Samuel snickered. “Don’t tell me...you didn’t know?”

“W-what do you mean, ‘you didn’t know’?” Jana said, imitating the technocrat with a silly voice. “There’s no fucking way you’re my uncle.”

“I can see where the misunderstanding is derived from. After all, your father and I have had our fair share of disagreements, and I’ve certainly tried to keep it on the down-low.”

Jana displayed a clenched fist. “What!? Dude, if you’re lying, I will fucking destroy this lab and place you in the middle of nowhere.”

Samuel shook his head. “I, frankly, don’t doubt it. That’s quite the scary proposition. However, I will not rescind my statements. If you didn’t know, you ought to.”

“This isn’t getting you any brownie points. You know that, right?”

“I’m quite aware, heh.”

“So how didn’t I know this?”

“Quite simple. I’m his half-brother, and I go my mother’s last name.”

“So his father had an affair?”

He nodded. “No. It was a divorce. We were largely raised by our mother.”

“I-this-this is dumb. Why don’t I know any of this obscure family lore?” Jana asked.

“It is a strange situation, and I wish I could answer, but I’m personally surprised that Emment never told you about your family history at all.”

“He was reluctant,” Jana admitted. “I only ever figured out who my mother was through my own research.”

“I see. I suppose he was never fond of the rest of the family.”

“You didn’t grow up with a mother?” Jeremy suddenly asked Jana.

Jana slowly nodded. “I guess so...”

“Huh.”

...

“Anyhow,” Samuel continued. “As curious as our shared heritage is, I don’t think either of us stand to gain anything from discussing it further, so how about we digress.”

“Sure.” Jana shrugged.

“Was there by chance another reason you stopped by here...carrying that psychic’s brother with you?”

“Hmm? Was that not obvious?”

Samuel shrugged.

“Yes, we do,” Jana said. “We know what happened to her.”

“Hmm...what do you mean?”

“I mean that we know what that green light did to Psychi.”

“Go on,” Samuel said with an appraising look.

“We were told it sent her to another dimension.”

...

After a strange silence, Samuel slowly tilted his head. “Is this a joke? If not, I would like to know who how and why this happened.”

“We don’t know either of those.”

“That is rather dumb.”

“We can agree on that,” Jana said with a nod. “But it’s the truth. I also have some reason to believe them.”

“Some?” he repeated questioningly. “Well, no matter. Could I know why you brought this information to me?”

“Well, we were hoping to find a way to rescue her.”

“From...another universe?”

“Yeah. So do you know any psychics that can do that, or...”

Samuel stared at Jana blankly for a moment. “From...another. Universe. Another. Universe.” He looked around the room, exhaling slowly in thought, then clicking his tongue with a disbelieving, but not dismissive expression. “No. No, I think we would know if a psychic like that existed...” he said, scrunching his face in thought.

“So, what? It’s impossible to get her out?”

“I don’t see many ways to do it, to be perfectly frank,” he said, shrugging. “So far as I’m concerned, that girl is...”

“Is...?” Jana repeated, egging him to finish the sentence while Jeremy looked at him with fearful anticipation.

Samuel looked at the table, tapping on it for a good minute.

“Uhh...you alright, there, Sam?” Jana asked.

“Err...yes. I was just thinking...that it is possible.”

Jeremy, who had been choking on a nervous breath, sighed heavily, letting it drift from his throat. ‘Possible’ didn’t guarantee a thing, but it was better than being told that his sister was as good as dead.

“How so?” Jana asked.

“I can tell you how,” Samuel began, “But I need some assurance from you.”

“Like what?”

“First, I need to tell you that everything I would be discussing with you would be highly sensitive information. Sharing it with the public could be extremely dangerous, in far more ways than you’re imagining.”

“You’re only worrying me,” Jana said, glaring at him nervously.

“I know. But you shouldn’t even need to know the details of my goals to understand that dipping our toes into other universes is a potentially disastrous choice, for many reasons.”

“I just care about getting Psychi back. If you want to destroy the portal and research once you’re done with it, be my guest.”

“Not interested. Regardless, it sounds as if you are on board with the confidentiality?”

“Yes?”

“Then I have one more question for you, one regarding collateral.”

“Collateral? Fair enough,” Jana said, “But what could I possibly give you as collateral if this research is so questionable?”

Samuel shook his head, then rubbed his thumb against his fingers. “Money.”

“Money?”

“Lots of money. Direct, traceable, big, obvious money.”

Jana frowned for a moment, then slowly nodded. “Ohh, I see. You want me to associate with you.”

“Precisely.”

Jeremy looked between the two. “I’m so confused.”

Jana glanced at him. “He wants me to traceably give him money so that if his super-secret project or whatever goes under from bad publicity, or a leak, my whole company is tanked with him for funding it. In other words, if I blow his cover, I’m screwed, too.”

“Well, shit, that’s mean.”

Jana nodded, closing her eyes and crossing her arms toned arms and legs. “It is. Even more so since it could be leaked by no fault of my own. If I agree to this, I won’t just be agreeing to remain silent, but to actively ensuring it stays silent.”

“That sounds shady as fuck.”

“It is.”

...Jana sat, thoughtful.

Jeremy grabbed Jana’s hand suddenly, then dragged her out of the room.

“Huh? What’s going on?” she said, letting him do it.

Once they had entered the hallway, Jeremy shook his head. “You aren’t seriously thinking of agreeing to that, are you?”

“Of course I am!” Jana said, almost angrily.

“Don’t do this, Jana. We have no idea what sort of things this guy has been doing. If he’s asking for your whole damn multi-billion dollar company’s good name as collateral, you can’t take that!”

She stared at Jeremy for a moment with a strange disbelieving, worried expression. When he showed no sign of backing down, she shook her head. “I know that, but-”

“I’ve heard the rumors, you know.”

Jana narrowed her eyes. “Rumors?”

“That...that he was biologically engineered, somehow.”

Jana looked to the side. It almost seemed like a complete digression from the conversation, but she knew better.

The Living Catastrophe. There were more than a few disturbing facts about his sudden, catastrophic appearance, for sure, but not all of them were immediately obvious.

Or rather, it was that they were unknown. His appearance was seemingly spontaneous, and while he had directly stated his name to be Azad, a fairly typical name, his origins could only be speculated on, or at least, any details hadn’t been released to the public. The biggest unknown was how someone could develop psychic abilities at twelve years old. Most psychics’ powers appeared around the age of six, and in rare cases, it could be delayed until the age of ten. However, powers appearing at the age of twelve were almost unheard of.

Of course, it could all be a coincidence, as super psychics were frequently exceptions to rules, but this was The Catastrophe, not an ordinary kid. He was so demented and powerful that, in a few days, he had personally caused the deaths of millions. Why would he, in specific, happen to awaken his powers at that age?

Which led to the rumors.

Though, to call it a ‘rumor’ that he had been biologically engineered was putting it lightly. In fact, while it wasn’t brought up often, most people were aware of the possibility.

And if someone had artificially created a super psychic, that didn’t bode well.

Jana understood what Jeremy was implying instantly. The ability to dimension-hop didn’t exist, but if an unresearched type of psychic could do it, it would be a super psychic.

This was enough to make Jana suspect the project in question of being a repeat of the one that produced the catastrophe.

She breathed deeply as Jeremy continued.

“Jana, what if that’s exactly what this project is? You’ll be tying your company to Samuel Horshov. He’s trying to wrap you up with his projects, and who knows what he’s doing in them!”

Jana clenched her fist, and Jeremy looked down at it.

After a moment, he sighed, head in his hand. “I thought so.”

“Hmm?” she emoted lowly.

“You don’t give a shit, do you?”

Jana nodded.

“Well, it isn’t my head being served on a silver platter.”

She smiled, placing a hand on the door handle. “Maybe they’ll take the bait.”

“Bait?”

Jana didn’t explain, instead walking into the room, announcing, “Alright, Sam, I’ll ride your boat.”

He smiled. “Delightful.”

Jana ended up calling an agent of hers on the phone while Jeremy stood outside the lounge.

“Yes, that’s what I said. I need you to transfer those funds to that account,” Jana said on the other side. “Yes, I know exactly what I’m doing!”

...

“Seriously?”

...

“Shady? Yes, I know exactly how shady this is!”

...

“Just do it, man. I need the funds transferred by tomorrow…Fine! I’ll give you a bonus for this, alright?”

...

“...That’s seriously all it took to convince you...”

As Jeremy zoned out, he saw a familiar individual appear then begin jogging down the hall in bulky blue robes.

Hatty looked like they had been in a hurry as they slowed beside Jeremy. “Whew, I made it...right?” they said, bouncing into a straight posture.

Jeremy shrugged, pulling out his phone and putting it to his ear. “Well, you missed a...few important things.”

“Like what?”

“Samuel is Jana’s uncle, apparently, and she’s about to give him a bunch of money as a way to stake her publicity as collateral so we can see his super-secret project that might be able to get us a psychic capable of interacting with another dimension.”

They scratched their head embarrassedly. “That’s quite a bit for me to miss.”

“Yeah. Can you see in here?”

Hatty shook their head. “No, but I can hear you. Nobody else, though.”

“Just me?”

“Yep. It’s eerily quiet here. Reminds me of my realm...”

“Let me guess: if I ask about this ‘realm’, you’ll respond with a vague riddle?”

Hatty smiled, leaning to the side playfully. “You are quite astute.”

“As if,” he said, crossing his arms. “I don’t think things will come to a head today, anyway.”

“Quite disappointing,” Hatty said.

Jeremy looked to the side, frowning as though he might not agree. “Hmm...Speaking of which, you seem pretty excited for some reason.”

“Ahh, yes! I am quite excited. Recent events have led me to find an old associate of mine!”

“Oh? An associate? You know it’s dangerous to make me curious,” Jeremy said with a sidelong smirk.

“Ha. It hardly is.”

Jana opened the door and immediately began speaking. “Alight, Jeremy. It looks like we’re spending the night. Maybe two. As it turns out, transferring three million dollars just discreetly enough to make it difficult but not too difficult to trace takes some time.”

Jeremy’s expression twisted. “You make it sound like you need untraceable transfers every so often.”

Jana smiled wryly. “A word of advice: if they’re rich, they’re shady.”

Samuel began walking through the door, and the two parted to let him pass. Once he did, he walked straight into Hatty, then turned around, phased into them as he spoke to the two. “If you two have nowhere better to stay, the right wing is for guests. If you’re interested, I can ask one of my soldiers to escort you there.”

Jeremy held in a snicker, looking at a very annoyed Hatty, frowning as their personal space was violated.

Jana nodded. “I would actually like that. I don’t trust the hotels in this place too much.”

“Then it’s settled.”

Jeremy sighed, laying on his coffee table.

The rooms that he and Jana were given weren’t particularly big -which wasn’t surprising since the entire facility was rather utilitarian- and they had a few eccentricities. They had coffee tables, a bed large enough for two, a nightstand, two lamps, despite the overhead bar light, and most strangely, linoleum flooring. It seemed that the wing of the mansion dedicated to housing wasn’t originally planned for it. In fact, the entire wing seemed to have been hastily built and almost eerily empty of people or decor.

Jeremy looked up at the ceiling, which was almost identical to his school’s ceiling -it could be lifted up.

Just what had his life come to, really? He thought.

His parents were dead, his sister got isekaid, and now he was in a dictator’s estate on a journey to de-isekai her. Everyone at his school must have been worried. Heck, imagine the rumors if he were found missing after that Parkarka lady broke in!

He sat up, then pulled out his phone. There was free wi-fi in the mansion. Obviously, his every action would be monitored -there was even a security camera in the room(which was highly uncomfortable)- but Jeremy, frankly, couldn’t have cared less. Like, what was he going to hide?

He opened his messenger, then started texting a few of his closer friends. The texts weren’t anything too special; all he did was tell them he was out and about with a friend of Psychi’s and that he was just trying to sort out the whole incident.

Most of them texted back, but he didn’t have the mental bandwidth to explain to everyone the whole situation, so he decided to make like a politician and give them vague assurances that everything was going well and that he couldn’t share too much. Which was mostly true since he was being watched.

Then, he laid back down again.

What had his life come to? he wondered.

Dead parents, disappearing sister...he felt like he’d been through it all before and just wanted a break. Why did his life need drama, pain, or remorse? he wondered. What was the point of going through all these hoops just to smile a bit?

He shook his head, rolling his eyes.

Maybe it was some sort of punishment by the world. Perhaps he had done something to deserve karmic retribution, or maybe the world just didn’t like him for no particular reason. That was possible.

Jeremy sighed. As far as he was concerned, his thought process was just so childish. He knew the real reason things had to be difficult. He lifted himself off his back, picking up his phone again.

The reason things had to be difficult was that he chose to care about others. He didn’t want to be the only one smiling. Duh.

He pulled up his newest contact and smiled as he called ‘Ice Bitch’.