“The door is not locked. Supposedly, an abandoned building like this should be locked so everyone can stay away. This way, we can go inside easily,” Valerie analyzed as they arrived at the front door of the former factory.

“Somehow, it give us clue that if there are people who have used this place,” Rio added.

"...Johann," Arisa muttered.

“I guess we are going inside according to the plan?” Rio asked Arisa.

“Mhm. Like I explained earlier, we’ll split up. Come on, let’s go in now.”

“…okay. Don’t be rash, Arisa. Val?”

“Behind you, Rio.”

When they enter the building that almost has no light inside, a room on the second floor emits blue light. Arisa understands right away what the color of the light means.

Arisa heads to the second floor while Rio and Valerie go in another direction into the darkness when they exchange glances and nod. She carefully steps on the iron plate for the flooring of the second floor so she won’t make a sound. If Johann discovers someone is trying to infiltrate this place, everything could turn worse.

As they walked into this building from the initial meeting place, Arisa briefly explained her plan against Johann as their attempt to stop the worst. Suppose the information provided by the mysterious girl wearing the scarf was accurate, then they could stop her childhood friend’s plan tonight.

“...”

Arisa is moving while squatting, treading extra care to avoid the window which is barely visible in this darkness. Thanks to the blue light from inside the room, Arisa could watch her steps.

She is focusing on her steps—slipping slowly, without making a sound, until she reaches the door that separates her from someone who is trying to give his all to stop this journey to the past project.

Arisa stands back and opens the door as dozens of projection screens greet her.

“Johann.”

The person in the middle of this sea of projections faces Arisa. His sharp gaze immediately pierces her figure while she is still standing in the doorway.

“How the hell can you find this place?” Johann asked coldly.

“I—”

“Let me guess. Adel told you about this, Arisa?”

“Ah, so her name is Adel? We didn’t get to know each other further.”

Johann chuckled a bit and burst out laughing after while covering his face. Arisa doesn’t understand why Johann is laughing out of nowhere. Is she being trapped with another Johann’s scheme or—

“As expected from people from the outside zone! Of course, she would betray me as soon as she left this place! Damn her! I should have just shot her in the head!”

Arisa somehow understands that someone in front of her is no longer Johann she knows. Johann is far more gentle and has a reserved laugh along with his kind gaze.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Johann is someone who always invites Arisa to learn new things together, gets to know people they’ve never met before in the lab, and gets a bunch of silly jokes. Her childhood friend should be the one who motivates Arisa to observe and care about her surroundings.

…not someone who looked at her as if he were looking at a disgusting insect.

“Hmm, what is this?” Johann asked as he walked closer.

He swiped the projection screen in front of him to the right and left, going closer to Arisa. The girl is unmoving, still in her place.

“Your facial expression right now is something I’ve never seen before,” Johann sighed when he got close enough.

“What do you mean?”

“Heh, hahaha. Your face tells me as if you met a stranger,” Johann tugs Arisa’s chin, “you no longer treat me as someone you’ve known before. Am I right?”

Arisa quickly pushes Johann’s hand away. “I don’t treat you as such. I just disagree with your current motive.”

“Since when you learn to have feelings?”

“Eh?”

Arisa’s eyes widen in disbelief. Johann still gazes at her cynically. However, a disdainful grin appeared on his face.

“What do you mean, Johann? I’m an ordinary human. Of course, I have what is called feeling.”

“Are you serious? Remember again, O doll named Arisa. What is your reason for being in that laboratory?”

“It’s because—”

Something sticks out from the corner of Arisa’s memory. A lump of remembrance, something that she unconsciously locked away. She regained a familiar yet sickening sensation simultaneously because of that. Her interactions with people in white coats who passed her in the corridor, a discussion room for meetings she frequently visited, and special data rooms where she could easily access any data she needed flashed in her eyes.

‘Arisa. I’m still busy so study on your own.’

‘Arisa, let’s study! My father told me to review something and will test me after lunch. So we must hurry so that I can be ready!’

‘Your father is busy again, Arisa? Indeed, Mr. [ ] holds a position as a senior researcher so he is always unavailable when work calls. In fact, he takes no more than a ten-minute meal break before returning to work again.’

‘Huh, what are you doing? Are you starving? Gosh, ask your parents to go to the cafeteria right away. O-oh, you can’t find your father so you can’t access the cafeteria?’

The words she had heard in the past again filled her head. Like a dough stuffed with random ingredients and then kneaded forcefully, Arisa’s brain feels the burden in her head.

A quick reminisce about why she could always use her fake smiles until now.

On the other hand, the factory’s first floor is quite dark.

Two guys are looking for the objects according to the image shown from the projection of their respective communication rings. Aided by the flashlight that came from the ring, Rio and Valerie entered a room with a warmer temperature.

“It’s definitely here,” Rio said.

As they entered, several small red lights were flickering all over the place. Valerie aimed the light towards it, and they both agreed that this was the generator Arisa referred to.

“This thing called a generator? Never seen this model before,” commented Valerie.

The generator is a cube-shaped cube with a length of approximately 35 centimeters, dominated by dark colors throughout its surface. The upper surface has an information display that shows how much energy is contained by percentage. It directs the energy flowing toward the room where Johann was.

“According to the information I got, this generator is an energy supply machine that is commonly used by energy plants in the future. Based on the fusion of magnetized targets, this tool is quite effective to fulfill the internal energy needs for industrial machines,” Rio explained.

“Okay. Then, how to turn off this tool?”

“In that case,” Rio is going back to his research on the screen. He needs time to find information on how to deactivate this generator.

While his best friend was trying to find relevant information, Valerie swept his flashlight to another corner of the room. He finds several objects of the same shape, flickering on their upper side.

“There are about a dozen here,” said Valerie, “we definitely need a moment to turn them all off. How about it, Rio? Have you found a way?!”

“Just a second. This thing is definitely not on the list of the volunteers’ stuff to bring from the future to this place. The improved search engines are also in the process of collecting data. Just give me a little more time!”

Rio is also thinking about Arisa’s safety on the second floor. So far, there have been no worrisome sounds coming from there. Does that mean her attempt to persuade is a success?

Hopefully, nothing will happen to her.