Alexa: Shouldn’t we start from the very beginning?

Akino: Yeah. I just reminded you, but this was before.

Lyka: Excuse me, but what’s going on?

Akino: Sharing a memory of mine.

Alexa: Wait, so before you met me?

Akino: This is the store I always went to after work. And that path towards my apartment.

The three followed the younger Akino. The way towards Akino’s apartment was a bit far from the city center, near the boundary of the city. On their way, they passed on the city slums, people wearing ragged clothes and standing around barrels with fire. The beggars rushed towards the younger Akino and begged for food, Akino handed them five packs of bread that the beggars furiously took from her and ate.

Alexa: I don’t remember this place.

Akino: It’s five years before I met you down that alley, I was new to the job that time. The slums were removed in the mid-year of 3019 because of an incident…

Lyka: What job did you have?

Akino: Ummm... do you know a job called ‘detective’?

Lyka: Sorry, I’m not familiar with that…

Akino: Oh, you’ll see.

They kept on following the younger Akino, they reached her apartment and entered. It was the same, the same one-bedroom condo that Alexa saw when she first entered, except the only furniture there was a wooden table. There’s a pink bed on the bedroom, the standard kitchen, and anything else that can be found inside a newly bought unit. They observed her, cooking the sweet potatoes and cabbages with canned beef, sits on a plastic chair and eats the stew she cooked, all alone in that place.

Alexa: So, this is your daily life, huh? Before me?

Akino: Yeah… pretty boring, right?

Alexa: You haven’t bought yet that crappy sofa.

Akino: Hey! If its cozy, its fine!

Lyka ignored the two arguing, and instead followed the young girl to her bedroom. The young Akino throws herself to the bed while holding a bag, she pulled her laptop out of her bag and opens it. She took also a pen, and the roll of newspapers she bought earlier in the store. While looking at the newspaper, the younger Aki types something on the laptop, crosses something in the newspaper, and so on, at a random manner.

Lyka: Must have been a great life, huh? Living in a world, with no demi-humans…

Akino: Not really.

Lyka: EEEKK!

Lyka jumped, frightened as Akino abruptly appeared behind her. She lands on the bed, near the younger Aki. She clearly saw the face of the younger Aki, and she gazed at it… then she gets a better view on the laptop. She saw texts, articles, then images of mutilated bodies, burned corpses, and then videos of people dying because a wall sucked them, others turning into stone, and some who still stands up even with decapitated head.

Lyka: Wha – what are you doing?

Akino: As a detective, I am tasked to investigate crimes, anomalous crimes to be specific.

Alexa: Ehem, JUNIOR detective.

Akino: Shut it.

Lyka: Like an inquisitor?

Akino: Not really, but somehow… ummm, yeah but not on religious stuff.

Lyka: Then, what are these ‘anomalous’ crimes you speak off?

Akino: In this world, some things happen even the smartest men can’t explain. Magic in your world does exist, but here it doesn’t, making us blinded with anomalies we are dazed on. Aaaand that’s where I enter.

Lyka: I’m confused…

Akino: Hahaha, don’t worry. My assignment tomorrow will be my big day I got promoted to Junior Detective.

Alexa: Wait, then what are you this time?

Akino: I – I’m just an intern…

A dim light shines on the window, the sun was about to shine, it’s already morning. The younger Aki jumps out of the bed immediately, changed her clothes, ate some bread, and left the condo unit, in 15 minutes.

Alexa: Did you fast forward the time?

Akino: Nope.

Lyka: Then, you didn’t get to sleep? Is this normal for you?

Akino: Yes.

Alexa: That’s why you didn’t grow…

Akino: SHUT UP!

Lyka: You’re already heading to work? You’ve barely got enough rest…

Lyka’s face looks very concerned. Akino looks at her and smiled.

Akino: Thanks for the concern, but it’s how my life works.

Lyka: Don’t you have any family?

Akino: I was raised in an orphanage, a military orphanage where abandoned children are raised, and – and trained at an early age of 16 to become a soldier. I got my training, but I want to be a detective, good ol’ classic detective. So instead of becoming a soldier, I left the orphanage after my training in the condition of carrying the family name of ‘Kylei’.

Alexa: Hey, I remember that story! Except why they must give that family name.

Lyka: Why? Only that condition?

Akino: The owner of the orphanage was a former military officer that carries the same name, not family name though. She’s barren, and afraid that her name will be forgotten. She died without anyone remembering her except her close friends. Her friends then managed the orphanage, and in honor of that officer, the children raised in there will carry her name as their surname.

Alexa: Thanks for the sad story.

Lyka: Yeah, that’s pretty sad…

Akino: Hey, hey! This day in my memory will be my first shot on being a detective, so remove that gloomy faces and follow me! Or her… Aahh! Just follow me!

They went out of the condo unit, they followed the younger Aki then they heard gunshots. They saw the younger Aki swiftly crouching to the side of a garbage container. It seems she’s hiding, then a bald guy, about forty years in age. The guy’s holding a long rifle, aimlessly shooting at every direction. Lyka and Alexa seems to be nervous, until they saw the other side of the road. A lot of people, bathing in their own blood, collapsed on the ground.

Lyka: What happened here?

Akino: That guy. I don’t know why but he shoots everyone. I remembered that there are 20 casualties, 9 of which were children.

Alexa: That’s fucked – I mean messed up.

Akino: Yeah… and you know what’s more messed up?

Lyka & Alexa: What?

Akino points back to scene, the younger Aki shoots the guy on his forehead with her magnum side-arm. The guy was staggered, blood pour out of his head, and clearly there is a hole that passed through his whole skull. But, the guys stood still, and shoots back at Aki.

Alexa: WHAT THE?! THAT’S A CLEAR HEADSHOT?!

Akino: Told ya.

Lyka: What’s going on?!

The younger Aki tackles down the bald guy. The guy struggles, punching the young girl on her stomach side. Clearly, she was hurt but the young Aki stays still, pinning the guy to the ground. The guys then headbutted her, so strong the young Aki flew off with blood gushing from her nose.

Alexa: Oooh! That hurts!

Akino: Sure did.

Lyka looks in horror, as the fight goes on. The two fought on, strangling each other, tackling their bodies like forever. The young Aki is tired, very tired, until she saw a steel rod protruding from a broken post. With all her strength she grabbed the guy’s head, pushing him towards the steel rod, then she bashes the head towards it, puncturing the guy’s head. Of course, the guy is weirdly alive, but the young Aki bent the steel rod so that the guy gets stuck on it. With that taken care of, she sat on the floor catching her breath. She stood up, saw the police reinforcements, and went there to assist them.

Akino: Yep, that’s the end.

Alexa: Still working up, huh?

Lyka: That’s – that’s terrifying!

Akino: Yeah, that dude’s still alive after a clear headshot, and getting his head stabbed with a steel rod. Look at him, he’s still in heat.

The police and other authorities swarmed the place, the slum area was ravaged by the mysterious guy. 30 people were killed, 15 were injured.

Lyka: These poor people…

Akino: This is the reason they removed the slums. I don’t know what happened to the others, whether they got transported to another place that’s better or a slum as well… I don’t know…

They stumbled upon an ID from the bald guy, it indicates that the guy was a maintenance personal from a laboratory. Minutes passed, and a black Sedan came to the scene with men in black. They showed badges and documents to the chief investigator in the scene, and then they took the bald guy.

Alexa: Those dudes look fishy.

Akino: Those men fly-by and vanished like – poof! Gone. Like nothing. Chief said they are special ops. But, yeah, they’re fishy.

Akino then showed how she works, as the younger Aki goes to the central part of the city, going inside the crime research institute. Paper works, calls, interrogating, extreme interrogating, autopsies of ‘weird’ corpses, going out to ‘missions’, and other odd jobs. For nearly two years, that’s the life she’d shown to them.

Akino: Everyday, well except on Sundays, or holidays, or when I don’t feel like working. This is how a run my life.

Alexa: You’re like an agent. You know? Multipurpose, doing this, doing that. I mean, you’re supposed to investigate, not do autopsies. And yeah, the first time you brought me to your place was to witness an autopsy. Damn great for a field trip.

Akino: You didn’t complain.

Alexa: Wait, where’s Lyka?

The two looked behind them, Lyka was vomiting.

Lyka: Uuugh… what were you doing with the corpses?!

Akino: Investigating?

Lyka: That. Is. Messed up. You should respect the bodies of dead people!

Akino: Hey, easy there. We still bury them after this stuff. And yeah, these guys weren’t normal, so we open up their bodies to know more.

Lyka: But still…

Lyka stops, she looks a bit of disgusted, and worried.

Akino: So, that’s it. The next part was when I met you.

Alexa: I’ll tell mine…

Akino: You don’t have to push yourself.

Alexa: It’s fine, I’ve moved on about that… just, watch it…

The whole place changes into an orphanage. Green grasses, old-brick houses two to three stories tall, there’s a little greenhouse on the southern part of the place, and a playground near the center. A ton of kids were playing outside. Then a car stops by in front, a small child steps out of it accompanied by a nun, it was Alexa when she’s eight years old.

“Her mother was a drug addict while the father was a drunkard…”

“So, they just gave up on her?”

“No, the mother snapped and killed the father, then she killed herself…”

“Oh…”

“The police doesn’t know what to do with the child, they said they saw the child sitting near the corpses of her parents…”

Akino and Lyka remained silent, shocked of what they’ve heard from the nuns and priests gossiping the young Alexa. Days passed by in that orphanage, the other children teases and bullies her for no reason.

“Her mother was a drug addict! Run!”

“Hey! You’re scum! You must be taking drugs as well.”

“She won’t do that! She’ll take alcohol instead, like her dad!”

They laughed at her, avoid her, sometimes tripped over when she’s silently walking or throw things at her. The older people just ignore her, never comforting her. Until a particular nun was reassigned to that place. That nun entered the orphanage, seeing that nun makes the present Alexa smile.

Akino: Is she –

Alexa: Yeah…

Lyka: Who is she?

Alexa: I – don’t know her… she didn’t mention her name to me. But she’s the only one who truly cared for me that time.

The nun saw the young Alexa, and immediately went to her. Of course, the young Alexa showed coldness towards the nun due to her experiences, but the nun insists. The nun took care of her, fed her, clothed her properly, tells her stories before bed, plays with her, and makes sure that the other kids never bother her. It was only for a while, the nun left after a week without any notice. Then, the whole orphanage went upside down. Men and women wearing black robes and gold necklaces that has a simple circular pendant entered the place, talked to the priests and nuns present in that place, and allowed them to take care of the children.

Alexa: And nightmare begins…

Akino: I know those get-up.

Lyka: Get-up?

Akino: I mean outfit, but seriously. That’s the cultist called ‘Circle’. That makes sense…

Alexa: What makes sense?

Akino: Remember that time when you told me where exactly you came from?

Alexa: Yeah, and the place is not that big.

Akino: And I told you that the cultists were never apprehended? But instead, they were found dead, while laying their corpses in a circular manner?

Alexa: Oh! I remember that you showed the picture of it!

Akino: Yeah.

Lyka: Excuse me, but what’s odd with that?

Akino: Welp, it’s like they knew we were coming so they took their lives, or they’re doing something ‘else’.

Alexa: Weird rituals…

The place changes, into a hallway with children and the people in black robes were… opening the chests of each children that became ‘naughty’. As for the case of young Alexa, they considered and called her the ‘broken’ and left her alone. Lyka was stunned on what she’d witness and heard, Akino wasn’t since she knew that already considering the background of the group. Night came, and the remaining children, the young Alexa included, were place in bathroom and put off their clothes for batch washing. The young Alexa sprinted past the robed people while they’re washing the other kids and escaped over the fence.

Akino: Woah! You’re fast!

Alexa: Hehehe… well, it’s also the reason I got this wound.

Lyka: That wound?

The young Alexa suddenly got hit by a truck, it was a hit and run. She got thrown on a pile of garbage, where broken glasses are. She landed headfirst, and then after landing a ton of blood gushes out of her left eye… she stood and walked, and walked, until she collapses in an alleyway. She wants to conceal what she’s feeling so that the cultists will not find her, but the pain makes her whimper. Lyka looks very concerned, then tears came out of her eye.

Akino: Hey, you alright?

Alexa: Don’t be bothered about it, it happened already.

Lyka: But – but! This world is so unfair!

Akino: Maybe, maybe not.

They saw someone crouching on the other end of that hallway, it was the young Aki. She saw the wounded Alexa, and walked away for a bit, but then she immediately returns to carry the wounded girl.

Alexa: What the fuck?!

Akino: I – I can explain.

Alexa: You’re about to abandon me?!

Akino: Hey, Lyka! Ask something to change the topic!

Lyka: You’re horrible...

Akino: Goddamit… Sorry about that kid, I’m sorry.

The scene changes into the apartment of Aki, where she treated the young Alexa. The rest of the time the three stayed there was to look upon the past versions of themselves, until the place changes into a park.

Alexa: So, this is where it ends huh?

Akino: Yeah… you cried like hell that time, though.

Alexa: Don’t make me remember that!

Lyka: What do you mean it’s going to end?

Akino pointed towards the north. An ominous cube floats, nearly covering that portion of the sky. Combat jets fired at it, explosions, then a flash of light. Lyka saw the two past versions of Akino and Alexa clinging to each other, and then they got engulfed in that light, now the scene was turned into ruins of the buildings standing in a deserted area.