Sunday, September 23, 1349
The man in the forefront suddenly took a step back as the ones in the back stepped forward.
Kiyotaka who saw the man sensing his malicious intent reined in his ravenous thoughts of looting the three fellows in front of him and focused on the matter at hand. That was the matter of two men charging at him with metal rebars.
Just as the two men with ugly, patched-up faces got near and swung in tandem, Kiyotaka ducked underneath the incoming attack. Just as he did, one of them had recovered and thrashed at him.
Kiyotaka was just a moment late as the rebar hit him in the shoulder. The moment it hit him; Kiyotaka's brows pinched into a confused grimace. Disregarding that, he quickly jumped back and hit the sewer cap which suddenly broke.
Bending down, he quickly picked up a chunk and dodged another wild swing of the rebar which clanged on the floor. However, due to this the man who had swung had an uncoordinated posture. Taking advantage of that, Kiyotaka grabbed the back of the man's head and started to bash it into the wall.
The struggle from the other side waned after the first strike as Kiyotaka continued to bash his head into the wall. He kept doing it until the man's body went limp. However, he didn't stop and kept doing it until the layer of skin over his forehead tore open, revealing splintering pieces of bone that were sticking out.
The other two watched in horror as Kiyotaka kept smashing his head until the wall started to crack. The hole inside his forehead was wide as Kiyotaka finally let him go. The grey-white matter slowly flowed out of the hole inside his skull.
Donning a crazy look on his face, Kiyotaka looked at the other man who had a rebar in his hand. He looked at Kiyotaka and his eyes widened. "M-Madman! H-He's lost his mind!"
Just as he was about to leave, Kiyotaka felt his hair stand on its edge. Instead of perusing the man and running after him, he slowed down and stabilised himself. The crazy look of liquidating the three men into cash disappeared and once again, he looked like an average looking man with some alcohol addiction.
Slowly, he turned around and looked. 'This is the same feeling as before. Someone is infiltrating my mind, just like how I had felt on my first day in the Security Company. Are the Beyonders from that Security Company pursuing me? Why?
Could it be because of the murder of Meursault? But that shouldn't be possible. Meursault was a member of the Zmanger gang, and was almost equivalent to its leader. It is impossible for the Police and a Security Company to go so deep into the investigation that they have to employ Beyonders for the investigation.
Then why? I was fired from the job due to claiming to be a Royal Chartered Accountant. But from the commercial and local law books I had read, there were only monetary penalties for lying about your degree, especially if it's a prestigious one like this.
That said, why would they come after me if there is no need to put me behind the bars? Surely asking for monetary fines does not warrant to pull me into a dream-like state.
What should I do? I can act as if nothing had happened and keep on doing what I was going to do. Or...I can act suspicious. Why am I even considering this?
The latter has a lot of risks. I do not think they know that I can sense when I have been pulled into a dream due to my uniqueness as a transmigrator. If they were to know this due to my actions, then they would use much more direct means under the pretext of legal reasons. Even if it is unreasonable, I would not be able to do anything in return.
Kiyotaka dusted off his coat, and stood there. Soon, he saw a man with muddled features walk by. If he was in a dreamlike state, he would've definitely imagined a person he knew as the man. However, since he was in a half-lucid-dream-like state, the features of the passerby were like he was wearing a translucent shopping bag over his face.
Wearing a look of utter-shock, Kiyotaka ran to the man and held him by the arm. "He attacked me. I have been attacked. Please help me call the police. They were going to kill me!"
Kiyotaka cringed inwardly. He had never done something as strange as this. Since the factors in his previous world were more or less under his control, he never needed to twist things so tangibly and he had the luxury to pull strings behind the scenes. However, since in this world things could kill him inside his dream, he didn't want to take any chances.
He had no choice but to go outside his comfort zone.
He was ready to do whatever it took to stay alive and prosper. After all, the prospect of life was something he valued greatly. He was not attached to a lot of things, but death was a rather unpleasant thing to him.
This was one of the very few things that grounded his identity into humanity—the fear of death.
The man looked at Kiyotaka. The features on his face squirmed and began to solidify. The surroundings began to look like a crack had snaked through it and the hair that had stood on his body since a while ago suddenly went down, goosebumps coming to a rest.
It was a man in his forties with soft facial features and long hair. He was wearing informal clothes and red gloves while carrying a black cane which was inlaid with gold.
It was none other than Soul Assurer Soest, the Sequence 6 Red Glove of the Sleepless Pathway from Backlund's Decosse for Evernight Goddess' Church!
He had a rather complicated look on his face. It was as if he was lost. In reality, he was not sure why he came to this place himself, but something inside his mind told him to take a turn and arrive at this alley. At a moment like this, Soul Assurer Soest decided to trust his gut feeling and arrived.
Once he did, he was quite baffled to see that he found his "target" relatively easily. It was none other than Williams—the scammer who pretended to be a qualified person when in actuality he was an alcoholic bum!
Soest glanced at Kiyotaka for a moment as he patted his shoulder. "Calm down. You are the Accountant who was recently kicked out from our Security Company, yes?"
Kiyotaka nodded his head. After his initial uproar, he did not attempt to appear as scared as he previously was. Part of the reason was that after meeting someone one knew, people would calm down. Another reason was that while they were indeed there to attack Kiyotaka, they were not possessing any kind of danger.
If anything, Kiyotaka, who had a loaded revolver and years of fighting experience that focused purely on killing people, was the real danger there.
"Come. I was going to come get you anyways." Soest explained.
"Am I in trouble, sir?"
Soest looked at Kiyotaka in relative disdain and then flicked his gaze at the place where the man who had his head carved inside by Kiyotaka was. Much to his surprise, the man was no longer there.
'It really was a dream. Everything feels so real in a dream, however, the concept of pain is quite different inside a dream. Or a forced dream. Also, due to the pain or a sudden fright, one often wakes up. Did I not wake up because of the effects of a Beyonder power?'
"Follow me." Soest replied in a rude manner.
Kiyotaka certainly didn't want to do it. A part of him wanted to press the gun at the back of Soest's head and shoot him. However, he refrained from doing so. It was partly because he was not sure what Pathway and what Sequence Soest was from.
He had gotten quite lucky due to Meursault coincidentally falling into his own laid trap. However, after the explanation from Klein, he made an assumption that without that unexplainable coincidence, Kiyotaka would've died 10 out 10 times if he had actually fought Meursault.
A Sequence 9: Hunter was too much for an average human to combat, let alone best one.
Realising that Soest might kill him the moment he feels Kiyotaka pulling out his revolver, he refrained from doing so and nodded his head, quietly tailing Soest.
********
The sight of the familiar workspace soon entered Kiyotaka's eyes. He saw the wide hall that served as the waiting area, the receptionist table in the far-front where the Intisian woman—Roxanne was sitting while fiddling absentmindedly with curls of her silky hair.
Once Kiyotaka's view came into her vision, she frowned but then stood up. "Good afternoon, Williams. Sir Soest."
Kiyotaka couldn't help but greet her back. Despite the obvious looks of revulsion due to Williams' look of a druggie, she had still decided to treat him well. She had bought coffee for him and whenever Kiyotaka would do something, instead of doubting how he did it, she would ease her expression of barely concealed displeasure of being in his presence.
"Is Mr. Williams joining us back?" She excitedly asked.
"Depends." Soest replied in a rather reserved manner. Then, he took Kiyotaka towards the room of the captain. "Guide him to where Daly is. I have to go." He waved his hand and then walked out of the company, his windbreaker fluttering as he turned to leave.
Once he was out and the doors clicked shut, Kiyotaka suddenly felt uneasy. It was like he had walked right into someone's trap. However, this much was still within his expectations, since he did not think that dealing with someone with supernatural powers would be a simple matter.
Roxanne walked out of her workstation and eased the creases in her dress. She was wearing a long navy-blue skirt with a blouse that was a few shades lighter than her skirt. Since she was wearing heels, she appeared to be exactly Williams' height.
Tucking the lock of her hair that she had been playing with behind her ear, she motioned towards the back area of the company, the place where once Kiyotaka's office had been. Once he had entered the space at the back of the company, the very familiar sight came into focus.
As he remembered, there were four rooms where one of them was the pantry, the other was an office with two desks, the third room was the captain's room, and the fourth room was the one where they had placed all of their guns and change of clothes.
Kiyotaka's hand twitched. He was a little uneasy. Even if he was able to quickdraw and shoot, it was not possible to react to an ambush of people.
Suddenly, Roxanne took out a key and started to unlock the room with guns inside it.
Kiyotaka's senses flared but he tried to keep calm. His brows were twitching.
How should I approach an ambush? By the time I withdraw my revolver and shoot, my entire body will be ridden with bullets. It is possible that it is not an ambush, however, there are definitely strange things about it all. After all, why would I even agree to come? I could've made my case as something they had no jurisdiction over.
Why did I follow him without reason? Is someone making me do things subconsciously?
It can be possible as since these people have powers to pull someone into sleep and invade dreams, it cannot be ruled out that they can plant some kind of ideas or manipulate minute amounts of obedience. But then again, it is possible that they are working with either Police or intelligence bodies such as MI9.
Resisting would've put me in an even more precarious situation.
Hmm...
If there really is something, then I can just hold Roxanne hostage. She doesn't seem to be a Beyonder...no, I should not assume that. What if she is? I have no real way of telling Beyonders and non-Beyonders apart unless they show any abnormality.
I am too vulnerable. Well, in any case, I should try and put a gun to Roxanne's head if I were to be ambushed. I can use her to escape.
But...escape where? I can run off to Desi Bay? No, throughout Loen I will be hunted by MI9 and other bodies. The Fool also mentioned The Churches having individual bodies such as The Nighthawks, Mandated Punishers and Machinery Hivemind. He didn't mention which of these is connected to which one, but I would assume Machinery Hivemind is connected to Church of Steam and Machinery, Mandated Punishers to Church of Storms and Nighthawks to Church of Evernight Goddess. It is quite apparent in their name.
Wait... Mr. Neil who frequently used to purchase Mystical Items and all of them were approved, and Klein Moretti and Dunn Smith who had died because of an "incident" could be connected to one of these three as well!
That should explain why a Security Company is allowing purchase of mystical items. Yes, they can be used for worship but not in those high quantities. That means that the Blackthorn and similarly Whitethorn Security Company are both a cover-up business for one of the three major churches in Backlund and Tingen. It is very feasible as the knowledge of the supernatural is unknown to most people, and hence the Churches have been using decoy businesses to blend in with society while carrying out their agendas in plain sight.
This makes things a lot worse. Daly had previously asked me which faith I follow, and I replied with Evernight Goddess, even though the real Williams used to follow the God of Storms. Their ideologies are completely different...
They would definitely know that. Since Williams was a part of gangs, there is no way that intelligence agencies and these cover-up secret organisations are not keeping tabs on them.
Hmm... if I am lucky, somehow, they would've overlooked me since Williams is not particularly a dangerous individual. Yes, he has some past with almost all gangs in Backlund, he is not considered a rogue person or someone who needs to be put down.
I just hope that this one is Nighthawks and they worship the Evernight Goddess. If not, then I am thoroughly in trouble... Should I chant "His," no, his name? Hmm...that would jeopardise my identity. The only leverage I have over The Fool is that I know that he is Sherlock Moriarty.
... Anyways, I think I am somewhat safe, for now. However, I must not drop my guard. For now, let's focus on just capturing Roxanne in case things go wrong, take her hostage... and then somehow survive a sour looking man killing me in my dream and run away to the sea and become a pirate.
Kiyotaka pasquinaded.
The door unlocked with a click and instead of the assortment of guns, Kiyotaka found, well, nothing. There was nothing inside the room. Instead, there was a lid on the ground with a metallic handle. Roxanne tucked her skirt by her thighs before bending down and gripping it. Once the hatch was open, she looked back as her dark eyes fixed on Kiyotaka.
"Please, follow me. Ma'am Daly would be waiting for you. It's best if we could hurry." She spoke with a rather reserved manner, the joyfulness in her tone all but gone.
Kiyotaka nodded and followed her. His hand was behind his back, ready to pull out his revolver at a moment's notice.
Meanwhile, Roxanne was quite on the edge as well. She had done some harmless eavesdropping but from what she had heard, she had come to know that the person who was named Williams, who looked to be a few pounds away from becoming a tramp, had a 50% chance of being possessed. She was not privy to the exact details of how they came to the conclusion.
She was aware of the matters of Beyonders, of course, and all of the other matters that came with it, however, she did not know exactly which means they adopted. Hence, she was a little scared when she found herself in the winding stairs that led to the bottom of Whitethorn Security Company.
Kiyotaka on the other hand stayed vigilant. After about 40 seconds of continuously descending, they finally made contact with the floor. The place was lit with flame torches on either side of the long hallway that ended in darkness. In the far part of the hallway, there were a plethora of doors on each side.
Roxanne kept walking as Kiyotaka took a deep breath. Seeing the tall woman walk in front of him made him a little more paranoid. This was because he could not see in front of him. If Roxanne were to suddenly duck low, he was quite prone to be struck with a gunshot.
He shook his head and focused on the "now" instead of troubling himself with what "could" happen. However, he could not fully dismiss his thoughts as well, as being overly cautious while trying to take control of the situation was a part of "Kiyotaka Ayanokoji."
Once the two had reached the apparent end, Roxanne turned around and motioned with her hand. Kiyotaka nodded as she gave him a weak smile. After that, she was quick to leave the long hallway. She did not look back once. Soon, she was gone, and even the echo of her clipping heels was gone.
Kiyotaka placed his hand on the revolver. Since he did not leave any empty slot, he did not need to roll it.
Placing his hand on the handle, he quietly turned it and walked inside.
His hair stood on edge as he saw a womanly face with its eyes and lips stitched with red thread while its nose looked as if someone had pulled it from its place with bare hands. The ears were stretched and stitched back to its head and the edges of its lips were pulled into a wide smile.
Beneath the abnormal sized head was an abnormally thin neck and nothing else.
Three strands of bleached orange hair on its head were flowing up slowly, as if drowning underwater.
At the same time, the stitches on its lips tore open and pus erupted all over its face.
Kiyotaka felt a little alarmed, but he didn't react. Even his hand that would usually spasm from the withdrawals was still.
The creature's "lips" parted as the stitches began to tear open. The inside of its mouth that now looked like it had been stitched and ripped countless times had a row of small, flat molars that were covered in a bile-inducing plaque which had turned the molars green and its breath so rancid that Kiyotaka's vision almost went blank.
Suddenly, the creature's entire form twisted like a stretched dough-ball, and it disappeared, as if it was never there.
During all this, Kiyotaka did not show any abnormality and did not reach out to his revolver and shoot a bullet at it. This was because he anticipated this. He had been feeling this very chilly sensation that someone was watching him. And just as he was about to enter, he felt the same chill.
It was kind of like how Kiyotaka could tell from the smell if the restaurant near his flat was cooking beef or chicken in higher quantities.
Not showing any fear or any other emotion over witnessing a living apparition, he looked to the side.
Sitting in the corner was a woman who was wearing dark purple and black makeup while wearing robes that made her look like the street-side diviner. However, her clothes were elegant and expensive looking, while she herself was uncannily beautiful. She had a good body and an enthrallingly pleasant smile.
She had her legs crossed and her hands were clasped in her lap. Her hair was tied up in a bun which complimented her extremely well.
"Good afternoon, Williams. Please, have a seat." Daly Simone pointed towards the chair across her. There was a small table between the two of them.
"Good afternoon, Miss Daly." Kiyotaka sat on the seat opposite to her and cleared his throat.
'So, Soest has an ability to pull people into dreams and Daly has an ability that allows her to manifest creepy dolls and creatures in mid-air to jumpscare people she calls in the basement? Very depraved behavior, Miss Daly.'
Daly nodded her head in response. From the looks of it, Daly seemed to know that Kiyotaka knows about supernatural things and could see them as well. On the other side, it was also quite clear to her that Kiyotaka was aware of "Beyonders" and had suspected that she and the others working in this cover-up Security Company were all involved in such matters.
"How are you holding up?" She asked, her lips pulled into a thin line. There was no harshness in her tone, but the intonations were extremely interrogatory.
"I am doing well, I suppose. Still searching for employment." Kiyotaka replied in a detached manner.
Daly straightened her legs and then placed both hands on the table. "Have you been feeling a little odd recently? Perhaps you are not feeling yourself? Or you wake up and discover you are already somewhere else? A state of dream walking, perhaps? Or finding yourself in places that you were not supposed to be in? Do you feel like "you" as "Williams" have changed?"
'Lady, those are quite straightforward questions. Even if I were to tell you that I am from the future, you would never believe me. It would be the same if I said I am from the past.
Although, it would be quite worse for me if I admitted I am from the past. Since that, in tandem with your thought process of me being possessed, could mean I am an evil spirit from the fourth epoch.'
Kiyotaka pasquinaded. After a moment of deliberation and what felt like analysing himself, Kiyotaka shook his head slowly. "No, I do not believe so. I feel a little sick due to my past dependency on alcohol and other substances..." He paused and looked up at Daly who was smiling in a coy manner at him, "...as you already know. But I have been trying to leave those habits behind and lead a good life."
"You are quite well spoken, for someone who spent his time amongst the goons of different gangs. Gangs who have committed unspeakable atrocities." Daly said the last part to push Williams into a tight spot.
However, what she didn't know was that this was not Williams, but rather Kiyotaka. He was not the one to be flustered with something like that.
"I can assure I have no sense of belonging to those gangs, nor have I committed any serious crimes." Kiyotaka emphasises on the "serious" part, because if he was to completely extricate himself from the bad side of the gangs, it was going to be completely unbelievable.
"You might know this as you have done a thorough research on me, but I have been in cahoots with quite a few bounty hunters who hunt criminals of all sorts. It includes rapists, murderers and even people who commit petty crimes.
"I believe that is enough merit to extricate myself. Of course, one's past never leaves a person, but it does not mean we cannot strive to repent and be a better version of ourselves." Kiyotaka ended his little vocal "performance" and ended it by tapping on his chest in a clockwise manner in a discreet manner.
Even though it was intended to be discreet, Daly noticed it.
And that was what Kiyotaka had intended.
Obviously, the aura of doubt and persecution around Daly softened a little as she saw Kiyotaka looking into her eyes with a profound look. There was a subtle deepness to his blue eyes that made Daly look away.
For about 3 deafening minutes, Daly sat silently, looking at the side of a room, as if reminiscing over something. Reeling in her thoughts, she looked back at Kiyotaka. Her lips were pursed and there was some kind of hesitation in her eyes, as if avoiding Kiyotaka's gaze.
She crossed her legs and began to quickly move her suspended foot.
Kiyotaka sensed this. 'It really does seem like she is mourning someone. But why did looking at me make her remember that certain someone? Did he have the same hair colour as me? Or the same eye colour? There are a number of blondes and people with blue eyes in Backlund, so that shouldn't be the case. Then why?
Certainly, I don't look like someone that would catch Daly's fancy. She is a really beautiful woman and probably has a lot of men belonging to all kinds of backgrounds pursuing her. From a regular person's perspective, Williams is average... well below that but not that much. He is just malnourished.
Hmm... or maybe I am thinking far too deep into it.
Kiyotaka and Daly snapped out of their thoughts at the same time. "Your beliefs are exactly why you have not been immediately detained." She commented.
Kiyotaka crossed his arms. His tone was neither doubting nor accusative of anything. On the contrary, he spoke in a rhetoric that reflected his slight confusion as he replied with: You have the entitlement to incarcerate me over such a matter?
Daly hummed. She wanted to commend how sharp he was, however, that would directly be an admittance to them doing an unlawful activity, even though, on a technicality basis, it was not. Blackthorn and Whitethorn security companies were both coverups for Nighthawks, and due to them posing as Security Companies, they used to collaborate closely with the local Police bodies.
That meant that technically, they held the authority to detain and apprehend criminals and suspects. However, if this were to be made public knowledge, it could cause some kind of unpreventable brouhaha.
Realising that Kiyotaka was trying to lead the conversation into his favour, Daly doubled down on her claim. "As a matter of fact, yes. I—We do. We exist in a kind of symbiotic relationship with the local Police and Backlund Yard. That way, we have partial authority to detain suspects, however, the official hearings in court are to be carried out by the local body."
'Or it could be that anything related to Paranormal or Supernatural activities is handled by you, Whitethorn Security company who is disguised as one of the Nighthawks, Machinery Hivemind or Mandated Punishers. However, that raises an important question...'
Kiyotaka appeared as if ruminating over his words before speaking again: "And under what kind of suspicion am I detained here? Drinking myself to sleep?"
A dry scoff left Daly's lips. The look of gloom disappeared at the same time as well. "You are quite charismatic. However, that would not hold well in the current conversation."
Kiyotaka did nothing, other than stare straight at her.
It was kind of a dry, self-deprecating humour that was not as common in the Loen Kingdom, however, it was still a very prevalent thing.
"You have been a former employee of ours, no matter how short-lived that was, and that is the only reason we have refrained from taking drastic measures. Your behaviour has also been very civil.
The reason why you have been called here is because you are suspected to be under the influence of something. We believe you are possessed." Daly spoke as Kiyotaka couldn't help but knit his brows together.