Location: Alexis’s Office
Time: 11:02 PM; February 14th, 2108
The question I needed to ask myself was how much Alexis was hiding from me. My sister would never lie, but that’s a far cry from being honest. There were definitely plenty of things she wasn’t telling me.
An information broker would never give away more information than they had to.
First on that list was how exactly she planned on returning things back to normal. I assumed it had something to do with all of the people she had Vier gather for her, but she wouldn’t give me a straight answer. She kept telling me to wait for the final member to show up.
Waiting for everyone to show up was perfectly normal, but I was getting tired of the wait.
Fortunately, the person I assume to be the final member just showed up.
“Ah, Non, you decided to stop by. And I see you brought Lec with you. Need a hand?”
We’d never met, but I knew who she was. Kamiya Kanon. And she was carrying an unconscious Alec Alexander in her arms.
The most abnormal thing was definitely the fact that her skin was red and there was a horn growing out of her forehead. It was probably something to do with her augmentation.
Still abnormal.
She completely ignored Vier’s greeting and carried Alec over to Alexis, who was sitting on the couch, playing with the baby.
“There’s something wrong with Alec, can you help him?”
“Of course. At least, I know who can.”
Alexis didn’t look away from the baby while answering.
“Then please, will you do it? I don’t know what you want, but I’ll give you anything.”
Completely abnormal. Kanon was panicking.
“I hate uncertain terms like that.”
“Then what do you want? I’ve already messed up too much.”
“Calm down, no need to rush things.” Alexis rolled up her sleeve that usually extended past her hand, revealing the same scarring and dead skin that marked the left side of her face. She then looked at her wrist. “That guy will be fine for another ten minutes at least.”
I’m not sure if she was just having fun, but despite that exaggerated display, Alexis wasn’t wearing a watch.
“Are you going to help or not?”
“Geez, you still don’t have a sense of humor, huh? Alright, fine. For once, I’m not the one you want to talk to though.”
“Huh?”
Completely abnormal. I’m not sure whether Kanon or I were more surprised to hear Alexis say something like that.
“You see, the problem Alec is facing is caused by a sudden lapse of energy. His body had gotten used to the Philosophers Stone embedded inside him. Removing it so suddenly is what caused this problem. His body needs time to adjust. Unfortunately, that energy imbalance will kill him long before his body can self regulate.”
“So then, what? He needs that stone back?”
“That would be one way of solving things, but it’s a bit late to go down that route. Instead, you could save him by using a perfectly calculated burst of energy to completely reset the equilibrium. At least, that’s what I’ve been told. That’s not my forte, so I’m not exactly sure how it works.”
“Then who do I want to talk to? Who gave you that information?”
Still playing with the baby, Alexis pointed to the person standing behind Kanon.
“Vier’s the only person I know of that can detect energy like that.”
Kanon turned around to face a Number with a smug look on his face.
“That’s right. It’s your favorite artificial human, whom you decided to ignore about a minute ago. Here’s a free piece of advice, you should never ignore the strongest person in the room. That’s even more true when they’re technically your superior at work.”
“Vier. . .”
Kanon was red from the start, but after realizing Alec’s fate was in Vier’s hands, she somehow started to look pale. Their interactions at the ARA must have been pretty terrible.
“Oh? You’re not calling me an artificial human anymore? What happened?”
Vier was clearly having fun with her. From what I’d gathered he was going to remain unsealed for the foreseeable future, so we’d all have to get used to his real personality. We’d also have to make sure to keep spares for all the electronics he might come in contact with.
“Please, I know how I’ve acted around you, around everyone, but I need your help. Alec needs your help. I’ve messed up more times than anyone could keep count of. I’ll accept any terms you want. Just please, help me.”
Kanon set Alec down on the ground before getting down on her knees, bowing low enough for her horn to touch the floor.
Completely abnormal.
She should have been more careful with that horn. She might have scratched the floor.
“Ah, Non, stop that. I don’t know what you’re doing, but stop. I’m starting to feel like I’m some kind of bully, you know? I like having fun, but I’m not interested in bullying you or Lec like that.”
“Then, you’ll help Alec?”
Kanon kept her face pointing toward the ground.
“Obviously. Lec is a friend. He knows his place. He’d never fight back. I would keep him alive without you asking. You should really be more worried about yourself.”
“Myself? Why?”
“You mean you haven’t noticed? Tch, you really are fifth rate, huh? Non, listen, Lec’s body has had a massive energy deficit. It’s absorbing everything it can, that’s what’s going to kill him. But you just spent far too long holding him, right? What makes you think it wouldn’t have been absorbing energy from you as well?”
“But I feel fine.”
“Probably because you’re still using your augmentation. You’re strengthening your body, so you haven’t realized how weak your physical form has become. The moment you lessen your connection to the information dimension you’ll be in the same state as him. Well, you won’t be as bad as him, but you’ve already lost enough energy to cause serious complications.”
“So then, I need the same treatment as Alec?”
Kanon didn’t seem to seriously consider the fact that Vier could have been misleading her. Or perhaps she figured she needed his help either way.
“Yeah, pretty much.”
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“And can you help us both?”
“I can, but I’m not as inclined to help you for free. I’ll save you, and you’ll become my assistant.”
“Your assistant?”
“Exactly. With Karen in the state she’s in, I figure I’ll have a lot more free time, and I need someone to keep track of things for me. You might not believe this, but I’m not exactly a details kind of guy. I thought about using one of the ones Lex had me collect for her club, but none of them will work. You’re one of the few augmenteds I know that can actually keep track of things.”
“I would take the offer if I were you.” Alexis was still playing with the baby, but she gave some input. "This city will be under Pacific Empire control in a few weeks, so if you plan on staying here you’ll need someone like Vier to back you up. You’d become a political prisoner in no time otherwise.”
“I’ve come too far to start worrying about things like that. I can’t turn back. Vier, do it.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear.”
A circuit board pattern rapidly spread across Vier’s skin, and the lights started flickering. Before I could figure out what he was trying to do, Vier held Alec and Kanon’s heads in his hands. Both of their bodies shook for a few seconds. Kanon’s skin regained a natural color as she collapsed to the ground with Alec.
Completely abnormal. He just acted without any warning.
“Alright, that’s settled. Lex, I’m out of here. I’ll take these two with me.”
Vier effortlessly picked up the unconscious duo, holding one under each arm.
“Alright. You should be free tomorrow, but on Thursday you’ll have to entertain the princess’s ace.”
“That’s fine. I won’t show up tomorrow. I need to spend some time getting this one to at least third rate.”
For the first time today, Alexis’s face showed signs of displeasure.
“Fine.”
“Sorry, that’s just the way it is. Alli, see you later.”
“Yes, goodbye.”
I hadn’t been part of their conversation, but I still gave a normal farewell.
With the others still under his arms, Vier kicked the door into the lobby open and walked out. Once the door swung shut, Alexis started talking to me.
“I don’t like it.”
“What?”
There were too many things that she could have been referring to. Personally, I didn’t like anything that just happened. The whole situation was too abnormal.
“Vier spending the day with some other woman instead of me.”
“Sister of mine, that is an incredibly normal response, but at this moment I can only see it as abnormal.”
“Well, no matter. Vier has no choice. He’ll always come back to me.”
I wasn’t entirely sure how to describe the relationship between Vier and my sister, but hearing her say something so arrogant was abnormal.”
“Completely abnormal. Alexis, accept this as a warning from your family. You lack the personality, looks, or any other womanly charms that would allow you to say something like that with such confidence.”
“How rude. Personality and womanly charms aside, I think I’m quite the looker. And now I’ve got Sara to help me out.”
So she’d given up on the other two?
“Besides, Vier has no choice, not in this abnormal world.”
Finally. She was going to talk about what I’d been waiting to hear.
“Explain what you mean.”
She had already told me about her past, now I needed to know about the future.
“Do you know what my augmentation is?”
She started things off with an abnormal question.
“If you touch someone with your bare hands you can see their future.”
People usually didn’t reveal the details of their augmentations to others unless they had to, especially for someone like Alexis, but keeping secrets like that from family and close friends would be practically impossible.
“That’s partially correct, and in a normal framework of the world that’s how it should be interpreted. However, after years of use I managed to see through the mirage and distill my augmentation down to its base components. Rather than just their future, I can see a person's setting and parameters.”
“And what is that?”
The words she was using were normal, but their context was abnormal.
“Everyone has a base setting and parameters that control everything about them. They exist from the moment they’re born. Well, perhaps even before that, but for obvious reasons I’ve never touched someone before they were born. And most importantly, they can’t change. Once you learn to understand them, you can understand pretty much anything about a person, whether it be who they’ll fall in love with or when they die. And no matter what you do, those predictions will absolutely be right. I'm no exception. So I’m not seeing someone’s future, I’m just reading their parameters and extrapolating what will happen in a way that makes sense to me. That’s why I can say with certainty that Vier will always end up with me. Despite how in many ways we’re completely different than we were the first time, our base parameters are still the same.”
“So then, what? You’re saying the future you see can’t be changed?”
“No, it’s worse than that. It’s the people that can’t change. No, even that’s wrong. We don’t have control from the start. Everything has been preordained to reach an unchangeable outcome. We’re just programs set to dance for some reason beyond our knowledge. It’s impossible to resist our initial settings. Well, with one exception.”
“Nullifiers.” Based on our previous conversation, the answer was obvious.
“Exactly. They weren’t originally intended to exist, so their presence is the only thing that can mess up the program. Without them we’d always reach the same result, no matter how many times we tried.”
“Completely abnormal.”
Despite the fact that I’d internally criticized Kanon for instantly trusting Vier, I was doing the same thing with my sister. What she was saying sounded ridiculous, but I knew she was telling the truth.
“Of course. We shouldn’t be railroaded into an unavoidable future like that. Our free will has become nothing more than an illusion.”
“Does that mean you know how to escape this abnormal cycle then?”
“I wouldn’t have brought it up if I didn’t already. The way I see it, we just need to change things enough that we won’t end up at the predetermined end point. If that doesn’t happen, the whole system should fall apart.”
“Do you actually know if that will work?”
“It should. I already confirmed the theory with her.”
Alexis raised the baby into the air. She started swinging her arms and giggling, thinking it was a new kind of game.
“Karen was set to die on February 14th, 2108; her 28th birthday. Nothing could change that. Even with using nullifiers it was impossible. The hardest part was making sure I didn’t get too involved. But by using a nullifier to alter someone’s personality slightly, they were able to act in a way that broke the cycle. Sure, there were some setbacks, but it is undeniable that Karen Kaldsen is still alive.”
Alexis had already explained to me that the one year old in her arms was a young Karen Kaldsen, so I wasn’t surprised. According to Alexis, Karen would grow up like a normal kid, but as she aged she would start to regain the memories she had as an adult. Hopefully they wouldn’t come back until she was at least a teenager. I didn’t want to imagine a five year old with the brain of the adult Karen Kaldsen.
“And now,” Alexis pulled down her sleeve and touched Karen directly. “Nothing. No setting, no parameters, no future at all. Nothing about her has been decided. By avoiding her fate, Karen has managed to escape. Now we just need to do this on a grander scale.”
“If saving Karen was that hard, wouldn’t things on a larger scale be impossible?”
“No, things will compound. Saving one was hard, but now we have an unstoppable force. Karen will create a wave that will sweep over the entire planet. The existence of a living Karen Kaldsen will affect things more than any nullifier ever would. I imagine her presence alone will cause the people close to her to break free. And that will spread. The more people who aren’t controlled by fate, the faster things will change. If we manage to alter the fate of the entire city the shift will be impossible to stop. The entire world will be caught up in the impossible situation we’re going to create.”
“And then everything will return to normal?”
“Yes. A normal that you’ve never experienced.”
“Wait, that sounds normal, but there’s one thing that doesn’t make sense. If everyone is just a puppet like you said, how are you able to fight back like this?”
“Because that’s my setting.”
With her hand still uncovered, Alexis stroked her own cheek. Her visible eye had a slight glow, and an even more impressive light was visible from behind her bangs and eyepatch.
“Fights against an unavoidable fate. That’s what I’m stuck with. But no matter what I tried on my own, it became clear as day. Unavoidable. Like I said before, if I become too involved I’m the one who ruins things. That’s why I can never take center stage. I always need to use others to do my dirty work.”
“Hm. Completely abnormal. I’ve never been part of such a completely abnormal conversation in my life.”
“But you’re still here.”
“Of course. The most abnormal thing is that you haven’t actually explained what I need to do to make everything normal. The big picture is one thing, but I imagine we all need more direct instructions.”
I couldn’t see Alexis explaining everything she just said to me to the others she had Vier collect without any more specific instructions.
“We start simple. We need more people like Karen. We’ll start by helping, or rather forcing, people to escape the unavoidable future waiting for them. And don’t worry, I’ve already worked out where we’ll start. There’s just one small thing that might cause a few problems.”
“Expecting a few problems is perfectly normal.”
“Maybe, but as we progress this is going to become a pretty major problem. You see, Karen’s new body is an absolutely perfect replica of her original one, just younger. I even used the same technology that is used to create Numbers, so the fact that she’s an augmented shouldn’t matter. Her augmentation wasn’t affected at all by the process. I’m absolutely certain of that.”
“So?”
“So, this kid doesn’t have an augmentation. Whenever she lost her setting she lost her augmentation as well. She’s just a human. And if my theory is correct, this world is far more abnormal than I thought. The very concept of augmentations is wrong. They are a power that shouldn’t exist. By returning this back to normal, we’re going to be robbing people of their augmentations.”
That would be a significantly larger problem than Alexis was letting on. Most augmented valued their power more than anything else. They would never accept such an abstract goal if it meant losing their power.
Besides, large parts of society were based on augmentations. Removing them entirely would cause no shortage of troubles. Defending them would be perfectly normal.
But I’d overpower their perfectly normal desires and help Alexis, I’d already decided that. I always felt this world was abnormal, and now I knew why. From the beginning, absolutely everything was abnormal, but at least I finally had a way to return things back to normal. A normal that I didn’t even know existed. One that an abnormal girl like me couldn’t even imagine. Unsurprisingly, even at the end, this was still an epilogue on normalcy.