The sound of rushing water was all that could be heard in the washroom. Felix looked at his own reflection, his face and hair dripped with a cold water that helped him calm down and focused. He wiped the glass and gazed into his own mismatched eyes.
As he walked out of the washroom, he noticed a familiar aroma. He was greeted by his partner who leaned against the wall.
"You alright, bud?" Maria asked as she handed him the cup of coffee that he had requested earlier.
"Yeah, I'm just… just a little sick." Felix wiped his face.
"Well, we already accepted the request, so are we gonna give up? Don't tell me you're gonna pull out before anyone's satisfied?"
"Pull out? Who said we were giving up?"
"Mhm… Sorry, that was inappropriate of me given you just had a panic attack."
"What was?"
Maria sighed with disappointment in her tone, "So, you wanna talk about what happened just now?"
"I don't know… it just feels like my head began to burst for some reason, and by the time I realized it, everyone looked shocked."
"Well, you kinda just went and blew your load all over." Maria's face expressed disbelief at how she was unable to stop herself.
"I um… What?" Felix looked at her with cluelessness stapled to his expression.
"I mean, your psychic power went wild earlier."
"Psychic power? So that's what they decided to call it…"
"It's just a catch all term, since we're called espers. But you don't watch a lot of entertainment, do you? Still, what happened just now?"
He exhaled, "Something in my head just started to…you ever feel like there's a part of you that's missing?"
For a moment, she didn't have a snappy remark. Eye to eye, her eyebrows curled, gaze wavering slightly, looking at him like something that had already slipped out of reach.
"…You mean," she sighed and shook her head, "Like when you look in the mirror, and sometimes there's no face there at all? Like the person looking back doesn't feel like you?"
Felix tilted his head up with a confusion, "That's oddly specific… are you alright?"
Maria huffed out a short laugh, composing herself with a smile, "You're the one who just had a panic attack."
He took a nip out from his coffee and asked, "How do you deal with that?"
"I, um… Yeah, I deal with it… in a way that…" Maria folded her arms, scrambling for the right words.
From the corridor, the two other agents walked up to the two of them.
"Hey…" Isabelle nervously spoke.
"You're still here?" Maria blurted out.
"Yeah, we just came to thank you for accepting our request before returning to our base." The silver-haired woman responded.
He scratched his cheek and said, "You're espers, too. And my guess is that you know how to use your… "psychic powers" properly.
"Properly… is a stretch, but we do know a little bit." She replied.
"Can you show me what it means to be one?"
Nero's eyebrow raised slightly, taken aback by the earnest request, "Aren't you the one who's supposed to define us?"
"Right… of course, but…"
"We can try, but we're still new at it ourselves. So I was told that we would train with someone called David Soldier?" Isabelle's eyes lit up.
"Ahhh, is that so... Never mind, I'll figure it out."
"We'll be taking our leave, see ya' pipsqueak."
"Good luck!" Isabelle beamed and waved.
As the two left the corridor, Felix wiped his face, recollecting Natsumi's words:
What does it mean to be Felix Aster, to be Homo Lucerna? To be an esper?
Maria turned to him, asking, "You never asked me to show you what it means to be an esper."
"You were always so cryptic about it, I figured you wanted me to find out for myself."
"Mhm, then how about a crash course later?"
"I guess I'll go prepare my suitcase." He smiled.
"Actually, Felix… your weapons." The chief spoke as she approached with a white suitcase, and as she opened it, they saw two ornate handguns, one jet black, and the other chrome white, both of which adorned with a blue lining.
"Oh, pretty." Maria said as she got to it first.
Felix raised an eyebrow, "Two of them?"
"That's right. It was Anastasia's suggestion."
"Is that right? Does she want me to follow in her footsteps?"
"Well…" The chief paused for half a second, "That's for you to decide. Test them out, see if they suit you."
He then picked up the two guns and inspected them, the white one had the word "Agony" etched on it's ivory surface, while it's black counterpart had "Misery" engraved on it, both of which were written in elegant blue script.
"Those are some pretty sadistic names." Maria whistled.
"Don't look at me, it was Anastasia's suggestion to call them that." The chief shrugged, taking no responsibility.
"What makes these any different from Ion?" He asked.
"Like Ion, Agony shoots out waves of energy or your power. Misery, however, is an experimental firearm designed to reshape itself to fit any ammunition you load into it, within a reasonable size of course, and primarily fires hollow rounds."
"So I'll never run out of bullets. Then what'll happen to Ion?" He asked as he placed the paper cup by the window, taking a look at his new guns.
"It will return to the development storage, as it looks like you used them to play baseball against bullets."
Maria glanced over to him with a nod, "That's sounds accurate."
"But I'll get it back, right?"
"The prototype will return as an obsolete model."
Felix had a disheartened expression. As Maria saw the look on his face, she protested, "Can't he keep it as a memento?"
"It belongs to the agency. I'm sorry, if it were up to me, I would let you keep it."
"Alright…" He let out a resigned sigh.
"As for the main difference, it's made of a special material called Aestrellium."
"Sounds dumb." Maria blurted out while inspecting the gun intently.
Felix examined the white gun, his fingers traced the engraved word, and he blankly read out, "Agony…"
The chief then cleared her throat and continued, "Right, the professor also wanted me to tell you that Agony is special. It's an improved version of Anastasia's gun, and that it's specifically designed to convert and handle as much power you put into it and turn it into ammunition, even while you're still learning how to control it."
With a despondent tone, he replied, "… I see."
"It's a shame that Luna did not teach you how to use your abilities, but David's been waiting for you to—"
Felix clenched the gun and spoke in a hostile tone, "Chief…"
"Ah." The older woman paused, not wanting to push his buttons, "My bad."
He then turned around without looking at the two of them and started to walk away, "Marie, I'm gonna practice at the shooting range while we still have time."
"Ah, o-okay…" Maria responded.
As Felix left, she looked to the side and saw that his coffee had sat by the window, still half-full. She then looked at the chief, twisting her foot on the floor and asked, "Did something happen?"
The chief's orange-tinted glasses reflected into pure white as she looked down at Maria, "Felix had a mentor who disappeared three years ago."
"Luna, right?"
Maria gazed in silence, waiting for the chief to continue, "And her partner was the Black Hound, David Soldier."
"So in other words, he blames David for his mentor's disappearance?" She was quickly able to put together what the chief was implying.
"I think it's a little more complicated than that."
"Simplify for me."
"Maria, it's only been a month since the two of you were assigned together. You're not supposed to pry, that's taboo here. For now, I think it's best that you focus on the mission."
"Right, the mission." She sighed and shifted her gaze to the cup of coffee left behind.
"He'll tell you himself eventually, when he has to come to terms with it. Besides, even if I explain what I understand, I won't be able to convey the feelings he holds." The chief said compassionately.
The dark-haired woman looked at the chief with a cold stare and spoke in a low, frigid voice, "Spare me the heartwarming nonsense. I'll figure it out on my own."
Though the Chief was normally dauntless and experienced, she felt a chill crawl down her spine as Maria gave her that cold glare.
She flipped her hair back with her right hand and started to walk away.
As the strands fell back down, it revealed the startled expression on the Chief's face.
From the corner of the corridor stood Isabelle. Her face was a mix of nervous and confused from what they heard.
~