Here we go.
Cover Art: Kirire
Chapter 60
Blake took the time in the back of the cab to catch her breath. The squad from Atlas shouldn't have any idea where she was going, though they might check the Containments Office. Blake would flip if they harmed Timothy, but she didn't think they'd dare go there. It was one thing to try and abduct and question her, but invading one of ARC Corp's offices would invite an immediate response from the other offices. They might not like Jaune, but they would side with him to punish someone going against the company.
She wanted to call Jaune again and see how things were going with Ironwood, but he was probably still in that meeting, and would text or call her when he was done. For now, she had to check the broadcast station again. It was at that exact moment that her taxi driver decided she, slumped against the seats, obviously wanted some light conversation.
"So, I don't know why but you look kind of familiar."
Blake's first and most worrying thought was that someone from the White Fang had recognised her. Then, she realised that was not only ridiculous but probably profiling on her part. "Uh. I was at a convention a few days ago," she admitted, grimacing. "Maybe there?"
"No. No. I think… Have you been on TV? Are you an actress?"
"Eh?"
If someone asked that normally then she'd have thought they were flirting with her, but the man had that kind of tone to his voice that suggested he was genuinely trying to place her. "Yeah, yeah. I'm sure I've seen your face – that suit, too."
Blake's boon kicked in almost immediately. "He has watched Tomorrow's News and recognises us from there."
Oh, right. And crap. "Ah." Blake laughed awkwardly. "I can't really say…"
"Why? Oh!" The man winked in the rearview mirror. "I get it! It's not yet released, is it? I remember now. it's that Tomorrow's News thing. Lisa Lavender, right?" He looked ahead, chuckling as he drove. "Some of my mates were asking about that. One of them said it was probably some ARG trailer for a new movie or series. Is that what it is?"
It was better he believed that than the truth, wasn't it? It suddenly dawned on her that the "covering up" of this anomaly might be just as much work as the containing of it. Most of the world was, by now, aware of Tomorrow's News. Blake winced but hid it behind a weak laugh.
"Ah, well, I'm not really legally allowed to say. Contractual obligations."
"Oh, I get you." He laughed too. "A nod is as good as a wink to me, young lady. I'll keep quiet to my friends as well."
Oh, goodie. There were going to be rumours from this. Well, that was future her's problem to deal with. Blake opened the door after it pulled up at the broadcast station and paid the faunus a generous tip through the window. There were still a suspicious number of cars and well-dressed men around, but, again, they didn't bother her. They were after Lisa. Inside, the receptionist looked up in horror.
"Despairing at yet another person wanting to get in. Sweating profusely. Shaking slightly. Has been threatened within the last hour, probably after being offered bribes and having people try to sneak in under fake pretences. Is visibly nervous and keeps looking to the security guard nearby to remind herself she isn't alone."
"I'm here to see-"
"Mr. Wade. I know. Half the city has come demanding to see him. He's in a meeting with the Chief of Police. Fifth floor."
"Is he under arrest?"
"I couldn't say."
"She doesn't think he is. The police have been here a while and they haven't dragged him out. It's probably an interview."
On their rogue officer, no doubt. Blake wasn't sure if the Chief knew about ARC Corp or not. They probably did, at least so they wouldn't run into accidents like arresting Jaune for being at a crime scene or interfering in an ARC Corp case. They were technically doing that right now, but as long as they were after their traitor and not Lisa, it wasn't too much a conflict of interest.
"I'll leave Mr. Wade to it, then," said Blake, watching the woman sag in relief. "I'll be headed up to the broadcasting floor. I have my lanyard from earlier." Blake showed it. "Will that still work?"
"Yes, of course. We reset the codes every night so you're still good. Thank you for being understanding."
"No problem. I'm sorry for how overworked you are today."
The receptionist sighed heavily. "I need the weekend…"
Blake smiled and waved at her as she stepped through and into the elevator, then rode it up. She only needed Wade to show her to the studio Lisa used to use, but anyone else could do that as well. Once she reached floor five, she snatched the arm of the very first person she saw, presented her lanyard – which still claimed she was Vale Police: Special Investigations – and asked him which studio set Lisa Lavender used to use.
"Uh. It's a shared set, ma'am." The man was nervous, but not overly afraid. He knew he hadn't done anything wrong. "We use the same set for the 6, 8 and 10 O'clock news. The morning ones have their own set for guests and interviews, but the evening news is always just anchors, sports and weather."
"What slot did Lisa have before she was set to the late-night shift?"
"It was the 6 O'clock slot, ma'am."
Both were in the same studio, then. That was convenient. "Take me there. I need to have a look around."
The man nodded and called out to his colleagues that he had to show the police around, and that they should get on without him for a bit. There were a few raised hands to show they heard, but things looked busy in the studio. Tense, too. It was probably a relief to them that Mr. Wade was stuck in a police interview.
"Did you work with Lisa Lavender?" asked Blake, as the man took her through a few corridors.
"Ah. Technically? I worked in the control rooms – editing, effects and broadcast. So, I worked on her slots, but I didn't interact with her much. Met her once or twice, but we usually interacted through several screens. Someone who did interact with her a lot was her cameraman, though. Not the ones in the studio, but the one who she'd take out for work in the field. They were pretty close. I can ask him to come by and answer some questions if you like?"
"That'd be appreciated."
"I'll do that. Anyway, this is the studio."
He pushed open a door that opened onto a large room. Most of it was un-used, empty space, perfect for cameras and crews to move around without tripping on one another. The back wall was all screens joined together so that they could play big logos or have images and videos played on them, and in front of that was a raised platform with a long desk and several chairs behind it. Above that were harsh lights.
It was as typical a set as she'd ever seen, and it was familiar to her too - probably because of her late-night habit of letting the news lull her off to sleep. If she imagined a camera only showing the desk and up, and the screens behind a pale blue colour, then it was a perfect mirror image of the backdrop for Tomorrow's News. Lisa Lavender had filmed it here. Or, more specifically, the anomalous activity had happened here. Blake doubted there'd have been any filming because the people working here would have caught that.
"Before you go," she said, stopping the man at the door. "What happened yesterday with the 10 O'Clock news. I assume Lisa never showed for it. Was the studio empty?"
"Yes and no. Lisa didn't show, but we always have a backup in case, you know? Traffic happens, and accidents and sickness too. Lisa's backup was in here ready to present the news instead of her, but that's when that funky broadcast played over the top. What we were filming never even got shown. It was weird."
"Thank you. Can you get her cameraman for me, then?"
"Sure. I'll send him without me if that's okay?"
Blake nodded distractedly and the man left to find the person. Learning that this studio had been in use, even if it was never seen, nixed her idea that Lisa was somehow appearing here and using the equipment via anomalous means. That was one more idea down the drain. The important thing was to think of that as another lead crossed off, narrowing them down, rather than to see it as a waste of time.
It only took a few minutes for a new man to arrive. He was hefty and overweight, wearing a white shirt that threatened to pop its buttons, and he had a shaved head. He was scowling.
"Is annoyed – not necessarily at us, but in general. The day has not been going well for him. Interestingly, he doesn't look worried about the missing Lisa Lavender, suggesting their relationship was only ever business-related."
That might have made him a suspect if this were a murder case. Luckily for him, it wasn't.
"Hello. Are you Lisa's cameraman?"
"Yeah. Roger. You… uh… wanted to talk with me?"
"I did, yes." Blake stepped up to him, noting his nervousness. "You're not in any trouble, Roger. I'm just trying to piece together an accurate picture of the events happening, and the context I'm missing is what Lisa was like as a person. I was hoping you could tell me about her."
"Her? As in, personality wise?"
"Yes. What she was like on the job and so on. I'm told you'd know best since you spent the most time working with her."
"Huh. Okay." He relaxed a little, crossing his arms and resting his weight on his left foot. "So, I guess the first thing you had to know about Lisa was that she was a career woman first, and everything else second. And I mean everything. The first time I met her, she told me she needed me to be ready at all times of the day, and that I'd have to be ready to move whenever. Also made it damn clear I'd be doing everything she said."
"Was she controlling?"
"Kind of. I got the feeling it was only ever with work. If we were out at a crime scene then she'd dictate everything to me – where I stand, where I look, when I film. It got better as I learned the shots she liked, and then she eased off. It was always tense, though. Lisa was a damn fiend when it came to a story. Dogged in a way few others were. Always had to be the first to land it, always had to be the first to report. There were times it was a little… questionable."
"How so?"
He looked away uncomfortably. "I remember once time we were covering a fire that just happened at a building. Real bad. People screaming, crying – and Lisa kept urging me to focus on them. Get those shots, she'd say. They'll eat that up." His lips twisted, and she didn't need her boon to know he hadn't enjoyed that. "And then when a firefighter came out carrying a small girl, Lisa told me to get in the way – get a frontal shot of the man rushing to the ambulances, and I mean get in the way. Slow him down. Make sure he was running at the camera all cinematic-like. I said no," he admitted, "And Lisa cussed me out for, like, an hour afterwards. Wouldn't even talk to me for two days. Said we could have had the perfect story."
Yikes. There was a lot of negative opinions of people working in the media, journalists especially, and it sounded like Lisa had been one of the types that justified those opinions. "Is it always like that? With other people, I mean."
"It's always a bit rough," he admitted. "You report on the news, but you don't make it, and that sometimes means you're standing around watching while others are acting. It eats at you. And it's undeniable that tragedy sells. You're there, reporting on a car accident, and even as you're keeping the camera on the reporter, you can see the emergency services zipping up body bags. It's grim work sometimes, and it can feel dehumanising, but that's not our fault." His voice rose a little. "It's the viewers who dictate what we cover. It's ratings. If people would stop getting so fucking turned on by violence and tragedy then we wouldn't cover it. Most of us would much rather be visiting a dog shelter and being attacked by puppies than we would a traffic accident surrounded by crying people and dead bodies."
"Honestly, a lot of our reporters need to take breaks," he continued. "The work gets to you. It's tragedy, tragedy, tragedy, and every time you try and report on something genuinely like a charity initiative, everyone fucking tunes off. Bastards will whine and complain about how we only ever cover bad news, but it's not our choice."
"Very stressed. Needs time off himself. Found Lisa objectionable because she didn't quake at the tragedies in the same way he did. Doesn't like Lisa Lavender. Is glad she's gone, but also feels guilty for feeling that way."
Blake sighed. "I'm sorry you had to go through all that," she said. "I won't keep you much longer, but I have to ask one last thing. How did Lisa react when she found out she was being pushed back to a later slot in the day?"
Roger laughed. "How did she react? Like an Ursa. That's how she reacted." He waved his hands in the air. "Went completely feral. Lost her damned mind. Screamed at Wade, at the producers, at the other anchors, at me – and I don't even film the studio. I'm an outdoors cameraman. I didn't have shit to do with her falling ratings."
"Do you know why they were falling?"
"I don't know specifically, but I have my suspicions."
"Oh?"
"It's nothing you could make a lead out of, I'm afraid," he said, shrugging. "I just think she desensitised her audience. Lisa knew the big stories were the tragic ones, so she always led with them, hammered them home, hyped up the horror and the reactions she'd put on." He touched his cheeks. "Big tears, sniffles, the lot. It worked at first. Made her seem like the sympathetic tearjerker, and people were touched by how affected she was by it all." He shook his head. "But that never lasts. News is like porn in a way. You get a mental thrill at watching it – whether that's good or bad – but, just like porn, it can end up messing with your head. Making you seek more extreme kinds, and not getting the same dopamine rush as you used to. You know what I mean?"
"I'm familiar with the theory."
"Yeah. I think it's that. I think Lisa hyped up the tragedies so much that they just stopped having an effect on the audience. People got bored, started to look elsewhere. And sometimes there just aren't any big events going on, you know? Vale isn't some dystopia where a serial killer pops up every other week. Sometimes you don't have any exciting stories, but since she made those the foundation which she won her position off, well, she just wasn't good at other things. Never bothered to learn. Like a boxer who only ever learned to jab, then ran into someone who could block that."
"Would you say she was narcissistic?"
He hummed. "Maybe a little? I can't say for what she was like outside work, but she was definitely ego-centric here. Super competitive, always had to be number one, and… well, she wasn't the type to sabotage others. She had that going for her. But she'd really seethe if someone else got higher ratings than her. It really got to her. She had to be number one. Had to be. That's why being busted to late-night news hit her so hard."
"Thank you," said Blake. "That's enough for me. Thank you for your time."
Roger nodded and left her to the studio, closing the door behind him.
"Lisa's mental turmoil may have been enough to cause her to change in the same way it did to the person in San Valeo. That was longer, with a suicide attempt being the final trigger. Did Lisa try and end her life? Or was it enough to see another person on her news slot, and to realise she had been replaced?"
The boon had no answer because she had no answer, and it was only sharpening the mental faculties that Blake already possessed. There was still a missing piece to the puzzle, and Blake had the sinking feeling it was back at Lisa's house. That was a problem, since the Atlas squad had caught her from leaving that, and they were almost certainly monitoring the place. Blake drew her scroll and made the call. Jaune answered within a second.
"It's Blake. I'm safe and back at the station, but I think there's another lead at Lisa's place I might have missed. Problem is, that's where the Atlas squad caught me last time. Or leaving it. Has there been any progress with Ironwood?"
"If by progress you mean him disavowing any knowledge of what is clearly his people, then yes. It's the usual political bullshit. I threatened to call my father and make him aware and Ironwood continued to play stupid, so I'm about to do just that."
Blake grimaced. "Will that prompt them to come to Vale?"
"No. They'll set their sights on Atlas instead. Contact the Council there and lean on them. It ought to work fairly well now that we have a big stake in the dust market. The Fist Office might even pay them a visit to see if they're not using other anomalies that they shouldn't, like they clearly want to with this one."
"That's good and all, but it doesn't help the immediate problem."
"I know. I'll meet you at Lavender's place. We'll go in together. Since Ironwood is disavowing them, these people are to be considered armed terrorists as far as I'm concerned. There's been no reported break-in at our office. I've got the place on a remote alarm. Atlas might take risks, but they know better than to touch an office." He laughed. "We have Coral to thank for that. If they'd ever been dumb enough to break into her office, they'd have spilled anomalies out onto their streets."
"Jaune, I don't think the two of us will make a difference."
"I know. That's why I'll be bringing someone along with me." Far from smug, he sounded nervous. "Try not to freak out. I'll meet you a block away and we'll go the rest on foot."
He hung up.
"His wording is ominous and suggests we will not be pleased by who he brings."
"Thank you, boon," said Blake, voice full of sarcasm. "I couldn't possibly have figured that one out on my own."
/-/
They communicated by scroll to meet at a spot a healthy distance away from Lisa's home, and sure enough Jaune had brought help. Help that was, at best, five feet tall, with mismatched eyes, pink and brown hair, and a grin that was just a little too "amused" with everything it saw to register as human. The eyes locked onto her, and Blake shivered as the girl blinked, and the colours of her irises switched. More than that, one of them had an elongated pupil, like a cat, while the other had two pupils. And then she blinked again and the effect was gone.
"Is not human."
Thank you, boon. Again, you're being very obvious.
"Is not human – is not physically real." That was new, and Blake stared a little harder. "Her edges flicker, and the sound of glass keeps echoing in my head the longer I look at her. There are inconsistencies. Always inconsistencies. An eye colour change, a pupil shape, too many teeth, too few teeth, too many eyes. Too quick to react to, but there, like a holographic shape flickering in and out of existence. IT struggles at times to hold to the shape IT has chosen. IT finds the human form silly, but IT finds amusement in moving among human life. IT does not fear you or Jaune, and IT is here because helping you sounded fun."
Blake's head ached.
"iT kNoWs WhAt wE aRe DoInG. iT iS rUnNiNg A tOnGuE oF iMpOsSiBlE pRoPoRtIoNs OvEr My MiNd To TaStE mY tHoUgHtS."
"Ugh." Blake cupped her face and pulled her eyes away. The pain lessened. Looking at Neo, or the thing pretending to be Neo, hurt, but she already couldn't remember what it was she'd seen. She wasn't even sure how she had, since anomalous powers shouldn't have worked on an anomalous being.
"The boon is anomalous but only pieces together what I am already thinking. My human mind perceived, and the boon put together, thus bypassing the limitation. Of course, my human mind might be incorrect, and the boon can be misled by faulty information."
"Blake?" Jaune was there, with a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?"
"Y… Yes. Just a headache. Today's been a mess." Blake didn't look at the girl-monster. "W-Will Neo be helping us search?"
"No. Neo has agreed to stand watch and guard while we enter the apartment. If these Atlas agents try to enter then she will…" He trailed off. "If they do, then she will deal with them."
Oh boy. Blake didn't want to know what IT would do to them, and she had a feeling that finding out would break her mind even without the boon trying to make sense of things. There were some things that you just weren't supposed to know, and she was quite happy imagining that the abyss was empty and not staring back up at her.
"Let's just go inside."
Blake was the first to enter, back through the door she'd broken earlier. The house was quiet, but things had been moved about. That was obvious the second she entered. Atlas had been here. And maybe even the gangs had been here, but she doubted Atlas would let them get a leg up on them. Jaune came in behind her, and then Neo, somehow fitting through the door despite being so monstrously large. Its millions of eyes and thousands of tentacles bunched and squeezed together, sliding inside with a pop that echoed in Blake's skull. Blake shook her head and looked again.
The five-foot girl tilted her head and smiled inquisitively at Blake.
"A-Anyway," she said, eyes tearing away before they could hurt. "I think Lisa transformed in her home after watching someone have her slot on TV. Her cameraman told me she was a complete egomaniac and had to be the number one reporter. It was a need for her to be successful."
"Could it have been about the money? Financial issues?"
"No. There was a letter from her boss telling her she'd be paid the same for the next three months, and that she could earn her spot back. I think this was the first time she ever struggled at work and it broke her. Lisa had this self-image of herself as the perfect anchor and reporter. Always the best, always high ratings, always the centre of attention. When that went wrong, she didn't know how to cope and snapped. I think Tomorrow's News is a direct reference to that. Lisa was always chasing a story and wanted to be the first to break it, and now she is. Also, did you notice that while she reported on other things, the main story was always about herself and us hunting her?"
Jaune's eyes widened slightly. "Because she wants to be the centre of attention, so the biggest story would obviously be related to her. Damn." He smiled at her. "Look at you becoming the superstar investigator all of a sudden. I'm feeling redundant."
"Oh, be quiet." Blake laughed, but also flushed a little. It was good to feel like she was on top of a case for once, and to know she was getting better at all this. Being recognised for that didn't hurt either. "It's about time I got used to this, and it's a change not to have some monster actively trying to kill us. Anyway, I think she transformed here, which is why all her food and drink was abandoned. The thing is, she obviously vanished or moved, but people around would have seen a monstrous entity walking away, and every human-to-anomaly transformation so far has been pretty distinctive physically. Except yours."
"Even mine is distinctive when it starts. I'm just in a dormant state right now. You're right, though. Lisa transformed but she looks human on the broadcast, but a news anchor has to look their best. They have to look presentable. It wouldn't make sense for her anomalous power to help her deliver prophetic news if it also freaked people out." Jaune looked about. "But if you're saying she didn't leave the house, but she still presented the news, then where is she?"
"If I'm right then I think-"
The front door slammed open. Footsteps echoed loudly. "Down!" shouted a male voice. "Down on the grou-"
He got no further.
The world warped. A sound like a foghorn, but never changing in tone, echoed in Blake's head and her vision swam. The walls melted, running like treacle down into a mess on the floor, revealing a barren ocean of stars. Her knees hit the carpet, but the carpet was alive and writhing, little tendrils reaching up to hook into her trousers, even as the fabric she was wearing hooked into her skin. It screamed. The fabric screamed.
"IT IS OVER. IT IS ALL OVER. THE WORLD IS OVER. NOTHING EXISTS. ALL EXISTS. WE DO NOT EXIST. WE ARE BETTER DEAD AND GONE THAN TO KNOW THE TRUTH THAT WE DO NOT—" Blake screamed, her head pounding. She was aware, dimly, that she wasn't the only one screaming. Hers was in pain, Jaune's as well, but there were other screams eclipsing theirs.
And they were filled with primal terror.
And then it ended.
The walls, little more than pools of melted wax on the floor, snapped back up into physical structures, and the entire building shook like it had been struck. Breath exploded in Blake's lungs, for a moment making her forget to breathe. Jaune rolled against her side, panting for breath. The windows on the house were cracked. Every pane of glass was now opaque thanks to the millions of white lines cracking across them. None had shattered, but they all looked like they might do so at the faintest touch.
There was crying out in the hallway. Sobbing. Blake looked, and wished she hadn't, for the thing that called itself Neo had come walking around the corner with its eyes closed and its mouth open. There were rows of white teeth in that smile. Millions of them.
"T… Thank you, Neo," groaned Jaune. He was polite, and Blake had a feeling that was a very good way to act around her. "I… I take it that was the people from Atlas?" A cheery nod was their answer. "T—Then thank you again. You've more than earned your pay. B—Blake." He swallowed to stop himself stammering. "What was it you were about to say?"
"That," gasped Blake, pointing. There was only one piece of glass in the whole building that had not broken. As glasses shattered in their cupboards, and the windows cracked, and even the clock on the wall had become unreadable, there was one thing that remained.
The television in Lisa's home was in perfect shape.
"It's connected to the network," said Blake, still reeling and still on her side. Her legs didn't want to work just yet. "Coda said there was nothing being broadcast out from the towers, but that's because the show was being sent from the television, back through the system, and to every other television set in the city. T—That's why Lisa wasn't seen coming out her home. She never left."
Jaune crawled to the television set and turned it on. The screen fizzled a little, but then turned to a picture of the same studio that Lisa had been in before. It was empty, but only for a moment. Lisa Lavender walked on. Not to address them, she didn't even notice them. Lisa walked by, humming happily and looking over some papers in her hand. She was smiling, and clearly excited, eyes shining bright as she looked at the news that had not yet happened, which she would soon be able to read out to her adoring fans. Jaune turned off the television.
"Good work. Let's… Let's get this out of here and back to the office. I think we'll need to transport it out the city to stop it being connected. Unplugging it probably isn't going to work if it's using anomalous means."
"Yeah. I… Yeah, that sounds like a good idea."
At least they'd found it.
"Thou has indeed," a feminine voice whispered into her ear. "And thou recollect the price that was bargained for mine aid, yes?"
Now…? Right now…? Blake felt the book warm on her hip, and then felt Neo's eyes on it as well. She could feel a chill from the book, not necessarily as if it were afraid, but cautious. Still, she could feel its grip on her like icy thorns running through her veins.
"Mine price is demanded now, child of fauna. Test not mine patience."
Damn it. Damn it all. Jaune wasn't even paying attention to her, which was fair since they had the anomaly. It was just a kiss. Blake groaned and pushed herself up onto her knees, not even sure why it wanted her to do it now. Her body was an aching mess, her mind too, but she supposed that it wouldn't be stealing the bad, only the good. And worse still, it'd be leaving her to deal with the embarrassment after.
Maybe I can claim Neo rattled my head and I wasn't thinking straight.
"Jaune. Um. Come here for a second."
"Huh?" He glanced over, then slid across the floor. "What is it? Are you oka-mph!"
Her lips found his at the same time her hands found his cheeks. Quick and without warning, that was the plan, and she drew her lips away a nanosecond after touching them.
Or…
She tried to.
"Silly child of fauna who thinketh to fool me," purred the lady by the lake. "Did I not make it clear that the lips upon his would not be thine, but my own? Thou art still so young and naïve when it comes to striking a deal."
Blake couldn't move.
But her body did.
Her tongue pushed into Jaune's mouth and her body surged forward, knocking him to the ground and mounting him in the same motion. He lay there, stunned, eyes wide open as her tongue ran circles against his own and explored every part of his mouth.
And then her teeth found his lower lip and bit.
"Hngh!" Jaune's eyes clenched shut and he bucked against her, trying to force her off. Blake tasted blood as it splashed across her tongue, and then his hands struck her shoulders and knocked her back. Blake hit the floor, gasping, as her body was returned to her control. "Argh!" cried Jaune, hands over his mouth. "What the fuck, Blake!?"
Her eyes found his.
There was blood running between his fingers. The same blood on her lips and tongue.
"Neo made me do it!" she yelped.
Neo raised one of her many – two; there were only two – eyebrows.
"I don't care…" Jaune closed his eyes. "F-Fetch me a towel from the kitchen. I need to staunch this." He eyed her warily, as if he was afraid she'd attack him. "And we will talk about this later. Once we've dealt with Lisa." He stood and stumbled away to find a sink to wash his lip in.
Blake didn't know if she should feel mortified or horrified.
"Thy paramour's blood tasted simply delicious. I can't wait to try some more…"
Neo simply chuffed in silence, enjoying the show put on by the silly little mortals.
Blake needs to pay more attention to the specific words used in a deal, just as Ironwood needs to learn not to mess with things he cannot understand.
Next Chapter: 10th July
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