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“Dreams, memories, the sacred—they are all alike in that they are beyond our grasp. Once we are marginally separated from what we can touch, the object is sanctified; it acquires the beauty of the unattainable, the quality of the miraculous.

Everything really has this quality of sacredness, but we can desecrate it at a touch, how strange humanity is! Their touch defiles, and yet they contain the source of miracles.”

…..

….

…

..

.

Whoooooosh …

Wheoooowooosh …

“Fuuuu …” A puff of cold air was blown out, the hot air from exhalation blending and condensing into water particles as it touches the cold air.

‘It’s cold …’ The girl thought, rubbing her small hands.

Dip …

And all of a sudden, a small and white substance landed slowly and softly into her hands, swaying as it descended and prompting her to turn her attention upwards as she saw more white particles falling from the sky.

‘Snow?’ The girl deduced from all the obvious clues surrounding her.

Upon seeing snow, the girl was immediately confused.

After all, why wouldn’t she be, considering she was—

“—indoors, why is it snowing indoors?” The girl asked, before suddenly a figure appeared from behind her Sofa.

“Oh … it’s just you Fel …” The girl breathed a sigh of relief, before that relief turned into annoyance.

“Hehehehe … I guess that was a bit dumb …” A little boy equal to her own size put down his hands, which was then followed by the stoppage of the snow particles falling from the ceiling.

“Didn’t Dr. Harris tell you not to use your gift indoors? It’s gonna be a pain to mop up all the water when the snow melts …” Rei said, clicking her tongue.

“And besides, why were you using them on me anyways?” Rei asked the more important stuff that came to her mind.

“Well, it looked like you were thinking about a lot of sad things … so I thought that some snow would cheer you up!” The boy said innocently, pointing both his index fingers towards each other.

“Cheer me up you say, I suppose it did … wouldn’t you say?" Rei replied as she watched another figure approach them.

"Fel troubling you again, Rei?" A white hair boy, slightly taller than her, put his hand on Fel's shoulder.

"He is not ... for now, thanks for asking though, Zed." Rei responded, watching the snow evaporate and moisten the room.

"Heyyy I’m still here!" Fel grumpily said.

"She’s just pulling your leg, don’t worry about it." Zed responded, a big smile on his face as he talked to a pouting Fel.

The three talked for quite a while, the playful and carefree tone in their voices being a truly clear indication of their closeness.

“Hmmm … alright then … cats or dogs?" Fel affirmed, then dished another round of his weird questions.

“What’s this about now?” Rei asked, somewhat skeptical.

"Cats. They have a sense of independence and do not require much from us." Zed replied.

Rei only sighed, to the normal habits of the two enigmas with her, before sighing again and replying since she somewhat wanted to share her thoughts as well.

"Dogs. They are loyal to the very end and are trustworthy. Plus I heard they are tasty" Rei jokingly replied, as the important stuff kept bugging her.

"Ewwww." Her joke was met to a combined response of disgust from both the boys.

Before the trio could converse some more, the watches they wore vibrated, signalling that it was time for them to return to their rooms.

"Awww, I suppose Doc doesn't want us to remain idle for long," Zed chimed out as he looked at his watch.

"I-I see…… Hope we can talk more next time….." Fel said softly, saddened by their interactions being cut short.

"Till next time!" Rei waved as the two boys eventually walked out of sight.

"Having fun aren't you Rei," A feminine voice came from the dark corner of the room, outside of her line of sight.

"Oh, Aria, it's you … again, where the hell have you been?" Rei responded as the girl stepped out of the shadows, with white flowing hair stopping at her knees and beauty rivaling her own.

"Miss me?" The girl sarcastically answered.

"Not really, I was having a good time with my frien--”

"It's time you stopped this, it is getting ridiculous the more I watch you embarrass yourself." The girl responded, rather unimpressed.

“I … what the hell do you mean?” Rei asked, also looking somewhat unimpressed.

“This is all fake, and you know it, stop denying it.” Aria cut her off mid sentence.

“Wha--” Rei could not complete her sentence as darkness surrounded them. And suddenly replaced it with a blank white space.

‘This is …’

It stretched out for miles, really; it looked like it had no limits. A space beyond what humans could achieve with modern technology. That same spotless, white, hazy space, which looked like it spread out forever, abruptly looked like ... wallpaper?.

A chalky, white wallpaper with several long, raggedly strips torn out of it. But it was also that that made her realize that it was, in fact, not wallpaper at all; chaos itself seemed to be contained within those long, narrow slits. But then, just as abruptly as it had appeared, the white wallpaper disappeared.

The wallpaper turned into a red brick wall with a fireplace in the middle, and a red carpet that stretched for seventy meters. A wooden table adorned with wooden chairs on each side was the centerpiece of the room. In fact, if you could take a dining hall of a Victorian Noble and place it in a magical transforming plane of existence, it would surely look just like that.

There were no light bulbs or any electrical devices for that matter; all the lighting was made from candles on the candelabras and the magnificent chandeliers on the ceiling. What ‘electrical devices’ were, she wasn’t exactly sure, but regardless, the entire setup seemed weird.

On the table was hot and delicious looking food that a whole family would eat on Christmas Eve.

Everything within the room wholeheartedly contributed to making a very warm and cozy background. As if it wanted to make its guest feel welcomed after a long trek in the snow; it gave that kind of vibe.

However despite the food laid out before her, It would be sheer ungratefulness to have everything to herself. Still, that brought up a good question… Why was she alone? Wait, was that weird? Was ‘alone’... normal? She knew nothing, but … Maybe it would be fine to just take a bite? She was oh so very hungry, after all.

“There’s a lot of food here … should we go get Fel and Zed?” Rei suggested, before turning back to Aria who was behind her.

“Just move on Rei….” Aria voiced out, unfazed by the sudden change in atmosphere, seeming to drift into smoke.

“N..no!” Rei tried to grab onto the girl, only to realise her surroundings changed. Her surroundings became cold, and the sweat from her nervousness stopped trickling as she started shivering instead.

The girl, who was shivering more than a rickety, old car engine on a cold winter’s day, ran the opposite direction from the warm room she was in and into the cold void that kept extending even further without hesitation, trying to look for her friends.

Clank ...

Clank ...

Clank …

Her bare feet made loud sounds each time she stepped on the old wooden floor.

She kept running and running, just looking for those who had left her in the endless darkness, and slowly, the strange space behind her was no longer visible due to the sheer distance.

She ran more and more until…

"Hahh... hahh.... Hahh..."

She ran out of breath and, before she knew it, the brick walls and old wooden floor had already turned charred black as if burnt by a fire. Her feet turned black with soot, and she felt the slightest embers of heat, with the promise of more, but she didn’t care-

'Why am I not getting any closer...? I...'

She needed to get closer, no; she wanted to get closer. Rei thought to herself.

It was then that the temperature swung down like a teenager’s pubertal mood swings. Each gasp of breath brought out white vapor, the temperature had obviously dropped.

It took every ounce of willpower the little girl had to even step forward.

Each and every ounce.

The sound of her footsteps, which once sounded like the creak of the former wooden floor behind her, now sounded like the sound of raw meat making contact with ice.

The charred black floor became as cold as ice.

The skin of the soles of her feet stuck to the ice because of the extremely low temperature.

But even then…

"...ARRRRRRGH!"

The little girl forced her feet to move.

She ripped out the skin on the soles of her feet willingly to move forward.

The splashing noise making contact with the ice was the sound of her own blood.

And with every step she took, the exposed ripped flesh would once again be frozen stuck to the ice floor.

But even so, she ran... she moved forward as if mocking her sense of pain.

The sound of the little girl gritting her teeth in pain resembled the sounds of a wounded beast more than a humans.

Each footstep she took left a footprint of her own blood and flesh then and there.

But because of how cold the floor is, she could not bleed to death. The blood froze everytime she took a step forward. Really, all she had to worry about was blood loss.

Eventually, when the bones of her feet were exposed in between bits of badly frostbitten flesh, she just… couldn’t take it anymore.

Darkness clouded her vision, as she felt a pressure on her body, she collapsed to the ground, dragging herself towards them before completely collapsing, being blinded by the darkness.

“We will meet again Rei, all of us will, I will make sure we will…..” Aria whispered into Rei’s ear, touching her cheek as Rei lost consciousness.

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In a dark room, only lit by the faint presence of the light of the full moon, there was the presence of a grown up girl, looking like she was only just nearing her 20s, only just opening her eyes, her mind hazy as she rubbed her forehead.

The scene would have been quite cute too, if one ignored the fact that blood was splattered all over her, much less the room she was in.

‘My head … really hurts …’ Rei remarked inside her head, though to be frank a lot of other spots in her body hurt quite a bit as well.

“Fuuuuhn … it happened again.” Rei said to herself, reaching to her hair, and then combing it backwards with her slender fingers, though somewhat disgusted by the sloppy and wet texture that she was touching.

‘This is why I don’t like jobs like this, the blood gets everywhere … it's honestly so hard to wash off …’ Rei thought to herself, sighing in annoyance and then using her bloody hands to reach into her pockets to pull out a pack of cigarettes.

“Oops, almost forgot, can’t get them wet after all am I right?” Rei remembered all of a sudden and then leaned over to a person next to her.

She voluntarily and without permission, shoved her bloody hand into the person’s pocket and searched for …

“Aha! I’ll be borrowing this, I’ll give it back to you in a moment, kapische?” Rei said, waving the handkerchief in front of the owner’s cold and unfocused eyes.

Not like he could say no even, considering he was dead after all.

“Hum hum hum …” Rei wiped her fingers with the handkerchief, trying to dry her hands as much as possible before taking out a cigarette from her pack and then putting it in her mouth, and then reaching into her own pocket to pull out a silver object.

Clink clink!

‘Come on, don’t die on me now little buddy …’ Rei thought as she rolled her thumb back on the silver lighter’s wheel, creating sparks multiple times until she finally got a flame going.

And with the new flame, she brought her lighter close to the cigarette on her mouth using one hand, and then using her other hand to cover the light from the wind …

Even though she was indoors.

“Old habits die hard, don’t you think?” Rei said, finally getting her cigarette lit, and breathing in a pleasurable puff.

“Huffffff … that’s the stuff …” Rei said, while looking over to the wall opposite of her.

“L-Let me go … y-you fucking bitch ...” The man, crucified on the wall with knives embedded in his hands and feet, and with his knives stabbed in both of his eyes.

‘Fuckers like you just won’t die, and im hella sick of it.’ Rei took the cigarette out of her mouth and then walked across the room, littered with corpses, blood, and organs splattered all over.

Now that I think about it, Zed was like this, his regenerative powers were hell of a pain too …’ Rei pulled one of the knives out of the man’s limbs, or more specifically, the one holding the man’s right hand in place to the wall.

Creak!

“Now hold still, this will only take a mome—” Rei was saying, before she was so rudely interrupted with a knife just narrowly missing her eyes.

Rei looked at the man pull out the other knives from his body and come down from the wall.

The man then pulled out both of the knives embedded into his eyes, which then made blood stream down his eyes, flowing almost like a stream, before it suddenly stopped altogether with his eyes looking as good as new.

“This is the problem with you regeneration-types … you’re just too much of a hassle—” Rei put down her knife and then picked up a good-looking ninjato on the floor.

“No matter the age!” Rei saw the man … a gift-bearer charge forward to her, with his arms out and raring for a chance to grab her.

Slash!

Rei swiftly cut off both the man’s arms, and then held her sword in a reverse-grip, and then pinned the man’s head down on the floor by stabbing its back.

“You people always seem to be so dumb as well, do your brains regenerate from new after they get damaged? I can’t really put my finger on why regeneration type Gifted are so persistent.” Rei pulled her cigarette out of her mouth again, and then crouched.

She then put the burning part of the cigarette inside the man’s ear, and was met with muffled screams.

‘Hmmmm … he isn't screaming as much as earlier, well I guess it’s only a given that getting the insides of your ears burned doesn’t hurt as much as getting crucified am I right?’ Rei then picked up her knife from earlier, and sat down on the man’s back, facing his head.

‘I can’t seem to kill him by using the normal methods, but I’m sure that beheading would work, after all, it killed even Zed.’ Rei then saw a spike of resistance from the man, screaming and flailing around even with a sword inside his skull when he heard about how he was going to die for real this time.

Rei responded by calmly holding her place, humming as shestabbed some new knives into his hands and legs in order to pin him to the ground, making a pool of blood flow beneath the two of them.

“Consider yourself lucky, you’ll be freed by someone as perfect as me!” Rei indulged in her regular narcissism, which made the man struggle even more in a blind rage.

“Fuck you! You insane bitch!” The man screamed out, and suddenly the air changed as a metallic creak sound was heard.

‘Shit, I accidentally broke my knife …’ Rei then took out the sword that she was using to pin the man’s head to the ground, and then quickly re-inserted it into his chest.

She then grabbed the top of the man’s head, gripping his hair, boring into his flesh, and then eventually his skull, until she made holes inside of it, which made her fingers directly touch his brain, and her fingers being inserted inside new holes fit for them, just like the ones on a bowling ball.

‘Ah … how nostalgic … this is how I did it during that time …’ Rei’s grip tightened as she pulled slowly, stretching his spine as she pulled on his head, ignoring the ear-shattering screams of pain in the background.

“Thank you.” Rei said sincerely before she completely pulled his head away from his torso, with his spine even following the head outside of the man’s body as she pulled, spreading blood and spinal fluid in multiple directions as the man still spastically struggled even in death.

Thunk! The head, with the spine trailing behind it, dropped onto the floor.

‘Christ, that’s gross …’ Rei thought as she got her stolen handkerchief, and then wiped her hands and face to get rid of as much spinal fluid and blood as she could.

‘Well .... that’s mission accomplished …’ Rei took another cigarette out of her handy little pack and pulled out her lighter again.

Kring!

Surprisingly, compared to earlier, she got a light going within her first try, and feeling proud of herself she breathed in a big puff, before contemplating even more about her current situation.

‘Well, there’s actually not much to think about really.’ Rei thought as she sighed, finished her cigarette, threw it on the ground, the mess from the ashes looking only like a drop of water inside a bucket filled with it among the corpses littering the room she was currently in.

Plock, plock, plock … Rei’s steps sounded through the bloody room, her body in a situation that one couldn't quite call normal.

‘This is damn inconvenient …’ Rei thought as the pain could be felt … throughout her body actually, as she opened the double metal doors which led to the outside world.

Kreeeeeeek! With her arms, she opened the doors as they screeched heavily against the ground, being met by two rows of tall men in suits on the sides of her path, with a tall one wearing a cat mask being in front of Rei.

“Good work!!” They bowed down, greeting Rei as she passed by to meet the man in the cat mask in front of her.

“Good work!” He bowed down as well.

“The Lower Chief Executive greets the Founder Rei, and shall now make his report!” The man started going on about what happened in the background during the action she experienced, making Rei somewhat bored as she asked one of the men standing by for a bandage which she used to cover up the bleeding wounds in her body as she listened to the man talk.

“--aside that, the area has been cleared, and we believe there to be survivors. All vital files, merchandise, and other pieces of evidence linking to other remnants have been collected. Thus, this concludes my report.” The man concluded, bowing once more.

Though Rei knew her men were capable, it wouldn’t hurt to make doubly sure.

“Double tap all the bodies in the head, continue to look out for stragglers, and burn this place down, but not before burning all the bodies, I don’t want a regen type Gifted suddenly visiting my home with a knife in hand.” Rei dismissed the man and the other people nearby nonchalantly, putting the finishing touches on her first aid as they cleared the path as they went to do their newly assigned tasks with great efficiency, making a black car visible on the road in front of her.

“Oisho.” Rei said as she opened the door, and then plopping her still-bloody ass down on the prime leather car backseat, dirtying it as well.

Thud! Rei closed the door, and then puffed out another small cloud of smoke.

“No smoking in the car.” The man said, clearly and visibly showing his disdain for Rei’s breach in simple etiquette.

“Tch.” Rei clicked her tongue audibly, enough for the man wearing a fox mask in front of him to hear.

Vruumm … Rei lowered the car’s window on her side, and threw what remained of her cigarette outside.

“There, are you happy now Kon?” Rei scoffed, the annoyance clear in her voice.

The man in the mask, Kon, sighed as he heard Rei’s tone, but then switched the topic to something else which was quite a sore spot for Rei.

“Yes, but that aside, you relied on that again didn’t you?” Kon said, adjusting the rear view mirror to be able to get a better look at Rei’s battered form.

“No, not at al--” Rei denied, before getting cut off and called out.

“Three broken ribs, a broken left forearm, two broken fingers on your right arm, a laceration on your stomach, a stab wound on your shoulder-- you should really get those fixed, and a sprained ankle--” Kon blurted out, interrupting her midway through her shameless lie.

“--I’m quite surprised you managed to hide the sprained ankle so well, but you would have been fully limping as well if you abused that new crack in your left leg’s bone.” Kon continued, making his point known.

“Not to mention the blood trickling down from your forehead … for God’s sake you have school tomorrow as well … Why's someone like you even attending school anyway? You’d be better off devoting your full time to this business you’ve created ...” Kon made an audible clicking of the tongue, and then took out his own cigarette pack, and started smoking.

“Hey, you just said no sm--” Rei complained, but was stopped short due to a loud noise.

BEEP! The car’s horn sounded, meaning that Kon hit it in frustration.

“Goddammit Rei im hella stressed because of you!” Kon says, silencing Rei and lighting his cigarette.

After a few puffs, and even with his mask on, Rei could really feel the stress emanating in the air inside the car.

“Look, I know you’re one of the Gifted, and one with excellent physical abilities as well, but you’re the head of this group, and you shouldn’t just charge into battle by yourself, and then do that!”

“I know that … do you really think i’d make a rookie mistake?” Rei scoffs as she grabs a napkin, wiping the blood trickling down her forehead which was starting to interfere with her vision.

“Yes.” Kon said, his answer not really leaving out any chance to misinterpret it as a joke.

“You always fancy yourself as perfect, but you seem to be prone to making big mistakes that could have been easily avoided, or even mitigated at the very least. You may be a very talented and competent girl, but in truth, you are just as flawe--” Kon was about to start monologuing, but as he felt a deathly aura emanating from Rei, or more specifically the sound of her knuckles grinding, he kept his mouth shut.

“Shut up and start driving if you know what’s good for you, that’s an order.”

‘Really, you are too reckless …’ Kon simply sighed, and just started driving.

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