The sound of turning pages rang throughout the small room.
The entire quarters were square in shape, with little light illuminating the entire place and its metallic exterior.
It was an office, placed in the quarters of the fourth special unit. A place now filled with three individuals, huddling on the ground and surrounded by four boxes and loose papers.
They all wore thick eyerings, as they had now spent hours upon hours huddling in that room designated for staff, going through one paper after another.
Noctis, Recks, and the guy who did not want to give a name.
He simply called himself the second junior disciple.
When asked why he didn't want to give a name, he simply answered: Names are important and are not to be given lightly.
Sure buddy… Sure.
Closing the folder, he was reading. Noctis slowly stood up and walked to a pinwall with shaky steps.
Authority Wielders were supposed to be superhumans, but even superhumans were still humans!!!
As he rumbled internally, he looked at the pinboard filled with faces, names, and different facts, a few red, blue, black, and yellow strings connecting differing individuals.
These were not the mystical strings that only he was privy to; no, these were the mundane kind. A flimsy attempt at bringing order to the chaos.
As a whole, it looked like a proper mess.
Only he and the two other members sitting beside would ever be able to take away any meaning from the seemingly random scribbles, as their creators. A,nd with every word written and every newly strung string, Noctis was having more trouble distinguishing what he had created there.
Even the creators of something can eventually lose control over their own creation. What a funny idea, Noctis thought, half delirious and sleep-deprived.
´I think you should take away the red ones; they are pointless and disruptive.´
"What?" Noctis mumbled out loud in a barely audible tone while placing a new string, gaining the attention of the other two in the room.
"What is it, junior brother? Did you discover something?" The second disciple asked hopefully.
Cursing internally, that random comment of Ouroboros had caught him off guard. He had somewhat acclimated to this unwanted guest living in his mind, but seriously, what was that all about!?
"Oh no, it's…"
Taking another glance at the more complicated growing pinwall, Noctis spoke in a slightly distant tone.
"Isnt it weird how most of the individuals that disappeared without leaving a body had some kind of illness beforehand?"
Taking another look at the wall, Noctis slowly felt his head buzz as his mind tried to analyze all of the information at the same time.
He cursed out loud, averting his gaze the next moment. "Fuck. Why can't this stuff just be digitalized!?"
What kind of sadistic or lazy asshole hasn't ordered all of this to be digitized?
Ignoring the obscenity, Recks stood up and looked over the pinwall as well, a thoughtful expression on his face.
"I once heard that it's an order from the upper echelons to digitize as little as possible.
I have to say your words hold truth. Good catch."
The second junior disciple looked at the piles upon piles of paper as he spoke enthusiastically.
"The Ancestores work in mysterious ways, but have no doubt. Once we best their trials, glory awaits!"
Ignoring the words, Recks continued.
"Let's look for any illnesses that could be seen as a commonality."
Hearing this, Noctis rubbed his head in despair, his gaze traveling across the piles of paper once more.
Oh, how did I deserve this, ohh mighty hearth? Howww!?
Crying out internally, Nox moved back to his place as he moved towards his original man-shaped hole surrounded by papers.
He had expected many things when he started working for the government, like being sent to dangerous places on a regular basis, having to apprehend and disperse protests, and so on, but this… this was not it.
Of course, he had to do things of the like often. Noctis was just unsure if he preferred this or the more dangerous alternative.
In all honesty, the only thing he hated more than monotonous tasks was people with green eyes.
Glanzing over to the yellow-eyed newcomer.
He seemed a bit strange, but throughout this god-awful experience, Noctis had understood that he was kind at heart and simply wanted to help.
A truly rare trait in these parts.
He seemed just a little… delusional… on the brink of madness… friendly madness.
Thinking about it, was this a common trait in Oracle, or was he sent away because he was such an outlier?
What was Oracle like…
Shaking his head, as Nox reprimanded himself for drifting off, Nox picked up the next sheet of paper.
__________________________________________________
Name: Albert Roth… Age 24… gender male…
Went missing on 28.06.1162 ACW...
...Reported by a near family member...
...Diagnosed with Red Breath days before the incident...
...Diagnosis confirmed by Dr. Klemens of Noxen Pharmaceutical...
...Last seen leaving his residence shortly before dusk...
...No signs of struggle were found at the scene...
...Personal belongings left behind, including wallet and identification...
...Witnesses reported persistent coughing and disorientation in the days prior to disappearance...
...Believed to have traveled alone...
...Current status: Missing. Investigation remains open.
__________________________________________________
Name: Adiana Smith… Age 22… gender female… ..
Went missing on 20.06.1162 ACW...
...Reported by a friend...
...Diagnosed with Red Breath...
...Diagnosis confirmed by Dr. Klemens of Noxen Pharmaceutical...
...Last seen leaving his residence shortly before dusk...
...Personal belongings left behind, including wallet and identification...
...Current status: Missing. Investigation remains open.
__________________________________________________
Name: Gregorie Retch… Age 27
...Diagnosed with Red Breath...
...Diagnosis confirmed by Dr. Klemens of Noxen Pharmaceutical...
...Last seen leaving his residence shortly before dusk...
...Personal belongings left behind, including wallet and identification...
...Current status: Missing. Investigation remains open.
__________________________________________________
Name: Walter Stalin… Age 24
...Diagnosed with Red Breath...
...Diagnosis confirmed by Dr. Klemens of Noxen Pharmaceutical...
...Current status: Missing. Investigation remains open.
"Age 20-30; red breath; Dr. Klemens of Noxen Pharmaceutical"
Rubbing his head thoughtfully, he looked over to verify his findings.
***
Underground market in a small alleyway.
Knock, knock, knock.
Watching as the door of the small shop opened, giving way to the sight of an elderly man with grey streaked hair on the edge of turning white, a shabby bronze monocle resting on his left eye.
Noticing the three guests in their peculiar attire, the man's mouth fell shut, and he was stunned into silence for a moment's time. He, however, quickly composed himself as he invited the investigators in, introducing himself as Mr. Klemens, with a polite yet not quite refined demeanor.
Two of the "investigators" wore the standard-issue dark blue coat that officers were supposed to wear, while the third wore an eye-catching yellow robe. Something almost unseen in the cold expanse of Abyss City.
"Would you like some tea?" The elderly man asked in a voice still filled with energy, unexpected for a man of his age.
As they passed through a long, mostly shabby entryway filled with a few peculiar sights, Recks wore a somewhat funny expression upon seeing a foot, seemingly human, floating lifelessly in a jar.
Tapping the jar as he passed, he spoke, as if out of curiosity.
"Thank you, but I'm good. If I may ask, how come you're storing such… excuisities?
You know corpses are expensive."
Taking a look at the foot, the doctor spoke, slightly amused.
"Take it as an old man's curiosity. I've heard a superstition about cut-off feet bringing good luck.
Well, considering that inspectors have come to my humble establishment, I'd assume it's truly nothing more than a superstition. Ha ha ha."
With the end of his sentence, the group reached a small room with a small metal table and a few seats built out of the same material.
"Our visits don't have to always be bad…" Recks spoke in an amused tone.
"Please take a seat. My old bones won't be able to sustain my own weight for long."
As he gestured for the empty standing chairs, the man plopped down on his own chair, which looked far more comfortable than the rest.
"So to what do I owe the pleasure?"
Mr. Klemens looked at the guests, Recks taking the lead while the other two simply watched from the side.
Recks spoke in a comforting tone as he took a seat very fluidly.
The other two stayed motionless a meter behind, observing the room calmly.
"It's nothing much. We have just hit a dead end on an investigation. So we were pretty much grasping at straws.
For example, some of the victims were your patients at one point or another."
Showing a bit of worry, Klemens asked, as if in jest, unable to fully hide his real thoughts.
"A-are you perhaps suspecting me? That a frail old man could have done such a horrible thing?"
Recks shook his head in response. He clearly tried to keep the friendly atmosphere alive.
Oh goodness gracious… Of course not. We were just hoping to get a more specific picture through a conversation with their attending physician.
Other than that, we can't ignore the possibility that someone is targeting your patients."
Klemens did not show much reaction to the words, other than a bit of grief for the poor people involved. Or maybe guilt for not having noticed anything earlier.
It was a simple reaction one would expect from someone in the medical profession.
As they talked, Noctis was looking for any slip-ups, any reaction, anything that could reveal something, but he truly seemed like a normal old man to the discerning eye of his.
As he shifted his attention and opened his eyes a bit further, the strings surrounding the man became clearer, turning from a blur to almost tangible physical objects one could touch.
Sadly, it was very difficult to tell anything from the bundle of strings, given the hundreds of connections he had made through his line of work.
The more sociable a person was, the more difficult it became to see the individual connections.
From what he could grasp, there were a few outstanding ones, with one string particularly thick standing out among the rest. This, however, didn't tell Noctis much, only that he had a very deep bond or connection with someone.
It did not incriminate the man in any way.
The connections linking the Doctor to the missing patients were lost among the myriad other strings, and even if there weren't that many obstructions, Noctis had a hunch it wouldn't have changed anything.
At the beginning of the paper wars, Noctis had excused himself to go and see if his ability would ripen any fruit. He had never stated the specifics of his abilities to the rest of the team, staying vague about them, simply saying it was good for tracking.
And that was all Darron wanted to know about him; it even seemed he preferred it that way. At times like these, Nox deeply regretted not having spent the time reading up on the "Code of Conduct for Authority Holders".
I'll definitely do it one day, Nox thought, deep down knowing that he had already procrastinated on it for half a year and would continue to do so.
Stopping himself from drifting off any further, Nox thought back to when he visited a few family members of one of the missing people.
It had actually been one of the first things he had done in hopes of escaping the piles upon piles of paperwork to stop the paper wars without lifting a single sheet of paper, the way every war should be settled.
This had its difficulties, as they were unsure which red thread connected all the cases and who had simply disappeared at the same time, falling into the piles of reports they had to go through.
Even though it should have been easy to find a missing brother from someone, by following along the string. However, it was a challenge in and of itself to find out to whom the string was connected without both ends in the same room.
Even if the thickness and texture of a string of fate could show certain features that might reveal information, even after half a year of studying, he was still in the beginning stages of understanding the string's intricacies.
Since people often had multiple deep relationships, how was Nox supposed to judge them before ever having met the person they were connected to?
Every connection was, in essence, unique, yet even if it was, how could he know that this specific one connected a person to their brother rather than to another relative?
If everyone were unique, no one would be truly unique!
Then there was the most disheartening possibility that the thread wasn't even there anymore, which didn't bode well for the victims.
After all, the only way Noctis knew to cut a string was death, since lifeless bodies had no connections and perhaps some rituals.
All of this eventually led Noctis to give up on this approach. As a whole, going from person to person with such uncertainties eventually seemed like a waste of time.
He couldn't be too sure about the field of rituals, since he had too little talent in it to give a proper evaluation, but there was the possibility, so who was he to deny?
Seriously, how was it all supposed to make sense? It was a bunch of random lines and some gibberish plastered across it! Getting worked up at the mountains of things he had to work on, a gentle phrase suddenly took him out of his contemplations.
"May we look around for a while"
The doctor did not deny them; he simply pointed to a few glass containers and an old bookshelf.
"Please be careful around those places," Klemens said without the slightest resistance in his voice.
Raising a yellow eyebrow, the Second junior disciple, as he referred to himself, asked questioningly, his voice unable to be any more serious. "Is there something dangerous in those ancient crystal seals, or are there secret Daoist teachings in those tomes?"
Feeling embarrassed for merely being associated with the guy, Noctis simply distanced himself from the group as he slipped out unnoticed and looked around.
After a few moments, Noctis simply heard the elderly Klemens compose himself as he spoke lightheartedly.
"No, no… Those are just almost as old as I myself am and therefore just as frail, young one, ha ha.
A bit of relief swelled up at the motion of not being frowned upon and seen as crazy people, as Noctis halfheartedly picked up a book, brushing off a thick layer of dust.
"The theory of mechanical evolution"
The book seemed barely used despite its clearly aged appearance, a circle having formed at its center.
Was it used as a pad for a mug of some sort? This book doesn't seem to be valued by Dr. Klemens.
Not dwelling on it for long, Noctis returned the book to its original place.
Not particularly fond of the method of looking through stuff completely clueless, Noctis looked over to his colleagues, with one going through a few papers, and the other staying close to the Doctor, keeping a close eye on him.
Noctis could see two types of threads: one that connected people, and the other representing someone's future and past.
Peculiarly, both the future string and the one of the past seemed to wander towards that shelf of books, where they then started twirling on the spot for some time, representing that the originator of the string would stay there for a time.
Having a bit of difficulty following the overlapping bundles, Noctis walked over, wanting to see where they'd end.
As his things slowly ran along the dust-covered metal, his finger landed on a book that seemed to be favored by the bundles of strings.
When he tried taking it out, his hand suddenly flinched back a bit, not taking out the book.
A sound was grating throughout the room, all of a sudden, a sound he knew all too well.
Beep—beep—beep—beep—beep—beep.