Taking a step back, she was thinking of running away, as fast as her legs could possibly take her. She was sorry with Jean, but she couldn’t let herself be caught now. Not when she just finished the first machine. She still had others to make!

“Is that the face you show to someone who has helped you two, no, three times the last week?”

“…?”

What is he talking about, he helped me? When…? Right!

“James?”

Smiling at her response, Gut said.

“I am not him, but I work for him. You can call me Gut, I will be protecting you from now on if you give me the pleasure.”

“… What do you mean…?”

Looking back a Jean, the man chuckled at her response.

“You two asked the same thing, too similar, heheh… What I mean is simple, you can not be left alone anymore. Now, come sit so we can talk like civilized people.”

Remembering about Jean, she panicked inside.

“W-wait, I want to talk alone with you!”

“Why? He already knows everything. At least everything the world knows about you.”

“…! Don’t you mean!”

“Yes. It happened at this sunrise, two hours and thirty-nine minutes ago, Necox found the one who hacked them.”

“… No way, too fast…”

She muttered, not realizing the astonished face Jean made when she answered the man.

She’s really the hacker… Why?

“Well, we would like to apologize, it is because of our negligence that they found you so fast, after all, we gave them a report that hastened their search by at least a month.”

“…! You! Why did you give them that! Damn it… What do I do now…?”

“You got two options now, three if you are suicidal. First, you run on your own, second, you come with me, third, well, you give yourself away to Necox and do their biddings.”

“… I…”

“Let me finish first, please. The first option is dangerous, but if one has experience in hiding and running away, it is feasible. The second option is, in my opinion, the best option. We only want to understand what you did and why you did it.”

“… Let me think for a second…”

Closing her eyes, she wanted to first calm herself and then start to consider the options he just gave her.

Suddenly she realized she was in the Crystal’s Space. She had brought White Prism without much thought, wanting to try her new suspicions, all gone from her now messy mind.

… I can think better here…

“Hey, Prism, please show me the External Projection.”

She saw herself sitting, she had a calm expression, not like one in the verge of losing it all. She looked around her, she saw Gut’s hands and some part of his legs. She also saw Jean’s hands, they were clenched and she could see they were having a lot of force on them.

Right… He was there, I totally forgot… I need to thank and apologize to him…

“Prism, widen the visible range a little, keep going until I say stop.”

The projection started to get bigger, but the quality of it was reduced considerably. When it had encompassed completely Gut and Jean, she said to stop.

She looked at Gut’s face. She wanted to inspect him, anything could be helpful. She couldn’t find anything abnormal. She just saw the same she had seen before. His heartbeat appeared to be normal, and his hands were relaxed, he kept moving his head around, albeit a little, but he showed no impatience.

Gritting her ‘teeth’, she couldn’t help but exclaim.

I can’t do anything with this!

She had not seen into his eyes as he was wearing glasses, and doing so would require her to be ‘reduced’ a lot.

There’s nothing else, I guess.

She went past the glasses and froze. His irises were surrounded by layers, like an onion.

He’s a modified human…

Now she had something to work with.

At the moment when Charlotte closed her eyes, Gut felt something changed. Her breathing became stable, the anxiousness in her face was gone and her arms relaxed.

Hou? How did she become like that? Some upgrade…? No, from the reports what I was given, she has not done anything to her body.

After looking at her for a moment, he then looked around, trying to see if there was any kind of relaxing fragrance that couldn’t work on him but would work on normal humans.

Not finding anything, he stayed still, waiting for her to make a decision. If anything, he was more interested in her than in her research. He had been monitoring her since Tuesday and haven’t found anything strange or out of normal around her.

He was the one who found her passed out on the warehouse on Saturday. He didn’t find anything unusual at that time, either.

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He wondered what she did yesterday morning in the warehouse. After all, there was nothing in there, but when she came out of it around noon, she looked haggard, as if she had done some intense exercise.

He looked around the place while she was gone and didn't found anything indicating any form of exercise.

Opening her eyes, she looked at Gut again, she had a small smile in her face. She had decided, I'll go with him!

At least that way, she would have more chances of escaping the pursuing governments. He was a modified human after all, he had all kind of quirks to avoid disastrous problems.

Leaning forward, she spoke with certainty in her voice.

“Mister Gut, I’d like to know first, how are those eyes of yours.”

… What? Since when did she have that attitude? This is not the teasing type I’m used to, it’s more like a snake, or a spider waiting to capture its prey.

Jean was speechless at her change. He only spared a glance when she entered the kitchen. And she was the same as usual, after that he kept his attention on the black vested man. And then, out of nowhere, he heard her talking with authority!

Looking at her with open eyes, he waited for the conversation to develop.

Even if he looked calm on the outside, Gut was as confused as Jean, if not more. Apart from her obvious change, she had asked something directly, as if commanding, as if knowing what the answer was.

She had never seen me before, so how…? Should she be bluffing? No, that attitude is not of someone of bluffing. This is certainly… Interesting.

Smirking, he showed his teeth in a wide smile. This made Charlotte astonished, she had thought she had gotten a bargaining chip against him, but now she felt she just fell into a trap!

He’s a crazy one.

“Sure, I can show my eyes. But first, I would like to know, how did you know?”

“That’s a secret.”

She answered while sticking out of the tongue.

He knows I know and has no qualms about it!?

“Fair enough. Then, do you want for him to see?”

Gut pointed to Jean. He was confused about the direction of the conversation. He didn’t know what was happening at all!

“Uhm, what do you want to do, Jean?”

“What do I want…? I don’t know, I still can’t believe what’s happening.”

“Ah… That is…”

“Let me explain, so you both know of the situation first. After that, we can continue talking about interesting things.”

He looked at Charlotte at this time, sending shivers down her spine.

What am I dealing with!?

“Yes, do so.”

She smiled, trying to hide her true thoughts.

“So, as I said before, Necox discovered your little hacking this morning, to be exact, it has been two hours and forty-six minutes now. Since they have been narrowing and narrowing the scope of their investigations for two weeks now, they sent squads to all the points they believed you were in. Obviously, they are not official, what they wanted was one thing, capture or destroy.”

!!!

Both Jean and Charlotte sucked air at this moment. Jean because he thought Charlotte was already in some dangerous waters. Charlotte because…

“The fire this morning?”

She thought that fire was meant to kill her. She narrowly escaped it and suffered some burns.

“No.”

“What? Then?”

Ignoring her question, Gut continued.

“Once they found it was you, they sent the squat placed in this city. But, you were not in your house, that building was burned down! Without any other option, they told the government about you. That was, almost an hour ago now.”

“…”

“I would like to say, you have those three options I spoke of before, but now, I am not letting you go. You can only come with me or die by me.”

“…!?”

Jean didn’t know why it has changed so fast, there wasn’t anything that could have made a change. He couldn’t keep with the conversation. He was starting to feel despair.

“I… I believe I don’t want to be part of this…”

“A wise choice, cowardly, but wise nonetheless.”

“… Jean…”

“I’m sorry, Charly, I… Just can’t…”

Sighing, she looked him in the eye. She saw fear starting to take root in him. He always wanted peace and tranquility, not some kind of adventure, a dangerous adventure to unkown places.

“I understand… Thank you, really, you’ve helped me a lot.”

Standing, Charlotte walked to Jean, and hugged him with everything she had. Even if it hurt, she didn’t care. She owed too much to him.

“When this’s over, I’ll tell you everything.”

“Haha… I don’t think I deserve it…”

“Don’t say that, now. I’m sure it’ll be funny at that time…”

She said, trying to smile, she didn’t think he would give up so fast. She at least wanted for him to know her version or her thoughts. But from what she could see, he was having problem with holding with the premises.

“Then, it is better for us to part.” Gut said, standing behind Jean

*Thud!

!

She didn’t see when he got behind Jean. He appeared there like a ghost and then hit him on the back of the neck.

Jean was unconscious.

“Jean!”

She glared at Gut, feeling the impulse to launch herself on him, even if she knew that she couldn’t do anything, she couldn’t leave it like this!

“Miss Charlotte, this is necessary.”

“Grr, how’s this necessary?! We’re going now! What if he dies because of it?!”

“You need to understand, Missy, you are being tracked right now. If we leave like this, what do you think will happen to him?”

“Uh? He doesn’t know anything, they can’t do anything to him!”

“And that is why you are wrong. He knows you, he misled the government before you woke up. He, right now, can be regarded as your accomplice.”

“W-what?”

“Exactly. What we can do to him now, is to make it seem like what he did, he did against his will, or he was not even the one who did it.”

“… How do we make it?”

Smiling, Gut carried Jean’s body and sat it down on a chair. He then took out a rope out of nowhere and tied him up.

“Do you have something to give to him?”

She couldn’t say anything, this was something she had no experience with.

Why’re we doing this again?

“Missy?”

“Ah, yes! Eh, something? Why?”

“A parting gift, of course, so he could feel your sincerity or something on that note.”

“Uhm………. Oh! Yes!”

“Then, please.”

“Wait a second.”

Going to his room, she brought her satchel with her.

“Can you go out?”

“Alright.”

Turning around, Gut got out of the kitchen and waited on the living room.

“… I’m sorry, please be safe.”

She took out a pen she found in his room and scribbled in his face. She then put her bra in his head, tying it to his neck. Finally, she smirked in satisfaction at her excellent job.

“What an interesting gift you have made.”

Gut said as he saw her work. Feeling ashamed, Charlotte shrugged and protested.

“I told to to wait outside!”

“And I am waiting outside, you never said I could not look inside, though.”

Fuck him.

“Let’s go.”

“Where to?”

“Uh?”

She looked back at him.

Where to!? If you don’t know how’ll I know! You’re the one saying to go somewhere!

“Ha ha ha, this will be a fun ride. I am joking. You know where we are going. To James’ place.”

“… Right.”

They hadn’t even departed and she was already feeling a headache.

----------------------------------------

“She went out with him… She left me tied and went away with another man… What am I? A joke to you? I’ll make you take back what you just did to me, CHARLOTTE!!”

When Jean came to his senses, he found himself tied to a chair. His eyes were shut close and he felt something on his head.

He had been shouting now for half an hour. He didn’t know for how long was he unconscious, though.

*Ring~ring~!

Suddenly, the bell rang. Jean started to shout louder, but he couldn’t be heard from where the switch to the bell was. He lived in the 3rd floor of a building and the switch was at the entrance of it. There was another bell in his door, but no one ever used it.

After waiting for some minutes and hearing the bell rang countless times, he was on the border of insanity.

After a moment of stillness, he heard someone break the door of his house.

“YOU WILL PAY FOR THAT DOOR!”

He shouted as hard as he could. Giving away his position. After a moment, he heard steps coming to him.

“Throw everything you have or you’ll be arrested!”

“I don’t have anything, you can come and see!” He shouted in desperation.

…

“What’s that?”

“Sir, I don’t know! He was like that when we found him! We put him to sleep as he wasn’t able to move, and was shouting incoherencies.”

*Sigh…

“Poor guy… To be left like that by a woman… I believe he wasn’t aware of his situation?”

“I think so, sir!”

“Let’s take everything as evidence. Take a picture and give it to him, at least it’ll be a good memory for him. If not… It doesn’t matter. Let’s go.”

“Sir!”