Part 91: Day 41 - Story

Day 41: Story

Music: Morning Dreams


I honestly didn’t expect to see you here. Or, well, to be exact, I knew you would come here eventually, but I didn’t expect it would be this soon. You had such a sour expression when we talked, but you actually liked me, didn’t you?



You know, I don’t have any true contact with the lives of the people from the Backstreets, nor the pain they go through. Perhaps I have been living a more affluent, yet cowardly life compared to them. From that I’ve always felt so ashamed of everything, even to be graced by a small ray of sunshine.

…….It wasn’t always all that rough.



Sooner or later, we will have to deal with unexpected hardships here. There are just too many problems to try and solve in peaceful ways. The real reason I chose to speak to you out of all the other Organizations or Fixers that day was actually because of something rather trivial.



If we’re being honest…

Honest…?

I thought I could barter with you for cheaper prices…



Please, hear me out. I saw you pay for the funeral expenses of an old lady whom you didn’t even know. I truly admired your kindness, and I even looked forward to seeing it myself.

Corpses can cause an entire alleyway to be infested with vermin if they aren’t buried properly. Besides, I just wanted to repay her for treating me to meals a couple of times. Understand? I’ve never been close to being a kind person my entire life.

…..…..



Just happy to be great at discerning the best of the best.



The tale of how she built her reputation could fill a chronicle of history books and then some. The only problem was that Carmen was too wrapped up with taking care of others. She never had a moment to take good care of herself. We were on such a delightful upturn back then, it’s almost cruel to bring those memories back up. We were flying towards a limitless world that never seemed to end.



Oh, that’s A. He just always has a serious look on his face.

…….

I beg of you, please protect the people here. I know I can trust you with this.

Music: Strange Dream


Despite my reputation, there were too many things that I just couldn’t save. When I think about it, my entire life was far from one of justice.



Those streets were a place where there was no need for justice, morality, or any other pedestals like those. If you have never been there before, you won’t understand. How agonizing and miserable the stories of people who live there are. How they are robbed of the chance to live a legitimate life. How unfair and unjust life is there. All I learned there was how to survive this miserable existence.



She also told us that the weak who had willing spirits could someday possess enough power to cut off the Head. It was such an absurd and ridiculous thing to say. Why couldn’t I just keep on with how my life was before?

........

I’m not smart enough for all those complicated calculations. I can’t even write a logical or coherent report.



All my life I only used my skills for my own survival. But that day… I had never felt more proud to be able to protect others. However, I wasn’t able to protect anybody in the end. That cut me deeply.



Both options are the same here.



You and that other person survived thanks to me… I thought I had lost Carmen’s will forever. But after all’s said and done, I had to have carried that will all the way here somehow, right? I feel like I can catch a bit of breath now.



Stupidly, I woke up with only rage left in my heart for the Abnormalities. You miss her, right?



I don’t think she’ll ever come back. We’ll never get to see her shameless smile ever again. The one that made even people like me follow her.



But her will and promise will always remain the same, even after an eternity has passed. It will be a place where she can live on, even after death.





Tell me the gift she left behind for us.



In summary: We remember Kali joining the company-it turns out Carmen pegged her as a good person and thought she could use that to get a discount. In the present, Gebura confesses that swords are all she's good at and gains hope for the future as she remembers she didn't completely fail. With The Courage to Protect obtained, the Seed is now 70% complete.

Music: Until Dawn


Everything from here on out is a mystery. I know I’m not in a position to dare predict the outcome of your endeavors, but… Your task is not an impossible one.



Us machines say that when something will never happen after taking every possibility into consideration, it has a zero-percent possibility. Thus, my vision of you succeeding through every tribulation in the future is not impossible, but rather has a zero-percent possibility. However, I won’t be disappointed if you fail. I am a machine after all. Even if the sandcastle you’ve built up crumbles yet again, I’ll be able to put up with it as if nothing happened.

In summary: "We've never been this far before, and I'm not saying success is impossible, I'm just saying I've considered every possibility and your chance of success is 0%. It's cool tho, I'll still be here when you fail."

Gee… Thanks, Angela.

You are most welcome, A.

So have we never been this far before for real, or is that just past-me telling you to say that with the script?

…

Won't tell me?

...

...Can't?

…

Past-me is really starting to get on my nerves.

May I continue?

Oh, there's more? Sure, sure. Knock yourself out.

Music: Ominous


That it was a world where everyone had to fool themselves into thinking that fitting into a structured mould was happiness. Nobody sought history or religion anymore. No one needed those pillars. Under the guise of new innovations that were needed in the world, companies emerged using technologies known as Singularities.



Similar to the food chain, small companies began to disappear, or were eaten by the larger companies… At some point, they were called the Wings of the World, and soon a Head rose to control those wings. People started to derive their purpose for existence from belonging to the Wings.



They may appear to be encouraging the development of the world for the better, but their nature is no different from ours. There’s always a price to pay; any sane person would know that the deeds the Wings commit in the name of the betterment of society are in fact the most humiliating aspect of these corporations. They are the disgrace of the world and its people.



In every man, the two instincts, the primal essence of life and death coexist. The Wings only guided our instinct of life. However, if one instinct were to dominate too much, the other would begin to make its move, slowly and unbeknownst to us, from the depths. Soon, a world where everyone wants to return to nothing will arrive. Into the stillness of silence before the birth of mankind.



When the hand that only wanted to embrace humanity with warmth was ruthlessly severed, you clutched the void, and saw the crack between the boundaries that were never shown to others. Left alone, you decided to instill possibility and potential into all mankind. Hope and despair are intertwined in that possibility, making it impossible for anyone to know the answer.



In those days, you looked absolutely terrible. Many coworkers—friends—were worried about you and tried to comfort you, but you didn’t care. You wouldn’t listen to anything. I guess you still needed them at some point. Seeing as you were the one who locked them away in here, barely holding on to the husks of their dead bodies…

In summary: Apparently a technological singularity turned the world into a cyberpunk hellhole, and that is what we're trying to fix before all of humanity winds up destroying itself. The other Wings are just as bad as L-Corp, and oh right-nobody knows if our plan is going to fix everything or make it worse.

A may be a colossal idiot.

Music: Into the Deep


You’ve seen this innumerable times, no? With enough time, Abnormalities come back to life. No matter how many fragments they’re broken into. It’s one of the facts that drove Gebura mad. She took far too much time to understand that the Abnormalities have to be exploited, not ended. Or maybe she simply couldn’t free herself from the indignation of her past. Well, that doesn’t concern me. The only thing I know is that I will never ever see what she was before.



>E.G.O’s potential?


---

>What’s the reason you’re so astonished?


---

Routes Merge Here


Artifacts from the Outskirts and from the Ruins, the singularities of the Wings or rudimentary inventions made in the Backstreets. If used correctly, they would be weapons that could fare against Abnormalities somehow. But giving those weapons to employees that never even learned to fight outside of basic training is as useless as teaching a hatchling to hunt.



As opposed to our employees who cannot even wield weapons efficiently. That’s seeing as combat ability isn’t a requirement to be hired here. But our employees don’t even have to learn to use E.G.O. The power of the E.G.O grows in conjunction with the heart of the wielder. One knows how to use it the moment they wield it.



I haven’t seen anyone that can draw out the true potential, apart from the Red Mist. To wield E.G.O is to dress oneself in the shell of the ego of another person. The wielder is merely imitating the borrowed ego, unable to completely make the power their own.



If I could, the circumstances may have changed dramatically. Now I’m confined here, issuing orders to extract E.G.O, forbidden from touching them myself. You must have been scared still, even though my hatred and bloodthirst are locked up inside this rusted metal cage.



But you never know. The yearning for blood could wax once again, for it is simply sealed, not uprooted.

In summary: Binah gives us actual information about E.G.O gear! Apparently Gebura was the only one who could properly use it to its fullest, as all most people can do is imitate the will behind the weapon they have. However, because anyone can pick one up and immediately use it properly it's an incredibly powerful tool. Also we get our mandatory reminder that she's crazy and may try and murder us at any moment. Y'know, typical Binah.



Are you sure none of them are..?

Yes. Completely certain.

We just had someone who-

No one is using the full potential of these E.G.O.

That's… kind of a terrifying thought in itself. I'll... be going now.



Ah, A. Good day to you. I note that the mission appears unfinished?

Yeah, wasn't much point doing it before today since I wouldn't see you 'til tomorrow for the next one anyways.

I see. Impeccable planning as always, sir.

If you say so. Let's just make this one a nice quiet day-I need a break after yesterday.

I hope so as well. There's no need to rush, you've all the time in the world now.

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: A familiar E.G.O reappears.







Oh, that one's a serial killer-the skins are part of a ritual they do with their victims.

That's nuts. Okay, so what's Queen Bee?

It's actually the nest-they say that jungles have large elaborate constructions for ants and the like…

Then what are the bees that pop out of people?

I'm not entirely sure those aren't just a rumor-never seen it happen.

So it's people being paranoid? You're nuts, that's nuts!

…

That one's just a really strict piano teacher.

You think so? But the piano itself plays for you.

The keys aren't attached, and it's a player piano. The sanity loss comes from keys not matching what you're playing, obviously.

…

Yes, way! It's really simple when you think about it.

I dunno, I'm with BICEPS on this one. This all just sounds like rationalization.

Aww, come on. I'm serious..!

Then explain Yin and Yang.

...they're just pendants. What's to explain?

…

Okay, that is probably a psychosomatic hallucination brought on by some trace materials on the two pendants that's getting inhaled by the agents, and when they get too close together the two different materials have an adverse reaction that causes further chaos.

Oh jeez, that's the craziest thing I've ever heard in my life!

Well, compared to things like freaky fish-pendants that turn into a dragon, mine's much more believable!

…

Hey you guys, get to the meeting room-we need to start figuring out staffing for tomorrow!

Ah, yes ma'am!

We'll be right there!

…!