On the Ground Linri was comforting Jaime. He was patting her head and telling calming words."There, there. It"s all right. Just let it all out." Even though Linri was trying to calm her down his heart was beating furiously. He was almost killed by the person he was trying to find and possibly help. Remembering about it gave him gooseb.u.mps all over again.
After about 5 minutes Jaime finally calmed down and let Linri go. Her eyes were still reddish almost as if she could start crying any time.
"Calmed down finally?"
Linri was looking at the girl in front of her. She had long silver hair and green almond eyes. She was wearing a hoodie, a black skirt and striped stockings. There was a headphones around her neck. Now that he looked at her carefully he could see that quite cute but that was not out of his own expectations. Almost every character he met in the game was described as either handsome or beautiful aside from some special cases.
"Yes" answered Jaime meekly.
"Okay then. Good. So anything you want to say?"
"I"m sorry"
Seeing her look when she was saying sorry Linri felt quite bad. He felt like he had committed some unspeakably crime.
"I was not asking you to apologize. I was asking you to elaborate your situation. Why are you here? Haven"t you said that Jaime was some kind of prodigy detective? So what"s with this s.h.i.+t hole?"
"I dont know." Jaime answered meekly again.
Seeing her confused look Linri could tell that she really didn"t know anything about this.
"Anyway I see some chairs and a desk let"s sit down there and talk. I feel very uncomfortable sitting here" Linri changed the subject. He didn"t wanna force her to speak when she seemed like she could cry any minute now.
Linri sat the chair in front of the table while Jaime sat behind it. If it was a normal situation it would look like Linri came here to hire her.
"Soooo I always to ask you why does Jaime always wear headphones? She doesn"t seem like the type to listen to music." Linri knew the reason why but he asked for it anyway. The reason why Jaime always wore headphones was cla.s.sic music had a calming effect on her and it would help her think in her cases. Since he found out that running helped him think more clearly maybe listening to music could help Spark. He was also trying to confirm whether they were affected by the characters they became now or was it just a placebo effect it had on himself.
"Oh, it relaxes her and helpful in thinking." said Jaime.
"So have you tried listening to it yet?"
"Of course not! How could I? Everything is crazy and I dont know what"s going on."
"You should try it. I heard that cla.s.sical music can help people relax. I can see that you are still jumpy so why not try it. If it does not work it would be all right but if it did that would be even better and you can calmly tell me what happened to you."
Jaime hesitated a little but eventually said "okay" and put on her headphones and closed her eyes. Linri could visibly see her relax. During this time he got up and checked around the office. Compared to outside it looked a lot better and there wasn"t that disgusting smell around. Still the place looked like it was about to collapse any minute now.
He did not see any kind of pictures or posters on the wall. There was a door to his left side. Linri a.s.sumed it was leading to her bedroom but Linri did not see anything. There was not any kind of bathroom or a kitchen. Bedroom might have a bathroom but there was no way that there could be a kitchen in there. Linri wondered if she had eaten anything yet or was she hungry.
Jaime suddenly spoke and pulled Linri out of his trance.
"Wow you were right. Listening to music really helped. I wonder why I didnt think of this before"
"Well then. Now that your murdering tendencies are gone how about you start telling me what happened? I can roughly guess but I wanna hear from your mouth."
When Linri mentioned her attack she turned red. It seemed like she was embarra.s.sed over what happened.
"You remember the PM I sent you right? I received similar replies from Gendor and the others. That was when the audio file appeared in the forum. I listened to it and I remember feeling like my head was about to split. Then I was suddenly in a dark s.p.a.ce. I kept falling for G.o.d knows how long when I suddenly crashed to the ground. I saw Jaime and the other 7 from the pictures. I tried to talk but there was no sound. Then Jaime came and stabbed me through my heart. When I woke up again I was already here in this body."
Her experience was almost identical to what Linri been through aside from some minor details.
"Wait? Only 8 people? Wasn"t there a 9th person in there?" This was the most important question. Linri remembered seeing a 9th person but he couldn"t remember his face. He was 90% sure that if they wanted to return he was the key to all this.
"No? I dont remember any 9th person. So why are you here Kasaix? Is there also others who came? Do you know how we can return?" Linri could see the agitation in Spark"s eyes.
"Well since you are also here that means there are 6 other people here besides us. Also I am sorry but I dont know the way back. Just like you I also went through the same thing aside from some slight differences. I thought that there might be others that came here because Linri said that "They were not going to be our toys but we will be their toys" since he talked plural and there were 7 other guys I decided to check it out. You were the closest and here we are" explained Linri slowly.
When she heard that he did not know how they could return she was disappointed but there was nothing she could do.
"You know that you are weird right? How can you think all that stuff? I was shaken by what happened and couldn"t even left the room but here you are already trying to find others. How can you be so calm?" Jaime was surprised by the question she asked. Why did she want to know that?
Just like Jaime Linri was also surprised by the question. Now that he thought about it the things he did seemed especially weird. At the morning when he woke up he was shaken but it didn"t take him long to get over it. Even though he knew there might be others that came together with him he didn"t immediately search for them. The first thought he had was to get a weapon. These were not normal actions. It hadn"t even been a day but he already seemed to accept that he could not return so he didn"t even try to search for a way back.
When he thought about it carefully Linri found a possible answer. This also proved one of his hypothesis to certain extent.
"Well I think I know the answer but are you certain you want to know too? I am not sure how you are gonna handle that." Linri didn"t want to answer her outright and tried to see her reactions first.
"Yes" There was not a shred of hesitation in her voice.
"You see, if my hypothesis is right we might have a problem. You remember I asked you to listen a music right? I noticed it in the morning. I think there might be a possibility of us being affected by the bodies we possess right now. You are Jaime so you can relax by listening music. The same applies to me. One of the character traits I gave Linri was that being always calm and collected when he was in a dangerous situation or he did not know what"s going on. This was what my father thought to me IRL I could never do that but since Linri was based off of my character I also gave him this trait and it seems like its working. I also think that we will slowly be a.s.similated by their personalities. The worst part is we wont even notice. It will just feel natural " Hearing his answer Jaime was horrified.
What Linri told her was akin to a slow brainwas.h.i.+ng the worst part was he said they will slowly be a.s.similated and they wont even notice it. Even thinking about it left her shaken.