PC: Kyoko

[westedge]

Comments

[factoring]

Alright.

We arrived at the Armed Detective Agency, and each of us picked up a card. Mine was labled "Thou Shalt Not Die" and it's healing. The conditions are annoying, but it lets you heal anyone to full health, as long as they're considered half dead.

While we were working there, there was a raid from the mafia. The day after we were sent out to get laptops. Due to the travel distance we went by train, where there was... some guy throwing lemon bombs at us at the front of the train. On the other end, there was a young woman strapped with a bomb. I don't know all the details of that side.

Anyway, we ran to the other end and tried to deactivate the one she was wearing, but we were blown up. Thou Shalt Not Die was triggered and we survived it. [Now I know how it feels to explode...]

[westedge]

[ this. sucks. this sucks? it's a succinct detailing of events but also wow this sucks!! does not love hearing about friends being blown up, actually!! ]

This just opens even more questions, but I'm not going to ask. They don't really matter. What does matter is that you guys got out safely, even if you were pretty badly hurt. I'm glad for that much. [ ... ] It almost sounds like it was set up for failure.

[factoring]

I'm glad we all managed to make it back.

[ A short pause. ]

I think there's a reason we had access to that particular ability. Like an insurance plan to get us back here.

[westedge]

...that would make sense, even if the implications are insanely bad. [ like yeah, let's just suffer and then also have a plan to get back so it never mattered at all. ] How did the cards even work? Were there other ones you guys had?

[factoring]

We each had one, but I'm not completely certain of how they worked. Netzach could turn into a tiger, Kazuki had illusions, and Eiden could make things from a notebook.

[ I'd wouldn't mind being a tiger. ]

[westedge]

[ the tiger sounds like the most manageable. he will later learn that is not true, but also, being a tiger sounds manageable. ]

Too bad you couldn't trade. We didn't have abilities in ours, just a bunch of weapons. [ thanks. ] That sounds a little bit like a steep learning curve though.

[factoring]

You didn't have your psychs either?

I had another life's memories added onto my own, so I did know how to use it. [ This is too many lives to keep track of. ]

[westedge]

Oh, no, we did. But we tried not to use them too much because the last time we did when Nahri became the town's doctor eventually people got scared and drove us out of town. [ calmly said. ]

We learned a lot of other skills over those years though. So it was like...we didn't start our mission with another life's memories. We just lived that life and made those memories on top of our other ones. Does that make sense? Yours sounds a little more muddled.

[factoring]

[ Humans can be afraid of what they don't understand. She decides this makes as much sense as anything else could. ]

Do you remember all those skills now?

I feel like every time I go out on a mission somebody's doing their best to add more to my memories. I had enough when it was just one life.

[westedge]

[ the thought gets a noise of confirmation. yeah. they sure can. that was half the problem. ]

I remember...more of them than I thought I would. And more than I'd like. Definitely more than I'd like in some cases, but I'm going to guess if I don't do them often those will fade, too. [ he does not elaborate on what those might be. ] Do you still remember the memories you were given from your first mission?

[ also isn't this now twice that she and kazuki have gone on the same mission wait a minute. ]

[factoring]

[The K-names have to stick together... maybe?

Kyoko isn't so nosy that she'll push into what those skills might be.]

I do. They're still clear. [That little apartment, the comfort of a home. Wolfwood and coffee. the unfortunate fate of her detective agency. Having to work at the game company. Falling off a building.

The next life. Perfect. Her agency thriving. Wolfwood as her partner. That little apartment. Wolfwood at the balcony and trying to rip a choice away from her. The feeling of cold metal in her hands. Clearer than I'd like.]

[westedge]

[ he just...frowns. ]

...I'm sorry. That's even less fair than I thought. [ how does a person just fix that? ]

[factoring]

I'll need to write them all down. Just to make sure which ones are really mine.

[westedge]

That's actually not a bad idea. As long as you have somebody who can help you crosscheck the list. I don't know if I'd trust myself to fully remember everything about which is which right away.

[factoring]

That's somewhat difficult to do.

[ My whole life doesn't come up that often. ]

[westedge]

I mean it doesn't have to be everything-everything. Just like the most major important facts and the details to go with it.

[factoring]

The looping adventure was so close to my real life.

[westedge]

...oh, right. The whole digital thing, isn't it?

[factoring]

It gave me my detective agency, free of any looming danger. [And also wolfwood.]

[westedge]

Is that like...does that happen a lot? Constant looming danger.

[factoring]

Not that often. It's just come to a tipping point recently.

[westedge]

That doesn't exactly sound great, Kyoko. [ and he vaguely wonders if that's how she thinks she ended up here. ]

[factoring]

We're working it out. Or... we were before I came here.

[westedge]

...I've never really asked what was happening for you before this place. Was it that bad?

[factoring]

It's the end of two worlds if we don't fix it quickly enough.