The three reconvened an hour later at a nearby cafe, after cleaning up the aftermath of the lightning strike(the house was fine, other than a couple broken windows and a burnt spot on the road outside, somehow), and changing out of their ruined clothing. Now in the cafe, the three sat around a round table. Caleb kept an ‘active’ conversation’ with the girl(mostly questions answered by a simple one or two word answer), so Adam was free to observe the two of them. The girl had been bundled up in the blanket, so he had not gotten to get a good look at her.

She was incredibly pale. Her eyes were puffy, and her clothes were featuring some random design of a young boy, who looked a surprising amount like Caleb, surrounded by monsters and people, all engaging in a bloody brawl. She seemed to be withholding her emotions, and her face was mostly blank, with appropriate reactions to the conversation. She seemed like someone very withdrawn, someone who did not, or could not like other people.

She was surprisingly pretty though.

Though she was around high school age, objectively, she was very pretty, the type of girl that boys would fight over, and people would croon over. She seemed like your typical, popular, snobby upper class highschool girl.

So why was she isolating herself? And why had she reacted in that way, with such rage toward her rescuer, in that situation? Granted, he wasn’t looking for gratitude, but shock would have been expected, maybe fear or even horror, not rage or sorrow.

Suddenly he was jolted out of his train of thought as Caleb pushed his chair back.

“Well we’re all good here. Thank you miss Chiba, and you’re free to go.”

“I’ll take you back,” Adam stood up as he spoke “you’ll need someone to help you out with the damage to your house right? I can fix up a temporary…fix to your windows until your parents-”

-the girl’s face dropped, before blanking again-

“...get it fixed” Adam finished, thrown off for a second by the sudden change in her emotions.

“...sure.” the girl mumbled, before getting up and heading for the door.

Adam made to follow her, but was yanked down by Caleb until his ear was at mouth level.

“Something is wrong with that girl.” Caleb muttered directly into his ear “Despite all the questions I asked, and the succinctness of her replies, I don’t think I got anything out of her. More than that though, she just feels wrong. Like she’s nothing, and yet, more than anyone would ever be. I’ll talk to HQ about putting a tail on her, so until they muster the resources, go with her and make sure she doesn’t leave your sight.”

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…

The two made a strange sight walking together. Adam spent the walk lost in thought and internally writhing in the awkwardness of the situation.

“Caleb wanted to make sure they had constant surveillance on the girl? Why?” his thoughts flashed through his head like cars going the opposite way on a highway “sure she gives off a weird feeling, but she’s just a regular girl…”

As they arrived, there was a large box on the doorstep. As the girl approached it, Adam had a sudden realization.

“What if this is the next attack?”

With sudden urgency, with a cry of “stand aside!” Adam pushed the girl onto the grass of her lawn, before yanking the box open, and readying himself for whatever happened next. He did not expect, in any sort of possibility, for the box to be filled to the brim with manga, figures, and even…a body pillow.

With a shriek, the girl pushed him aside, just as he had done moments earlier.

“D-don’t look!” she cried, her face flushed bright red in what seemed to be embarrassment “they’re n-not mine!”

She quickly grabbed the box, with a surprising amount of strength for her nimble frame, and dragged it in. Adam quickly followed, to see a door at the top of some stairs slamming behind the girl’s heels. He cautiously followed to see the girl randomly tossing sheets and blankets to cover up several cabinets of what looked like manga and merchandise from fictional series. She stopped for a second, before furiously hurling a random motley of objects at him.

“Get out, get out!” she shrieked frantically.

Adam made to close the door, when something caught his eye that brought forth a rush of memories. He reached out and caught it before it could hit anything.

It was a small figurine, the very same character that was on the girl’s shirt.

He then felt a sharp pain in his knee as one of the objects connected. Adam looked down reflexively down in pain, and his eyes came to rest on a book. One well-read, creased, dog-eared and, clearly, loved. Not only that though, it was a book that he recognized, and one that was connected to both the shirt, and the figurine.

“No way! Is that Elken?”

The girl froze, eyes widening in shock.

“You… you know Elken?” she breathed out in disbelief, as if she believed it too good to be true.

Elken had been a lifeline to Adam growing up. A classic tensei isekai story, based around a precocious young child, born weak and dying a few years after birth, only to be reborn in a typical Isekai fantasy setting, born as an able bodied, long living elf. Adam had loved the story, and growing up alone, it had been one of the few things that gave him happiness, and was the hyperfixation that he had been speaking of when Miss Bae had asked him about his Isekai factors. Taking a few minutes to take in his surroundings, he felt overwhelmed. The walls were almost covered ceiling to floor with bookshelves, all filled with manga, novels and graphic novels. What little room there was taken up by figurines, posters, keychains and stickers. But-

“This room feels more like a library.” Adam thought “there are no personal items, no pictures, not even a proper bed.”

He examined the girl again. Her skin, pale, from lack of exposure to sunlight maybe? Her eyes, puffy, from lack of sleep.

“What happened to this girl?”