List of candidate

44.1% - Almond M. Chaveil

22.2% - Hanna H. Tolcin

14.7% - Joy L. Nicam

10.9% - Monty L. Kind

8.1% - Ronald K. Dola

I’m a failure.

Monty is dead…

How… how the hell did I miss it?

I am a fucking Seer, it is my job to see things like that. And to prevent them from happening.

How the hell did I miss it?! A heart attack? Really? The guy starting to shake the ones in power die just like that? Bullshit! He got killed, and I’m going to prove it.

I don’t really care about the struggle anymore. Monty was a good man, he tried his best to get his people out of this despicable situation, and died for it.

This is is personal now.

“He left?!”

“Yeah…”

“By the window? And you didn’t stop him?”

“He… he got me by surprise, and he told me not to follow him…”

“You are killing me! You let Sam run away after telling him Monty died? What do you think will happen?”

“He’ll probably check if it’s the truth…”

“Of course! But after that?”

Alice widened her eyes.

There could be many reactions to this kind of situation, but concerning Sam, it was pretty clear. If he were to make it personal, he could be capable of killing someone.

“Fuck, we have to stop him.”

“Do you know where he is?”

“…”

“Dammit! You are even stupider than I thought!”

“He’ll probably go to Monty’s apartment.”

“Damn, he didn’t even take his scroll, or the book… talk about back luck. Okay, the apartment is probably worth the shot, you go there, and I’ll look on the city’s surveillance system if I can find him.”

Under normal circumstances, Alice would have never followed Marie’s order, but she was way too worried about Samsy right now.

“Sigh… those newbies really make things complicated.”

“Usually, you complain about them being boring, at least it’s not the case here.”

“Maybe you’re right Will, or maybe I don’t really care what you’re saying.”

“Gosh, what is making you so annoying today. I mean, more than usual.”

“I don’t know… this Alice is pissing me off for some reason, and I don’t really know why.”

“Maybe because she resembles you, but younger and prettier.”

“Do you really want my hate to shift towards you?”

As both of there pupils were in the same struggle, William and Valentine were in front of the same screen, even though they spend most of there time on smaller tablet-like devices, as Marie and Sam were rarely at the same place.

“Are you sure you want to leave Sam by himself? He seems pretty shaken by this guys death.”

“Of course he is, he’s a potential main character, he is bound to feel genuinely sad for every side character death.”

“Unlike you, who’s more the villain type.”

“And I’ll take that as a compliment, at least I would be in the main cast.”

“Ouch…”

“Anyway, that’s how he’ll grow. It’s nice and all to see him train and meditate, but it’s only under great stress that he’ll thrive.”

“Or die.”

“That’s a possibility.”

“It’s kind of a win-win for you then.”

“For what kind of monster are you talking me?”

“Lord Valentine, Champion of Kindness?”

“And I am the annoying one…”

The room was pretty calm. Actually, Jules had scheduled a reunion between all the guide, but as Valentine didn’t want to go, both her and Will skipped it.

Val suddenly got up from her chair, stretching and yawning.

“I think I’ll take a break, it’s not like I can talk with Sam anyway.”

“You don’t want to see what will happen next?”

"Meh, he'll just get a vision or some shit. Call me back if he snaps or something like that…"

“Hum… he disappeared? Oh, no, he’s on another screen now. Damn, he’s all out running now…”

“Probably going back to blondy and whity, ciao.

And like that, she left the room.

“Wait!”

“Hum?”

“He didn’t go back to the hotel…”

“So?”

“He… he is beating up someone?”

~~

It is probably one of the biggest opportunity for Monica Finsh, a reporter for MFT, one of the big candidates died and he had to put up a good article about it. His superior was really concern about this paper, so it was her best chance to get his favour.

However, as she was writing on her computer, all the stores suddenly went down, leaving her office with her screen as the only source of light.

She was alone in the room, so, visibly annoyed by this malfunction of her equipment, she stood up to get the stores up again.

The instant she was standing on her two legs, a violent impact landed on her nose, projecting her to the ground.

She closed her eyes in pain, and tried to shout, but another hit got her in the chest, prohibiting her from emitting a sound.

Gradually, she managed to get her breath back, and as she looked up to see the assailant, she saw a young man wearing a suit, with white hair, and cold red eyes, looking back on her.

She tried to scream, but she was hit again.

“Shhhhhh… Everything will be fine.”

“Wh-what do you want?”

The young man put his hand on top of Monica’s head, and she felt a pleasant feeling going through her body. The pain was slowly fading away.

“You are the reporter who will cover Mr. Kind death, right?”

“Ye-ye-yes.”

"Great, I want to talk for a bit."

M: Hey, I kn0w y0u are 100king at us.

M: D0 y0u kn0w where is Sam?

M: He pr0bably used some kind 0f cam0uflage, s0 I didn’t find him 0n any 0f the city survei11ance cameras.

M: Are y0u here?

W: 0h, yeah, s0rry.

W: As a matter 0f fact, 1 kn0w where he 1s.

M: Great! Where is he?

W: I vvon’t tell you!

W: Because I’m stupid!

M: So… Valentine is here too?

W: Of course I'm here! Finally, my nevvbie is doing something interesting!

M: Like what?

W: S1gh… we can’t tell y0u.

M: Why ?!

W: Well… Samsy just t0ld us t0 n0t say anyth1ng t0 y0u.

M: He did that? H0w?

W: He 1s a Seer, s0 maybe that 1s h0w he knew fr0m where we were watch1ng…

W: But d0n’t w0rry, he als0 sa1d he w1ll get back t0 y0u s00n!

M: Dammit, s0mething is s0 wr0ng. It is n0t 1ike him t0 g0 a10ne 1ike that.

W: Pe0ple change when faced w1th the death of someone.

M: …

M: Yeah.

M: I guess he did s0mething simi1ar back then t00…

W: Back then?!

W: VVhat happened back then?

W: Hey!

W: Ansvver me!

Marie took out her scroll and called Alice.

“Hey! Why are you calling me? You’ve got something?”

“More or less, my guide says Sam don’t want us to find him.”

“Fuck, I know I shouldn’t have left him jump through the window.”

"No?! Really?! Sigh… I hope he knows what he is doing. Monty's death is bad on its own, but apparently, they won't move the election, and I don't want to get stuck here."

“… you’re heartless, you know that?”

“Don’t say that like you are not.”

“Fair, but Samsy… what if it was a disguised murder?”

“Come on, Alice, it was a murder. But I found nothing, even after inspecting the scene and the video footings. It was done well, and we don’t have time to look into it.”

“What about Sam?”

“Well, I think we’ll have to go without him.”

“…”

"I will keep looking at the legal process and a way to turn this situation to our advantage. If you could spy on Chaveil or something, that would be great, we'll need some huge scandal to overcome this."

“No. I’ll keep looking for Sam, I don’t want him to get into trouble.”

“… Do what you want.”

Marie and Alice hanged up at the same time.

This last one just arrived at Monty's apartment, and as expected it was empty, Sam wasn't here. She started looking in the old man stuff, in search of a journal or note or anything he wrote yesterday. He was old but healthy, as Marie said, a heart attack was too much for a simple coincidence, and as nobody was found on the ‘crime' scene, it was likely Monty himself was aware it could happen.

However, even with all the ‘luck' Alice could gather, she found nothing but old memos, journals, and his scroll. She managed to hack into this last one, but nothing noteworthy was found. Everything was taking care off by them and Samsy, so the last activity this last scroll had was exactly 5 years ago, from an unknown number.

…

Okay, that was weird. This reporter was… more unique than I thought, at least she will do what I say, and I have calmed down a bit.

Shit, the nosebleed doesn't stop… I'll have to get some tissue. It's the first time I manage to keep this state so long, and I don't think it's good for me. Meh, it's not like I can do without it, I almost saw the end of it. And it's just nosebleed, I don't have a headache yet, so I guess I have still plenty of time.

So, what’s next? I guess I should get going to Monty’s apartment, and hope I can use the past vision -I really should find a better name for that- to get some info on yesterday, before he died.

…

I didn't think I would be affected that much. Well, I didn't think it would die in the first place, and I believe I would care about anyone's death, but… it's surprising. I know him for less than a month, and I feel like loosing a distant relative I recently got back in touch with. Maybe it's because of my power, because I saw him so many times, I got attached faster than usual.

But it doesn't really matter what I feel, or think. He was a good man, and if I can't avenge him, I'll at least won't let his fight end like that.

But here’s my problem… when I’ll arrive at his place, what will I say to Alice?

I went kind of wild, jumping from the 50th and all -I made a parachute with the curtain, and almost broke a leg on the landing…-, and I don’t think the girls will take that very well.

I hope she won’t kill me…

“This journal is useless!”

Losing her patience over her lack of findings, Alice threw the book she was holding, completely destroying it against/and the wall.

"I like you a lot Sam, but when I find you, I'm kicking up your ass!"

(On a side note, Sam know that Alice is at Monty’s apartment specifically because he saw her pronouncing this line in one of his vision. And that’s why he’s quite afraid to come.)

She sat on one of the chairs and took a deep breath out in order to cool her down. The journal was more or less her last attempt to do something meaningful here, and it was pointless.

As she was about to give up and leave, Monty’s scroll started to vibrate.

It was an unknown number…

Without any hesitation, she took the call, preparing an exact replicate of Kind’s voice.

“Happy Birthday, Pops!”