“He fainted? No, I didn’t give him anything. Make sure he’s okay. So what if I show favoritism, do your job.”

Olimpia hung up the phone and walked to the man accompanying her in the room, he wore a grey lab coat. A screen displayed names and numbers constantly in front of him.

“I’m sorry, I had to make an urgent call.” She stood behind the man and waited for his words.

“Don’t worry.” He answered as he kept his eyes on the computer. “I gotta say, though. The sample you gave me is a peculiar one.”

“I know. I hope it stays between us. I got a liking to her, you see.”

“Her? He lied to you?”

“What do you mean? Sure, I said it was a boy, but you are able to tell apart women from men, why keep calling her a boy when she’s a girl?”

The man looked at her over his shoulder with a raised brow. “I can’t believe you got a liking to someone who hides his gender like that. The sample you gave me is obviously from a man. And a strange one at that.”

“A man? That girl?” She shook her head. “No. She’s a girl, I’m sure of it. I studied her, fully.”

“Then it’s even stranger than I thought.”

*Beep

“And now things are ambiguous, too.”

Olimpia bit her lips and asked raspy. “What do you mean?”

“I'll explain. First things first. The blood you gave me was of a boy, or as you say, a girl, of around 16 years old, no?”

“Yes. And?.” Her right started tapping on the floor, rhythm increasing each passing second.

The man continued his slow explanation. “That’s where the weirdness start, the blood you gave me is of someone younger, way younger than that. It isn’t one of a teenager. It is of a baby, possibly of an unborn child! The age is difficult to know at that stage in humans, but at least I know this: the blood is of someone younger than one month.”

The sound of heels stopped, the sound of the room stagnated and she frowned with a lowered head and put a hand under her chin. “... And, that’s the first thing?” She raised her head.

“… Yes! The second, is the problem of gender, as you said, it’s easy to tell apart boys from girls, male from female, in almost all species. And the blood you gave me is of a man. But you’re saying it was from a girl? I guess you didn’t allow any moment for a switch, right?” He saw her shook her head and continued. “Then there’re two explanations I can think of now, what you took was never her blood, or she can hide her gender in a way we don’t know about.”

“... Or she was a boy originally and changed sex at some point.”

“Oh, yeah. That’s possible, too.” The man nodded and brought his left hand under his chin.

After a minute, she tapped on the man's head. “And the third one?”

“The what?” The man looked at her for a moment before opening his eyes wide. “O-oh, right right! The third problem. He isn’t in any of the world’s databases, not in the outside nor in Paversia’s.”

“... From the wilderness?”

“Could be, but I just thought of other possibility.”

“And that is?”

“An artificial human. One created in a laboratory!” The man raised both hands, as well as his voice, as high as he could. “That could explain everything! If he was just conceived, it would explain the young DNA in the cells. It also explains his lack of traces in the world. About his uncertain gender, it was possibly a modification done before he was incubated! You truly found a gem! Don’t lose track of him, or her! However you want to call, it.”

Olimpia stared at the man with half closed eyes. She cleared her throat after a minute of the man dancing around and spouting nonsense. “Don’t you dare to experiment on him without telling me first. If I get a word of it, consider your life forfeited.”

“B-but of course! I-I’d never think of doing something like that!”

“... You’ve been warned, Dr. Keima.” Olimpia turned around and walked out of the white room full with medical equipment, screens and test tubes, her long, purple dress a great contrast with it.

*****

“He’s my kid. I won’t hand him over to someone suspicious like you.” She frowned as the wrinkles became more apparent and her golden hair shook with her head.

“He fell unconscious in front of your door. You don’t know his name nor where he came from. Please, ma’am, it’s very important that you let me see he's ok."

“Heh! The business with you people is always the same! I know you can’t do anything to me here, prostitute's dog, or you’ll cause a war between your little bands! Heheh, just try to do something to me! I dare you!”

The man gritted his teeth and brought his hand to the bridge between his eyes. “I’ll wait for him to wake up and be gone after that.” He said with a muffled voice.

“You wait out there and don’t bother me!” The aged lady threw the door shut.

The man stood in the corridor of the sixth floor. He turned around and rested his back on the wall beside the door.

I screwed it, again. Charlotte thought as the voices died down. She was startled awake by those shouts and heard the last part of their conversation. She turned her head around, her eyes still fuzzy and her ears rang with the noise of an untuned sound full of static made.

“I’m sorry, dear. The big bad man is gone. You can continue to rest. Nothing bad’s going to happen, not now that you’re here.”

Chills went down her spine, Charlotte turned her heavy head to the door, still closed. The lady was outside but she heard that voice from the inside. Damned ears. She entered the Crystal’s Space to escape the noise.

“What happened to my body?”

It was skinnier than a couple hours ago, she hadn't done anything to it but her daughter thought different.

HAD TO EXPEL THE POLUTION

“Oh? You already know what it is? Why does it appear, then?”

IN THE PROCESS – NEED MORE DATA

“I see, at least you can do things without me being conscious of it, but stop it for now. I need to go to a safe place first… Wait ‘till I get a house to gather more data.”

She opened her eyes with difficulty and turned her head slowly to the side. She lied inside a green walled room with only the bed and a wardrobe to her left, the static music came from somewhere else. She tried to sit up but failed at first, the strength in her body insufficient. She breathed for a minute before making another attempt. She did it on the fourth and looked at her bloated belly.

Almost the same as last time, huh. At least I'm not in the bones… I need to get out of here.

She stretched her legs and moved them, regaining a sense of self and awareness of it. She stood up and walked some steps until she felt it was enough. She went to the closed door and made sure that lady wasn't around. The old lady sat in front of a big TV in the living room in the same place as Eve's house. She grabbed the knob and tried to turn it, locked. She sighed and opened it with Prism's help. She walked slowly and tried not to make any sound in her voyage. She saw the TV as she walked behind the old lady, it played music videos with so much static she couldn't tell people apart. She arrived at the front door and unlocked it the same way as before.

As she opened a slit in the door, she saw the coated man crouching in front of the door, a number of tools on the floor and a couple in his hands. His face pale and his eyes wide open. Charlotte opened the door completely, waved at him and walked past him after closing the door again.

The man jumped as the click of the door resounded in front of him. He looked at Charlotte and started to store his tools inside his clothes. "What happened?"

Charlotte frowned and brought her hands to her ears. "Please speak softer, I can't handle sound right now… I didn't want to be there so I went out."

“Just like that? Anyway, let me take you to that girl’s house.” The man whispered.

“Thanks.” She paused after some steps and looked back at the house. “Damn, that woman took away my gun.”

The man followed her action and sighed. “I’ll get them after you’re safe.”

“Is she dangerous?”

“Not to adults, for kids like it's a different matter, if you want to do everything she says it's safe, though.” Charlotte started to walk up the stairs and motioned the man to continue. “Her name is Ange Marianne. She lost all her family throughout the years, two sons and three daughters, one of them had kids, all died at some point. She lost her mind when her last grandson died in front of her, four years ago. Since then, she'd brought some lost children in there, three. The first one escaped from her after being held in there for a month. The other two weren’t allowed that luxury, she killed them when they tried to get out.”

“And, no one did something about her?”

“The children were orphans, thieves or something like that. They lived in the street. Those three cases are the ones we’re aware, there're possibly more.” He shrugged his shoulders as they arrived to the eighth floor.

“I see.” Her breath was rough with the climbing and needed his help to walk steadily. He supported her from the waist and brought her to Eve's door, she looked past the window at the end of the corridor and saw the blue sky in the horizon. “How long was I in there?”

“Half an hour, I believe. I’ll try to get it now. Rest assured, I’ll be back here in a while.” He let her go in front of the door and turned to the stairs.

“Thanks.” She turned her head to the man as he approached the stairs. “Hey, how did you know all that?”

“… I was briefed before you walked out of there.”

“Wait a bit.” She closed her eyes and went inside the Crystal’ Space. She scanned that lady’s house and found the gun in the lady’s lap, she was still looking at the TV, but her face frowned as her hands caressed the gun. “I think that woman has my gun with her. Please be careful.”

“… Got it, you too. Don’t over exert yourself.”

“Yeah, I’ll try not to.” She smiled wryly and knocked on the door.

After a minute, she knocked harder, making her face turn sour, she felt relieved as hurried steps came her way.

“Yes?” She heard a young girl’s voice at the other side, Emily’s.

“Emily? It’s me, Ch-Hiro. Is Eve in there?”

“Ah! Hiro! Mom! It’s Hiro!”

Charlotte heard the girl running back inside, she lifted a hand to massage her head. Someone touched her shoulder and she opened her eyes in a hurry, not realizing she closed them at some point.

“A-are you okay? You look so pale. Look at those hands, they are so frail. My god, what did they do to you?” Sheryl brought her to a hug and caressed her back.

“Sorry, mind the volume? My ears can only take so much noise…"

“Oh, I’m sorry. Come in, you can rest in Eve's room. Want anything else?" Sheryl walked with her between her arms.

“Silence, if it isn’t too much to ask. I’ll be better in a while.”

“Alright.”

She sat Charlotte in the room's chair and prepared the bed. After she helped Charlotte lie on it, she put the blankets over her and turned the lights off. She closed the door as silently as she could and told Emily to keep her voice low and to not turn on the TV. That was the last thing Charlotte heard before falling asleep.

Charlotte woke up in darkness and looked around, from the things she could vaguely see, she was still in Eve’s room. She sighed before she felt pressure on her belly, lowering her head, she saw a silhouette on it. She lifted her left hand and touched some bund of threads, realization hit her after couple of seconds, hair. Eve's head possibly rested there, she thought as she threaded through it. Her head felt lighter and maybe because it'd been a long time or her ears were better, she wasn't hearing as much noise as before. She let her body relax again as her eyes kept staring to the ceiling. I’ll stop experimenting with things for a while. At least until I can do this kind of thing without a problem.

She closed her eyes and entered the colorless space, half the initial black spots gone. “Maintain this state for now, I guess my body is skinnier now. Until I regain my normal weight, we’ll do nothing to the black spots. Except if they become a danger to me.”

Prism said the danger they pose her wouldn't be a worry if she had more than 80% of the internal energy, if she took into account CECC capacity, the she needed only 45% of the total amount.

She asked Prism to display the findings and read through it. “Basically, for whatever I do with this energy, a reaction to it is created. That reaction is somehow stored in my soul, polluting it, or simply wearing it down. The way to make it better is to transfer that reaction to another place, my body for example, and more reaction's made if I want to put it in another body, it's less than what originally was in me… It follows some kind of principle of action and reaction? Nice, and here I thought this was outside of normal physic laws and energy conservation. At least the CECC can somehow handle it, but I need to increase its capacity, right now it’s almost doubling the one in my soul’s. The problem comes when the CECC empties, or is it that it becomes full? Alright, let’s create a limit to what I can do. Every time the CECC is close to being empty, make it so I won’t be able to do anything else, except that I require it… Never mind, just inform me of it.”

She slept soundly after that and woke up as her face was touched. She opened her eyes to a cloth covering her eyes. She brought her hand to her face and removed it.

“Ah! You’re awake!” Charlotte's face contorted as Eve's voice entered her ears.

“Please, be silent or go out.” She said between her teeth.

“Oh… Sorry, I forgot. How’re you feeling.” Eve took away the cloth from her hands and studied her face.

“I’m quite good already, I think. What time’s it?” She placed her arm over her face and shut her eyes tight.

“9 last time I saw. What happened to you? Did they do something terribly to you?”

“They? Who? No, no. I did this to myself.”

“Really? He said the truth? But you look so bad, they must’ve done something to you without you realizing!” Eve voice and frown increased after each word out of her mouth.

“Your voice.” Eve flinched and made a silly as her frown flew away. “No… I, I become like this when I stress too much over things. He, who?”

“That man!” She quietly said with certainty in her words. “One of the three we met the other day!”

“Oh, yeah. He went to retrieve something from me.”

“You mean, your gun? He took it away with him. He wanted to give it to you personally and walked off once I said I wouldn't allow him in the house, he said you knew the place to retrieve it."

“… Why?” Charlotte uncovered her face and looked at the silly girl.

“Why? We didn’t want him to do something else to you! And he even said he could do something to make you better! That bastard!” Her voice fluctuated in volume, it kept a constant rise and lowered as Charlotte eyed her.

“Really… Anyway, I want to rest for a while. 9 in the morning you said? Your school?”

“I can’t go there and leave you here!” Eve put her mouth next to Charlotte's ear. “You don’t want anyone knowing about your gender, right? I’ve to take care of you constantly because of that.”

Charlotte smiled and thanked her with the sweetest face she could make. They continued to talk for some time until Eve was reminded of the voracious appetite the little girl had. She went to the kitchen and spoke with her mother about making breakfast, Charlotte heard them, the spoke with a normal volume and she wondered why they were so sensitive every time the black spots exceeded a certain amount.

After some minutes, Eve came back with two dishes and her mother brought a third one, she also brought juice which refreshed her throat. Charlotte ate and thanked them multiple times. Sheryl suggested for her to rest more and she felt obliged to do so. The day was over in a flash, she didn't enter the colorless space once.

There wasn't much difference the next day. Except that in the late afternoon, Sheryl told her they found a small house for her, two streets away. Charlotte went there with Eve, Sheryl and Emily. Eve helped her walk and stayed near her all the time, even if she said she could do it herself already. Sheryl wanted to make all negotiations and bargain a good deal for her while Emily played all the time, running around the other three and, once in the house, running through all the place.

The house was in the third floor of a twelve-tory building, a man around fifty stood beside the door and waved at them once they arrived. Sheryl spoke with him almost all the time with Charlotte and Eve at her back, asking things about the house and trying to lower the price as much as possible. At the end, a contract for 900 FC a month was made, Sheryl became her guarantee. The house had two bedrooms, a bath connected to the biggest of them, a kitchen and a living room connecting the kitchen and the bedrooms. She could start living there after two days.

When they arrived back to Eve’s home, Sheryl apologized as she was unable to find a cheaper apartment, she said there certainly were but she needed more time and look through other areas. Charlotte didn't mind paying that bit more, she had grown attached to this family already and was quite happy to be this close to them.

“You need to buy all the furniture. I’ll go tomorrow with Emily if you feel weak.” Sheryl said as she started to put dinner on the table.

“I’m alright now, really. I just need to be cautions and behave properly."

“Alright. Tell me if anything bothers you, even when you go away.”

“Thanks.” Charlotte smiled and started to eat.

The next day, they walked all afternoon through stores. They helped her buy a bed and a wardrobe for her personal room in the first store; after that they walked down the street and arrived in a kitchenware store where they bought all the tools needed along with a fridge. The third one was a store specialized in comfort, they bought a couch for two, a matching table and a small drawer where she could put things, like vases or things like that, Sheryl’s suggestion. The last store sold bathroom utensils: a curtain, a drawer to store all her hygiene things and a mirror. They made a contract with a transporting office and made them go twice to her house. The next day to bring her the bed, and the day after that to bring everything else. The next day was Sunday, after all, and she had to pay twice the amount if she wanted it.

She went out the next morning with Eve, the teenage didn’t let her go alone. They walked to the old changer’s place. She didn’t have much cash left and she needed to pay the first two months today and buy other things in the near future. She brought five thousand gers with her.

Eve and the old man, Mayne, opened their eyes wide when she mentioned the amount, but didn’t make any comment on it. With 4750 FC in her pockets, they walked back to Eve’s house. Eve kept looking around with a cautious expression.

“You look like a criminal that’s hiding from the cops.”

“A-a what?! No, it’s just, you don’t seem fazed at all about what you have…”

“And you’re telling the thieves where to look for, keep calm and move on. If you just walk like normal nothing’s going to happen.”

“... I can’t keep the same attitude as you. How do you do it?”

Charlotte looked at her friend as one brow raised. I’m probably worth more than a million gers. At least, his job offered him that amount. What’s then only an increase of five thousand, I’m still a walking treasure without it. She chuckled and turned her head to the front.

“W-what? Hey, tell me! What’s the matter!”

“Nothing, it’s just, let’s say I’ve been in more pressing situations.”

“More pressing? You’re kidding, right?”

“Nope. So, don’t worry about it.”

They strode through the street in silence and arrived at Eve’s house after some time. They ate lunch and went to her newly acquired apartment where she gave the first two months payment to the man. He crossed the door with a happy face and closed it, they busied themselves with the house until someone knocked on the door, the bed arrived near five in the afternoon.

After they had a light meal at Charlotte's suggestion, the family left her alone in the house. She locked the door tightly and walked to her room. She fell in the double sized bed and let her mind wander around before she fell asleep. She woke up in darkness and felt cold, she looked around cautiously and saw the sole window of the house, lights adorned the outside and little sparkles illuminated the sky. She marveled at it for a while before she walked to the switch next to the door and brought light to the room.

She found her bag in the corner of the room and started to bring out everything out. “I still need to go get my gun. I guess I’ll do it later. What to do with all this...”

She entered the Crystal’s Space as a light bulb illuminated in her brain and did a quick scan of the house, then the room with more caution. She found it between the window and the bath. After using some non-spendable energy, she took out a tile and deposited the gers she still had in the space beneath the floor, 52.724 worth of bills went down. With space still in there, she hid the documents she hand’t read yet and left the rest under her bed to be disposed later.

She went to the kitchen and prepared herself a quick meal for three. Finally, she walked to the bathroom as she looked around HER house once more. No cameras, no strange cables nor any uncalled device. She received the same answer inside the Crystal' Space. A place of her own, where she could be herself for a little bit, again. She undid all the scripts she had placed in her body and opened her eyes; the make-up gradually fell to the bathroom’s floor, her chest was finally free and her body relaxed. She entered the shower and, for the first time in what she felt like years, took a long, pleasant bath.