Location: On the Road in the Fake City

Time: 1:30 PM, February 14th 2108

I was starting to realize that I’d made a mistake. And I wasn’t thinking that just because I was starting to fear for my life. My realization and my crippling fear were entirely unrelated.

It’s just that, you know, I’m really not suited for this kind of thing.

I mean, I don’t even know how to drive a car!

Hmm? What does that have to do with anything? Try to keep up, alright?

How else were Emily and I supposed to transport Karen the Icicle across this fake city? Of course we borrowed the bus that brought us here.

Driving a motor vehicle without a license?

No, I’d never suggest a plan that dangerous. Like most modern cars, the bus is fully capable of driving itself on registered roadways.

Unfortunately, the roads in the fake city weren’t entered into the city’s GPS catalog.

Perhaps even more unfortunately, I didn’t realize that until after we loaded Karen into the back.

Well, it was too late to change the plan at that point.

“Are you sure you can drive this thing?”

Emily spoke to me from her position in the front seat.

“What makes you think I know how to control this thing at all! Just keep giving me directions. An idol will never be late for her concert!”

“We're not going to a concert though. . .”

I pretended not to hear Emily’s remark and focused on my driving.

Driving. Alright.

“Ok, you should turn at the next right.”

“You got it!”

As I approached the turn in question I realized that we weren’t slowing down, so I just spun the wheel to the right.

Hmm. Ah yes.

We were out of control.

That’s odd. I set the cruise control to 100, but it definitely wasn’t working. Forget 100%, it wasn’t even keeping things 10% under control.

We slid over the sidewalk and scraped against the buildings lining the street.

“Don’t worry about it! You’re doing good for your first time.”

“I’m fine without the encouragement, thanks. I just think I’m in the wrong gear. How are you supposed to swap that?”

“No, I think this bus is electric.”

“What does that have to do with anything? I don’t plan on filling up the tank or charging the battery.”

I looked back at Emily, but she was furiously pointing forward.

“Stop! Hit the brake!”

“Why would I-”

Before I could finish I was slamming on the brake. A boy, or maybe I should say young man, was standing directly in front of the bus’s path. His chestnut hair was a mess, and his clothes were in tatters, but even with his head down I could recognize him. It was Jacob Jackson.

Was I supposed to hold it down or keep pressing it? Either way, the bus wasn’t stopping fast enough.

“No, we’re still moving! We’re going to hit him. What are we supposed to do? An idol can’t get a driving record!”

“Um, I could make the bus go boom?”

“No thanks! Jacob! Move!”

I was yelling as loud as I could, hoping Jacob would get the idea.

As the bus slid closer a large phantom hand appeared behind Jacob. It lunged out and grabbed the front of the bus, denting the metal and cracking the windshield where its fingers dug in to get a solid grip.

Emily and I ran to to back of the bus as the front was crumpled into a wall of twisted metal and broken glass.

As the hand started pushing back the bus began to slow, finally managing to stop as a parking meter was bent forward; causing Jacob to take a single step back.

Emily quickly ran out of the bus, from the only usable door in the back, and not wanting to look suspicious, I followed after her.

“Jacob, are you ok? What happened to Devesh?”

Jacob obviously wasn’t ok. He looked like he already got hit by a car before I even showed up. Honestly, in different circumstances it would have been an amusing sight. Seeing that cocky guy covered in wounds should have been funny, but I wasn’t in the mood to laugh.

A transparent hand, smaller than the one that stopped the bus, pinned Emily to the side of the bus. Another quickly grabbed me and wrapped its fingers tightly around my body. If I managed to get my headphones off, I probably could have squeezed out, but I didn’t want to. Trying to resist would have just made the situation more complicated.

“Get your hand off me! This is sexual harassment! Don’t think you can get away with touching an idol like this! I’ll get you put on a list! You’ll never get to go to another handshake event for the rest of your life! I don’t care how many CDs you buy!”

Despite what I just thought, I still had a character to uphold. It’s tough being an idol.

“What’s going on? Why did Devesh attack me?”

Jacob always sounded a bit upset, but in that moment you didn’t need hyper sensitive hearing to clearly pick up on his emotions. He was confused, definitely angry, but most prominently, excited.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Devesh is the one that did that to you? No, he wouldn’t do something like that.”

Despite the fact that I already explained to Emily that Devesh was working for Prince Eren she continued to think of him as an ally. I can’t really blame her though. Apparently Devesh had been pretending to be sympathetic to W’s cause for some time, and I didn’t have any proof for my claims other than ‘a vampire told me so.’

A gasp of air was forced out of Emily as Jacob had the hand force her harder into the side of the bus.

“Huh? What are you saying? I said Devesh did it, so Devesh did it. I just need to know who to go after next?”

“Next?” Emily’s voice was strained, but audible.

“Yeah, next. I took care of Devesh, now I want to know if there’s anyone else that needs put down. I figure this is the only time I can practice using my augmentation at full power without the ARA coming after me. I’m not going to miss this opportunity.”

Emily started to open her mouth, but another hand, this one much smaller, covered her mouth and forced it closed.

“I was being careless. Your augmentation activates with your voice. I can’t risk you saying anything else.” His head jerked toward me and I was carried in front of him. “You. Oldridge. Answer my question.”

“Where do you get off? Treating an idol like this? Unbelievable. You seem to think that the ARA won’t be coming after you, but once I tell Oliver about this, oh ho ho, you better be prepared. You'll need to sleep with one ear open.”

Besides, why should I have to tell him anything? I don’t need to listen to his threats. An idol has no fear.

It’s not like he’d actually do anything to me? Right?

…

So without any resistance I told him everything I’d already told Emily, which was, well, everything. At least everything that I knew. I even had him take Karen the Icicle out of the bus to prove I wasn’t lying. I also made sure to be very clear about the fact that Devesh had been tricking Emily, and that she had nothing to do with what the others were up to.

I also made sure he understood that I wanted nothing to do with Elodie or Eren’s plan, and was just as much of a victim as he was.

And in a surprisingly pleasant turn of events, it seemed like he believed me. He even offered up his own account of what happened in order for me to explain the situation in more detail.

As I’m assuming everyone was expecting, the twins, Acht and Nuen, took each other out as soon as the game started. Being on the same team was so offensive to them that they had to see who was strongest on their own. Turns out, they were completely even; just like always.

Once Devesh and Jacob were alone, Devesh attacked Jacob from behind, allegedly trying to kill him outright. Unfortunately for him, Jacob wasn’t the kind of guy that would be killed just because you unleashed a deadly attack on him.

“So then, Devesh was that prince’s goon, and he was working with Kathrin and Grant?”

I nodded my head up and down.

“So if I dealt with Devesh, you snapped Kathrin’s neck, and someone hurt Grant badly enough for the surveillance system to recommend he receive medical treatment, that means that there’s no one left to fight?”

I kept nodding.

“And I wasn’t even a target in the first place? So Devesh was just getting me out of the way?”

“Probably.” I couldn’t answer that last part with certainty, but his theory made sense.

“What a waste. I’m going home.”

Jacob’s apparated hands disappeared, causing Emily and I to fall to the ground. Without sparing us a concerned glance, he started to walk away.

“Hey! Not so fast. After how you were just treating us, what makes you think you can just walk away like that?”

Of course. The first thing Emily did after regaining the ability to talk was to yell at the anti-social guy who was just interrogating us.

“What? You want me to feed the meter for you or something?”

“No. For now I’m willing to accept that you acted in self defense against Devesh, but we still need your help. In case you didn’t notice, you wrecked our bus.”

“Huh? You mean the bus that you were driving straight at me? I stopped it. Should I have just let it hit me?”

“Well, actually, when you say it like that, you’ve kind of got a point. So, alright, you don’t really have to help us, but you should anyway. You shouldn’t lend a hand because you have to, you should do it because it’s right! And in this moment, the two of us need your help.”

Emily made sure to stand up and make a dramatic pose that I would have expected from Blake, but the sound of her loudly growling stomach made anything else hard to focus on.

“Hahaha.” Emily forced out a laugh. “Ignore that last part. I had to make a lot of things go boom, and all of my extra rations got burnt up in the fire. I should still have my second bag on the bus, but I didn’t have time to look for it.”

“I don’t care.”

Jacob resumed his departure.

“Wait, about my stomach growling or about the help thing?”

“All of it.”

Jacob kept walking. He wouldn’t help. There probably wasn’t anything Emily could have said that would have made him change his mind.

Was that a bad thing? Did we really need his help? Sure, moving Karen the Icicle on our own would take way longer, but did it matter? Were we working with a time limit? Was she going to melt?

Frankly put, I didn’t know one way or the other. I still didn’t really care. Whatever we were doing with Karen wasn’t any of my business. If I was really that worried about her I would have said something before her sister killed her.

What right did I have to help anyone after that? I already let her die. Dragging her corpse around was nothing more than an exercise in placating my guilt.

Emily was different. She was actually trying to help. Even if the person she was trying to help was already dead.

Then if I was claiming to support her I should just ignore my own feelings and keep supporting her to the best of my abilities.

Yeah, that’s it. I wasn’t trying to save Karen to make myself feel better, I was just lending a hand to a younger girl that’s part of the same after school program as me.

“Slow down Jacob. You can’t expect an idol to take part in such a grueling physical activity on such a hot day.”

“An idol?” Jacob had an unnecessary level of uncertainty in his voice.

“Me of course. I doubt there are any other idols that would be willing to talk to you for free like this. Now hurry up and carry Karen the Icicle for us. Staying out in the sun this long isn’t good for my complexion.”

Jacob turned on a heel and stormed within inches of my face.

“Huh? You trying to start a fight? Think I won’t because I’m scared of your family?”

“No to both, but I do know how you can find someone worth fighting. They’re strong enough for Hana to consider them a rival. Best of all, assuming you’re at the right place at the right time, fighting them; even to the death; will be completely legal. Now if you’re interested, get a move on, as I won’t speak another word of this until we’ve reached this address.”

I pulled the address we were given out of Emily’s pocket and threw it toward Jacob without bothering to look if he caught it.

While the other two were still trying to keep up with my actions, I grabbed a thermal blanket from the bus's emergency kit and draped it over Karen the Icicle. Once it was in position, I took a seat.

Yeah, they were giving me strange looks.

“What? Did you expect me to walk? Not happening. An idol’s legs are just as important as her voice; I can’t risk over exertion. Since you’re going to be carrying our frozen instructor with your handsy augmentation anyway, I’ll be riding on top. And I’d suggest you stop wasting time. If you don’t pick it up you’ll miss your chance. My information is only good for the next few hours.”

That’s right. Keep looking at me like that. As long as he thinks I’m some kind of spoiled princess he won’t try to bargain with me.

Want more info? Want an explanation? Too bad. Don’t you know? I’m the kind of unreasonable girl who won’t listen to a word you have to say.

At least that’s what I need them to think. In reality, I’m not interested in being spoiled by anyone other than Oliver.

But no one bothers to think I’m anything more than needy dead weight, so I might as well use that to my advantage. Jacob wasn’t given a choice. If he wanted my information, he’d have to work with us.

And he wanted it. I’m sure they think I’m completely simple minded, but Jacob is just as simple. All he cares about is fighting. He’d never turn down a prime opportunity like the one I was alluding to.

As long as my information was good we’d all part ways on good terms.

Was my information good?

It didn’t matter. I wasn’t completely lying, I did honestly have a lead that he’d be interested in. It’s just, even if I was wrong and all I did was waste his time Jacob would just be mad at himself. He’d regret helping a clueless airhead, but he wouldn’t take it out on me.

If you get sucked up in my idol fantasies you’ve got no one to blame but yourself. He’d realize it was a mistake to take someone like me seriously.

Hmm? I’m starting to seem a little too deceptive? My actual character isn’t lining up with how I act?

Obviously. An idol is nothing more than an act. A character.