Arc 8 Superficial

Chapter 10.1 Interlude Strings

Ichigo crept along making sure to be just out of sight. Ahead by about ten feet or so Caroline and Mecha Fairy walked the corridor. Though she tried it was hard to keep her footsteps down on the marbled floors. Luckily though Mecha Fairy was very loud with her metallic suit.

‘I am getting tired of hallways. The only good thing about it is that the ceiling is fairly high, so I don’t hit my head. Oddly, though, it felt like somebody was watching me. Well, I guess that is to be expected. Just about everybody is gawking at me if they see me.’

Mecha Fairy stopped for a moment, glancing back and when she did Ichigo had already slid behind one of the pillars. This was one of the times that reading somebody’s mind paid off on knowing what they were about to do. She waited

‘It was just Mom and I, but she was in front and not looking back.’

She slumped her shoulders a little and kept walking. Ichigo followed.

‘Hmm, strawberries… smells kinda like Ichigo. Oh great, am I going to get turned on every time I smell strawberries? Should I fill a bathtub up with strawberry jam and lather it all over myself?’

~~~

Why?! Who would do such a thing? Weirdo, she is a total weirdo.

~~~

Sounds delightful.

‘How much would that even cost though?’

Who cares, we are rich bitch. Besides, we can eat it when we are done! So it is like two birds with one stone.

‘Alright, but where would we even do this?’

I don’t know. Ooo Ah, I know. Neon Nurse. Although she would likely record it.

‘Not sure if I want there to be a video of this out on the Internet.’

We both know she has way worse than that on us.

‘True enough. She has got some serious dirt on us after all.’

~~~

If that is not serious, then what the hell does Neon Nurse have on Mecha Fairy? It has to be like sex tapes or something to be worse than getting all jellied up. Ah, I got distracted by something there. She said Mom so, then that is Vesper and Caroline is her mother. Then why hasn’t she told her? Caroline isn’t particularly against sub humans, she doesn’t really like Supers in general, but it is not like she outright disdains them if they haven’t done anything to her. There was an exception to that though, Vespidian, the wasp creature…

Ichigo smacked herself on the head lightly. That explained everything, even… the eggs. Like pieces to the puzzle, it all came together from the conjecture that she had overhead over the passing months in fragments. A bug. That was uncommon even for Subhumans. Usually, they were mammals. There were exceptions, of course, foremost on the mind would be Arachnaon. This brought up distant memories.

Would little Ara come and break the monotony? Was this monotony? No, not yet. I remember back when… no, no. That was another life. I left that behind long ago.

Arachnaon, yes her. She was a very rough customer, to say the least. Definitely not somebody to run into in a dark alleyway. Of the known ones there were also Mantia and Centi, both of which worked under Arachnaon. Cold blooded murderers, those three were. Took a lot of pleasure in hunting their prey. This gave Ichigo pause, Vesper was or at the least should be like them. She should be predatory and her thoughts warped to show her change. If anything she was too human in her thoughts. Sub must be the more primal of the two and then Vesper would be the remnants of her human ego, what little of it remained. It was strange.

Insects were not the only oddity of Subhumans. There were rumors of frogmen in Venezuela and even mermaids out by Japan. Naturally, they were all true, the rumors that is. Here in the Slums there was a gang of reptilian creatures that were rejected by the Mad Dogs due to how inhuman they were. It was different than the ferals, they knew full well what they were doing. It was more of they had no emotions or conscience. If memory served then they were referred to as the Scalies. Though Ichigo doubted that was what they really called themselves, she had overheard some of them talking down below in the sewers a few times.

Ichigo took a deep breath. She had been sidetracked again connecting all of the dots. She can smell me. That didn’t bode well for the stal- investigation, this is an expedition in search of entertainment!

They came to a door and the two went in closing it behind them. She waited for a minute before edging up to it and peering in through the glass. She recognized everyone in the room save one. There was Sunshine and Dreamer… the only person in this whole city whose mind was shrouded and her thoughts muffled. It was interesting, to say the least. A more powerful probing of the thoughts would reveal something, but that sort of thing can be detected by the more savvy and potentially even be traced. Even without reading her mind Ichigo already knew a fair bit about Dreamer. One can learn a lot about somebody by the company they keep.

Which brought up the mystery person, who clearly did not work for Star Agency. She knew since they would never allow an instructor to look so unkempt and didn’t seem very interested in teaching Sunshine how to sing. He had gray in his hair despite being in his late teens and the strange look in his eyes didn’t hold a candle to the terrible things in his mind.

‘I wonder what her screams sound like? Will she writhe and twitch? What will her face look like warped in pain?’

He was finding it very hard not to hurt Sunshine and Vesper and Caroline… and Dreamer or rather Nightmare for that matter. This guy was, well, obsessed with pain and with a weirdo name like Agony it was no wonder. He was a Super, a very strange one at that. If his thoughts could be trusted then he was sort of like an empath except he could force people to feel pain though he felt it too.

Nightmare, so she was here. Perhaps things would become a lot more interesting around here, troublesome as they might be. That explained the mental defenses. A shiver went up Ichigo’s spine as she held her face, how exciting. A copycat, an imitator. A fool. Following a fool’s footsteps. Only ruin lay down that road.

Speaking of Chimera Agony was one of them, which explained a lot. Then again, if one wanted to get technical the Hero League was sort of under their control. It was similar to how the police and the military work for the government. At the end of the day, it was all the same. Different arms of the same organization, serving the same masters. Or as Rainman had once said, different wings on the same bird.

Ichigo leaned against the wall. These were bad people and she should probably do something about this. But that is something that a hero would do. Ichigo was not hero material. The problem was they would not cave to blackmail and there was no telling who could be trusted to take them out, well she could think of a few but they were off limits for personal reasons at the moment. If done poorly then this would not end well for Ichigo, nor anybody that she got involved. The quiet and peaceful life she had made would crumble. This city would be torn apart in the fighting.

There was the easy way out, but that wasn’t fun. It would ruin everything. Sixteen years of restraint, the world had been exciting during all this time, but the rules were not to be broken. The challenge not to be abandoned. It didn’t matter that it was self-imposed, a handicap to make things interesting. Without it, the excitement of the unknown would cease and the dull, colorless world that she had left behind would return.

No, pulling the strings and forcing the puppets to dance, that was too easy, too boring, mundane. Ichigo was an observer, she would not interfere unless things grew… dire. Of course, then she would fall into her old ways again. The dolls danced and talked of their own accord, so lively and wonderful. This was a game. A roller coaster of emotion, events, and happenstances. A true, unfettered world where anything could happen. Would they sniff her out? Would Chimera beat Kraken or would the normies be enslaved? Would the world be consumed in nuclear hellfire or would the Spore rouse itself out of frustration and boredom? And so many more, unseen, unpredictable events. All these possibilities let the world live in bliss, the outcome unknown. It was structured chaos and she loved it.

Ignorance, ignorance truly was bliss. For the man who knows everything can never be pleasantly surprised, nor feel the wonder of learning something new. He will rot with atrophy and go mad trying to escape the insanity of the mundane and colorless world. The food that once tasted sweet as honey turned to ashes in his mouth. When the arousing touch of the most taboo of taboo becomes flaccid and lukewarm. Senses searching, yearning, screaming for something new only to be left in an abyss of nothingness.

Nothing to make the heart yearn and twist with glee or fright and delight. These were the lessons learned and not to be repeated. The past must not be repeated or the world will turn gray once more. No, that world shall never be once more. The Sanguine Puppeteer would never make the foolish mistake of ruling the world again. Her ultimate triumph, the pinnacle of her success… her greatest folly. Killing the only one who could not be swayed, the only one whose thoughts could not be pried and read and controlled, Captain Liberty. In the years that followed the victory became hollow and all the excitement all the scheming and plotting and rolling around sleeplessly writhing her hands with glee over her foes vanished. There was no one left to oppose her… all alone, like the end of a game that would continue in perpetuity and that was where she got the idea. People could be programmed and controlled, so why could the world not be reset? And so she did. It was only a little troublesome to reset the playing board.

Ichigo smiled to herself, wiping away all of the thoughts from the before time. Caution was the only way to go about this, she liked this body far too much to go about finding a new one. She would have to play stupid while figuring out who could be trusted. Oh, how fun. The dolls are entertaining today as always.

Her mind reached into the room observing. It seemed that Vesper was finishing up her goodbyes. She would be a fun new toy to play with. Thoughts and schemes of how to bend her to her will without using her powers. That was the exciting part, the hunt, and chase, though in this case, the prey was chasing after her. It will be fun. Of course, there was another little doll who was crying to be played with, Sunshine. She listened in on their conversation.

Caroline said, “Mecha Fairy, we should be going now. You can play with your friend later.”

Vesper frowned, “But I hardly even got to hangout.”

“You are at work. You can play in your off hours. We still have to see if you can sing, remember?”

“Fine,” she relented, walking over to Sunshine and giving her a hug, “We will do stuff later.”

The normally bubbly Sunshine looked a little sad and pouted, “Nee-san is leaving?”

“Only for a little bit. I will see you at the station.”

“Sunshine has sessions with Dreamer after practice. So, so Sunshine can’t play,” she looked wearily over at Dreamer, who nodded.

Sunshine’s mind dribbled with fear, ‘Nee-san, Nee-san, Nee-san. Please, please don’t leave Sunshine alone. Don’t leave Sunshine with them, Sunshine doesn’t like the pain, doesn’t like the treatments. Sunshine doesn’t like the chair or the straps, she doesn’t like the gag that keeps her from screaming. Sunshine doesn’t like being naked in front of strange men or touching their lollipops. Save Sunshine, please… please Nee-san save ME!’

Vesper hesitated for a moment before waving goodbye to Sunshine, all the while her mind was leaking her thoughts, ‘I guess she doesn’t want to do her therapy. Well, I don’t blame her, Dreamer is a cunt. I would take my toad any day of the week over her. Still, that is a bit of a gray area for me since I don’t know too much about her problems, that sort of stuff is personal after all. It is serious and I doubt that I could help. This was the sort of things that Mind Divers were actually useful for. Well, that and drugs. I know that she takes medication and stuff cause of her nightmares and let’s face it, that could be dangerous if scary things came crawling out of there. I just… kinda been avoiding it since it is not really something to be sticking my antennae in. She never really opened up to me about it, so what am I supposed to do?’

‘Nee-san! Noooo! Don’t leave Sunshine.’

Of course, Vesper was no mind reader and she walked away, leaving Sunshine to a grim fate.

“Sunshine. Are you ready for your treatment?”

She shook her head, “Sunshine is better. She is, she is all better. No need for treatment.”

“Why do you lie to me, Sunshine?”

“Sunshine, Sunshine doesn’t lie. No more hurting please can’t Sunshine just sing today?”

“For now I suppose. Don’t you worry, Sunshine, we will have a long night ahead of us.”

Ah, well that is certainly interesting. Sooo tempting to meddle. No, I mustn’t. Not yet. I have always wondered, is this how god feels? Hearing the cries of people and choosing not to help them. Choosing not to rid the world of evil simply because it makes things interesting, maybe he is dead inside as well. Is that why prayers are not answered? Is that why he doesn’t wipe the world clean of evil? It would be so simple, so easy. Ah, that must be it we are the same. We enjoy watching them struggle and scream in desperation, clinging to their feeble existence as it is scrapped from their bones. Suffering weeds out the weak and the strong flourish, devouring their corpses. What a beautiful system, an elegant design.

I wonder, are you not entertained? Is this what you intended?