I couldn’t help myself. I started to panic. I took a very shaky breath, and leaned forward into Lucina as all the strength left my body. She grunted as my head slammed into her collarbone. It hurt, but I didn’t care at the moment.

I felt like I was missing something important. Like my hand, or my foot was gone. I had gotten so used to Judgment being an existence in the back of my mind, that without that constant pressure in my head from it’s existence, I felt like a semi-empty husk.

I shivered as I realized how much I had taken the A.I. for granted, and although it made no sense to me at times, it was the one constant that I’ve had since being released from the Metron Royal Prison.

Fuck me. You really aren’t there, right Judgment? If you can still hear me at all, give me a sign! “Joshua, are you ok!?” Lucina grabbed my face and lifted it up to her own.

I could see worry in her eyes. Worry, sadness, concern… Wait, what in the hell was that? I pushed out of her arms and took a long look at her. She looked just as real as I could imagine… wait, was I imagining what I saw? I grabbed her face and drew her closer with all my strength, to which she obliged.

“What are you doing, Joshua?” I knew it! I saw something in her eyes when she spoke. I brought my face across from hers and gave her a gentle kiss, and there was a slight pause before she blushed and squeezed my hand.

There’s fucking code in her eyes! Why the fuck are there numbers running along her irises? Think, Joshua, think. Calm the fuck down and think. I took a deep breath once more, and started to really think about my situation.

From the beginning, I had no evidence that I was truly where the people around me said I was, and in the first place, it was strange for Emperor Goto to visit my sickbed in person, especially with the amount of work I had seen on his desk the night before.

Then was this world fake? I looked around for any sign of that, and noticed nothing out of the ordinary. I got up to get to the door, but a firm hand pressed me back onto the bed.

I looked up the the offender, who gave me a carbon copy of Lucina’s smile from earlier. I made sure to look directly into her eyes before saying anything.

“What are you doing, Akahime?” Numbers passed through the woman’s eyes and she pressed a hand against her cheek.

“I just think you need to get some rest, Joshua. We can’t have you injuring yourself, after all.”

“Then one of you two take me to the door.” Both Akahime and Lucina looked at the door, then back at me, saying nothing.

“Damn it, you’re useless! Reya, take me to the door!” She mimicked the movements of the two women prior to her, and I was beginning to sense a pattern here.

I looked over to Gotoshi with a defeated smile on my face. “I don’t suppose talking to you would be productive in any way, would it?”

The man merely stared at me, and I noticed that all four of the other people in the room were unblinking, and mechanical in nature. God damn it, Judgment! Give me some goddamn support here! I’m your master, aren’t I!?

No sooner had I thought the words than I felt something under my hand. I fondled it under the sheets, and a grin rose on my face. So you can still hear me, but I can’t hear you? My assailant is either very bad at their job, or has a very undesirable personality.

“Joshua, why don’t you go back to bed.” Lucina insisted. My heart beat quicker at the thought of what I was about to do, but I just had to believe in my gut feeling and go for it. She isn’t real. Just take the shot.

“I know a different way I can get back on my feet quickly.” Lucina tilted her head, and a bullet entered through her lower jaw and exited out of her left eye.

Her head dissolved into code as the other three lunged for me, but it was too late. The moment I knew I had Judgment’s support again, I had already won.

---

The masked man and woman had made their way up half of the massive, semi-flooded building. All of a sudden, the woman stopped moving and looked behind her.

“Fuck, we have a problem.” Judgment spoke to her contracted partner. Gedo turned his head and looked at the masked woman.

“What is it this time? Is there another nightmare creature that’s going to chase us for the fifth time today in this Godforsaken subspace?”

“No.” Judgment floated over to her partner and settled in beside him. “It’s the Faceless Demon. He’s gotten out of your Schroedinger’s box trap.”

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

“Damn it all!” Gedo roared and kicked a sign with the words ‘Prudential Center,’ over onto the floor. It was all going to shit! His plan for easy dominance and eliminating one of his rivals without any troubles had hit a hitch. Of course.

“How’d he get out?” Gedo was still seething mad, but his curiosity won out over those explosive feelings.

Judgment pressed a button on the side of her mask, and her visor lowered, revealing an androgynous face. Her eyes started to glow, and a hologram of the patient’s room was shown mid-air.

Gedo watched in mild disbelief as the Faceless Demon went from a calm, weak person, to a maniac, grabbing the pre-programmed A.I. to his left and staring into her face… her face?

“Damn!” Gedo shouted. Of course he had noticed the code! He watched in mild annoyance as a gun materialized under the covers of the boy. Anyone aside from those damn AI would have been able to tell the shape easily enough.

The annoyance turned into shock as the man blasted the faces of his loved ones, and got up out of the bed. He then proceeded to limp out of the door, ending the playback from Judgment.

“What a lunatic. I know they’re just A.I., but he still shot the faces of his loved ones in the head!” Gedo was fuming, and the visor on Judgment’s helmet went back down.

“What do you want to do, Master? The Faceless Demon has already awoken and is back in the real world. It could continue to get dangerous if we keep moving inside his subspace with him as a variable. Should we retreat?”

Gedo bit his lip under his mask to keep himself calm. He had to really think about weighing the options. Hooking himself up to the Wave Machine had been enough of a risk, but coming in here was the climax of his long-awaited plan.

It hadn’t mattered to Gedo which Judgment User fell into his trap, he had just lucked out that the first one he encountered had pretty much been a new user.

“No.” Gedo grit his teeth. “We keep on moving. I’ve put too much time and effort into this plan for it not to bear any fruit at all! You know its rough location, right?” He turned back to the A.I., who shrugged.

“I can tell her general direction, and from where we’re standing, it’s back and to the left. Although I can’t tell the exact location at the moment, once we reach the top of the tower I should have enough distance to pinpoint her location.”

Gedo nodded, and started walking. “That’ll work. If we just find the location where his Judgment’s data is stored, we can get out scot free.” Judgment shrugged and followed her annoyed partner with a grin on her face.

---

I sat up in the bed with a start, and noticed that my arm was numb. I looked over to see that the discarded body of Boss was sitting up next to me, looking at me with no light in its eyes.

The soulless stare was a byproduct of having its circuits fried by Judgment leaving the android’s body. I had to force myself not to scream at the sight of the robot, and looked down at my arm. There was a long, white needle submerged in the appendage, one which I yanked out immediately.

Judgment, can you hear me!? Judgment!? “Yes, Master. I am here. There are some needs which require your attention.”

I breathed a heavy sigh of relief, and tried to focus on what Judgment had just told me. What do you mean by ‘needs'? ’“This was not a freak accident. Two… people have infiltrated your subspace and are looking for my program data. They want to remove me from you.” I just sat in silence while I parsed the information.

How did they get into my subspace? I don’t see anyone in the room aside from the damned robot. “It was a remote invasion, Master. Usually, people have a nullifying script embedded into their Judgment Panel to prevent remote hacking. However, the nanites injected into your arm severed the connection of your consciousness with the device, which no longer recognized you as an active user.”

“As such, they were able to just insert themselves directly into your subspace.” Is there any way to lock them in there or prevent escape? I’d love the chance to interrogate them if I could. It would make this entire thing wrap up nicely.

“Yes, Master. Just give me the word and I will run the Bulkhead Protocol.” I grinned, and kicked the corpse of Boss off of the bed.

Make sure this thing is fully dead this time. I lay back down in the bed and tucked myself back under the covers. When you’re done with that, run the program and send me in.

---

I landed on the top of a large, ruined building, surrounded by other ruined buildings of various sizes. I looked around, and cursed at the sight of the eastern coast to my left. “Damn, Boston Harbor. So this is my subspace, huh? And I thought I’d had enough of downtown Boston already.”

Most of the city was underwater, as if the sea was trying to reclaim what was initially its own. “Interesting. Even though I housed myself in here, when I did that during our first meeting, it was still just a small white room.”

I turned to see Judgment, who had seemed to have settled on using Lucina for a base, and had its hair tied up in a high ponytail. Judgment wore black latex pants, a black leather corset with a gold bondage harness on over it, a cuff on each of her wrists, and a ball gag hanging loosely around her neck.

I sighed, reminded of the night that was ruined by the Tengu assholes. “Is that the form you’ve decided to go with, Judgment?”

“Negatory, Master. I merely needed to coalesce a proper form for this encounter. If I went into combat with my appearance shifting every second, it would hinder my efficiency.”

“So, you admit you’re fonder of Lucina’s form than Akahime’s?”

“... Perhaps, Master.”

I grinned and asked, “So where are the intruders? You said there were two, right?” Judgement nodded, and pointed its finger over to a door in front of me.

“What’s that supposed to-” My words were cut short as the door burst open, and two figures stepped through onto the roof of the Prudential Center.

The first was a thin, stocky man with large, powerful legs for his size. He wore a black, skin-tight suit and a fox mask over his face, one which was framed by his short hair.

The second was a floating woman, who wore a short skirt, a red and white varsity jacket, and a baseball cap pulled over a mask of her own.

“Argh, why!?” The woman screamed. She floated in front of her partner and pointed directly at Judgment. “What did you do to me!?”