? Why did overhearing A2 confess her crush on someone else hurt him so? It wasn't his business. It's even implied in their contract by the last condition that he shouldn't care, shouldn't dig his nose in and should not desire any further attention from her other than when the contract mandates.
He remembers the rude A2 he had first met at the start of the semester – the one who chased a squirrel for a plain looking necklace in nothing but a towel and rain boots, who barged into his room at one thirty in the morning to save her cat from being discovered by campus residential staff. He disliked her at first and could never have cared about her romantic interests then.
But what changed?
They were meant to interact only as tutor and pupil. Yet as time passed, he broke the final condition of their contract. First it was an emergency call for help, then a request for her to help Linnea. Eventually, their extra-contractual interactions became regular and he got to know her both in person and through others around her.
The simple A2 who watched him cook like a curious child and cherished his poorly prepared sushi just because he put effort into it…
The brave A2 who fell sick while at the lake but still tried to shield him from harm with her own body…
The meticulous A2 who wrote and customized his math and physics packets in spite of a wide selection of existing textbooks she could have assigned…
Her intoxicating scent whenever she was close to him, her soft hair that felt like silk to his fingers…
She amazed him at first because of her unparalleled intellect and problem-solving creativity. However, as he got closer to her, she charmed him, intrigued him, and gradually, she became a focus of his thoughts.
Kai stops in the middle of the walkway in the school's gardens.
He questions himself, "Am I…in love with her?"
…
In the now empty classroom, A2 sits on a desk alone.
Moments ago, she had sent Laurentiu off.
She looks at the door through which he left, a little saddened by the fact that she knows she will likely never see him again. He had taught her much in the past and was instrumental to her survival in a foreign land where she neither spoke the local language, nor possessed money and identification documents. Whether as her "brother" or as her first crush, he was someone dear to her, someone she deeply treasured.
She sheds one last tear to lament their parting.
Still, she smiles. Ultimately, she is glad that she got to speak with him one last time. Before today, she didn't think she would ever have the opportunity to do so.
A2 wipes the tear away and gets off the desk.
Exiting the classroom, she heads outside where her faithful robotic servant awaited her. Retrieving her usual handheld device and reactivating the security systems that she deactivated in preparation for Laurentiu's visit, she heads off in the direction of her dorm building.
By now, the moon is high in the sky and even without her advanced device, she would have known that it has gotten late. She can hear the autumn winds howl too. Feeling a gust soon after and shivering a little due to the design of her Halloween outfit, she looks to the building beside her and decides to cut through it to avoid the chilled air. As a long time student on this campus, she knows all the campus shortcuts well and for poor weather, there exists a series of skyways and underground passages connecting campus facilities that students can use to minimize exposure to the elements when getting around the school.
As she arrives on the top floor to use the connecting skyway, she hears a set of footsteps headed upwards.
'That's strange,' she notes.
Normally, this floor is the highest that students are able to access. Above this floor is the roof that's normally off-limits to all but maintenance technicians and other appropriately authorized personnel.
She takes a look at the steel gate that normally bars unauthorized persons from accessing the roof-bound flight of stairs. Observing that the gate is unlocked, she carefully opens the door and climbs it herself, her robotic companion following closely behind her.
Upon emerging onto the roof, she is greeted with a threat, "D-Don't come any closer!"
A2 turns to the distressed but familiar female speaker. Believing that they had met a few times prior, she attempts to ascertain the other girl's identity, "Sera?"
"A-A2?" Sera backs up against the edge of the roof.
A2 then notices some papers in Sera's hand. Unable to see what they are clearly in the dark, she turns to her mobile terminal and uses it to connect to RE:Mordred's visual sensors for a better look. Upon enlargement of RE:Mordred's enhanced version of the image, A2 immediately notices what looks like a medical or clinical symbol on it. Improving the clarity of the image some more, she finds that they are in fact diagnosis papers for a much stigmatized acquired illness.
Fully understanding why Linnea's roommate is here on the roof now, a saddened expression appears on A2's face. "I see, so that's why you're up here…"
If you are confused at any point in this chapter, feel free to ask in a review. I know this chapter is a huge info dump.
As usual, good or bad, let me know what you think.
Cya next chapter!