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The scent of those hallways do massage my mind so deeply, I almost stretch down and sleep. At the same time, it's making me feel smaller and younger… especially with my brother walking on my left. For a moment, I couldn't even think the reason why I'm here… and frankly, I didn't want to. Not yet, at least.
Those smooth sofas in the middle of those open rooms with a small table in the middle, where I could still mentally see magazines smelling fine wood. The air kinda feels blurry… suddenly, a stream of voices just dominated my ears.
Voices starring me and Rof. Well, I'm sure my voice had a higher pitch… but I'm not hearing that in this one. Almost like I'm speaking to my brother right in this very moment, mentioning school lessons, my desire to be perfect…
… I felt embarrassed. I-I wanted to hide somewhere for a moment! … but looking at my brother… … I didn't felt that way, anymore. Actually, I… I couldn't help, but smile. Smile at all those voices I'm hearing and this blurry-like view… and now, I wish for this sensation to remain. Is there a way to do so?
… sigh, the elevator music has new tracks I never heard of before. It sounds cheerful with the rhythm… but I couldn't smile at that. I turned over the mirror… and there I was, Mirii Hanache in person. A girl with superior intelligence, charisma and perfection. That's what I'm.
… yes, that's truly what I'm. I was just a little Squid before… and now, I evolved into this perfect form. I can understand many things thanks to my brilliant brain. All I know is that hiding is never the solution for anything. Especially behind non-real sensations caused by just mere mind works.
This building is just the starting point, the beginning of a legend. Returning to a starting point would only prove fear in a person… except when you want to remember the basics you once have forgotten.
"… and that's why I'm here, brother." Mirii was sitting on a white office chair, with her right leg over her left one. "I need your guidance to understand the perfect strategy to utilize, for solving Project Neo once and for all."
Her hands were down, her eyebrows were a bit lowered, her eyes were directly over the man, which hands were clasped on his desk. An unwrapped plastic paper, painted in orange, was resting on the desk next to a small clear bowl full of wrapped ones: they had an orange printed on them.
Rof flattens his mouth, still staring at Mirii down.
"… I have no words." He shakes his head very slowly. "I would never expect her to hide such information."
"Same for me, brother." She lowers her right leg, as her back bends forward. "But how I'm going to let her talk? Should I utilize the tactics you usually do during a trail?"
"Depends." He retreats his hands, as his back falls on his seat's backrest. "Depends from you, Mirii."
Her eyebrows moved up, as her mouth downturns a bit.
"… I don't know, brother… I-I never imagined myself interrogating my mother for different matters such as this one." Her irises moved to her right. "Besides, I fear she wouldn't react too well about this…"
"No, Mirii." He closes his eyes for a moment. "You shouldn't fear that woman. If you let that emotion get the best of you, criminals would get away by just a stare and not a fight."
"R-right!" Mirii looks back at Rof, as she nods while sweat jumped out of her forehead a bit. "I-I need to look at the situation, without any influence…!"
Her irises went to the right.
"But then, there is still the problem of her refusal." Her irises went back ahead, as her eyebrows rose and her hands clasped. "That night, she refused to reveal why she knows anything about Project Neo. Is there something else I should do, brother?"
The man folds his arms, as his head lowered down and his eyes closed.
"… yes, maybe." He opens his eyes, raising his head. "Do you remember what's my finishing move in my trails?"
"I do remember, brother." Mirii rose her head, as her right hand caresses her right tentacle. "Almost at the end, you would show the definitive evidence which forces the criminals to confess right on the spot."
The man nods, while smiling.
"I think that might work for your case too, Mirii."
"But I don't have any of that, brother." She sighs. "I don't even know where to start searching…"
Her head went down.
"This is truly an enigma: I feel so useless without any possibility to"
"Here, take this."
The girl quickly rose her head, with her mouth open: her eyes were seeing a gold key on Rof's left palm. He was smiling.
"What I'm seeing, Rof?" Her right forefinger points at the key.
"The key to success." He chuckles. "Actually, this key will make that woman talk if you show it to her."
"Why?" Mirii bends forward, frowning.
"I don't know: one day she called me for help, because her key went missing. She mentioned it was important, too. Just the other day, I found her key laying under her bed… but I decided to keep it with me."
"What?!" Mirii stands up, frowning. "How could you have chosen this awful path, Rof?! That key might be truly important for her!"
"It is but not as a symbolic item." He clenches his left fist, as the key fell on his desk. "So, all you have to do is to show this key to her and force her to confess."
Mirii's eyebrows were up, her mouth opened.
"… no…" She shakes her head a bit. "… no, I can't threat my own mother…"
"Mirii, she deserves a lesson." Rof frowns a bit. "I still didn't forget what she did to you in my office, that day… making you cry, just because you missed some days of school. Does she demonstrated to show care for her daughter?!" He frowns even more, as his right fist slammed the desk.
"Rof, don't get yourself captured by meaningless rage!" Mirii lowers her head, frowning. "I can't see my modest brother turning into a mindless monster."
"… sigh, I'm sorry Mirii." He stands up, with his eyebrows up, as he starts walking towards the rightmost window. "It's just…" He lowers his head to the right. "Her educational method is so wrong on many levels."
"If anything, she taught me a valuable lesson." Mirii folds her arms. "Somewhere in this world, there are people who don't have pity." She rose her head. "We must be prepared to properly face those fiends, without relying on emotions."
Rof rose his head back, still facing the skyscrapers in the distance and the park just below.
"I can see that… but I don't necessarily agree." He turns left, in front of Mirii, as his right hand waves up and down. "If we all think to be enemies towards each other, the world would be an endless warzone of hate and prejudices."
Mirii opened her mouth.
"I met people with the worst faces, Mirii." He walks towards the girl.
His right hand pets Mirii's left tentacle.
"Yet, they were more gentle than those ones who pretended to be nice all around. In fact, those were the real criminals most of the time." He chuckles, as he lowers his head to the left. "As I always say to myself: the most kind seasheep is the most cruel seawolf."
His head returns pointing at Mirii.
"What I'm trying to say Mirii is that the world can't be resumed in just a few words. The only thing you can truly trust are the basics." He smiles. "They are never wrong in the long run."
"I comprehend, brother." She smiles. "Although, I don't think that using such extreme method would be the best solution."
"… well, it does look rude…" He turns behind, walking towards his office chair. "But try seeing the whole situation from this point of view."
He sits down, with his hands in front of his face standing in a sideways position.
"She's hiding you vital information… she is not acting honestly in your regards."
"But she might think that not knowing anything about Project Neo, would mean to not get any unwanted attention." The girl sits back on the office chair, with her hands on her legs.
"Yet, she knows something about this project despite the fact no television shows ever mentioned it." His hands rest on his desk, with the palms down, while he lifts his back. "She even knows the consequences about what happens to people, if they know anything about Project Neo! Where she heard those information in the first place?!"
Mirii bites her own lips.
"Th-that's a good question…" Her hands grasped her own legs.
"Also, her own explanation is as vague as a normal fog." He frowns a bit. "People talked about you, yet they only sent a woman who just sent you a menace? If knowing Project Neo would result in such negative situation, then why that woman didn't try to just splat you on the spot?"
"Nnnnggghhhh!" Mirii's back fell on the backrest, as her irises shrunk and her teeth gritted. "How could I overlooked such important detail…?!"
"And the being an Agent element: I'm surprised she didn't force you to join the Inkopolis Security Team. She never mentioned anything like that before… she never told me that being an Agent was her dream job." He closes his eyes for a moment. "… just why she sealed this information for such a long time?"
"… because Agents are part of Project Neo…?" Mirii wasn't breathing, as her hands grasped the chair arms.
Rof snapped his fingers loudly, as he smiles.
"Bingo. Since you asked Project Neo right away at our mother, she assumed you had a role disconnected with the project… that's why she revealed her wish."
"But she could reveal that at us, without saying a word about Project Neo!" Mirii bends forward, with her eyebrows up.
"No, that would have backfired her in the long run." He shakes his head, while closing his eyes.
"How?!" Her hands were pulling her own tentacles a bit. "It's just an insignificant wish from the past!"
"Mirii… honestly, answer me this." He points the girl with his right forefinger. "Where this perfection thing originated from?"
The girl stared down at Rof from a while.
"… from that woman, Mirii." He nods, as his irises look up. "You are fascinated by her perfection theories so much, you wanted to follow them precisely." His right arm rests on his desk. "Your goal was to hold a company, which is our mother's current job. What would have been your reaction, if you knew about her wish?"
"Well… admittedly…" She sighs, as her irises bounced to her right. "I would attempt to become an Agent too…"
"And then, it would have been more probable for you to know anything about Project Neo. In other words, Mirii…" He stands up, as his hands slammed his own desk. "She has a specific reason for sealing that information. If you think about it, the answer is obvious!"
"No…" Mirii pushes the backrest, as her eyes gradually grew and her irises shrunk. "N-no…"
"Yes, Mirii…" He thrusts his left forefinger over the girl. "Our mother is truly an active part of this project!"
"NOOOOOOOOOO!" Mirii stands up, as her face was frowning a lot and her hands were pulling her tentacles a lot.
… Project Neo… the more I know it, the more I regret its existence. I have never seen such phenomenon invading my life so aggressively… but why this is happening?! What is Project Neo to begin with?! … this building is truly the starting point: this is where I have the occasion to learn its goal.
I have this key in my hand… and despite the fact I don't approve this strategy, it doesn't seem I have much of a choice: my mother must be honest in front of me, if she wants me to return the key. At this point, I don't care about any of those menaces surrounding my ears: learning the truth will help me understand how to stop Project Neo and save all those innocent people.. especially Hunley.
For now, I must wait this evening since my mother always returns around that time. I can't interrupt her job, since being a president corporation requires the most focus someone can get. It seems I have to get back to the Headquarters…
"Wait a moment, Mirii!"
The girl turns to her left, as her eyes were staring at Rof which was standing still: the Inklings were near the door.
"Yes?" She rose her head.
"You said that popular Turf War players were the cavies for Project Neo's experiments, right?" He smiles, as his right hand entered inside his right pocket.
"Correct." She nods, smiling too.
"Then, if you have the time… you should explore the park in front of this building: there is a gang which name is Fresh Park. Their leader is a S+ rank player, nicknamed Master Squid." His head turned to the right, staring at the leftmost window.
"I see." Her eyes squeezed. "What about the player?"
"Well, occasionally I would walk around the park and hear some members talking with each other, about their own gang." He returns his head in front of Mirii. "One time, a young woman said something about Master Squid going on television."
"Hmm… in other words, he might be one of Project Neo's cavies?" Mirii folds her arms.
"Not just him: Fresh Park seems to have around 5 members with the S+ rank. Why don't you investigate about the situation with your friends?" His right hand waves up and down. "Maybe you can find more about Project Neo."
"… I will." Mirii rose her head. "I can't access that park, though… … there is only one thing to do, then."
Mirii opens the door, as she waves her left hand over Rof and walks out of the room.
"I'm going to send someone else there… mainly two Inklings: Bars and Grina."