Ah yes, the feeling of your body slamming face-first onto the ground. Lovely.

With a groan, you lifted your head and got back to your feet. This was the millionth time you got intimate with the ground. With an exhausted sigh, you went to grab a towel and wiped the sweat off your forehead before sitting down on the seats.

Quite a bit of time had passed since the apparition break-out. For the first few weeks, there was a noticeable air of uneasiness and tension within the AEI members. By now things have reverted back to normal. Well, for the most part. The SF trial was closely approaching. There was only a week left and the candidates were vigorously training, the cautious atmosphere was replaced with a competitive one.

You spent most of your time recovering from your injuries and writing down details of the plot, lore, key events, characters, and stringing together potential theories. You made sure to keep the notebook stored in a locked drawer, to which the key to it was also on your necklace.

Your abilities were new to you and it was hard to train them since you needed to work with apparitions that you knew the history of. So, your current focus was to improve your overall fitness.

You were currently in the training area you visited with Cecil. Since it was such a popular place to go to for training, reservations needed to be made if you wanted to use the area and you knew which time slot to choose where there was basically no one.

So here you were at four in the morning.

"You're getting your ass handed to you again. What's the point of being here?"

You sighed. There was only one other person motivated enough to wake up at four every morning to train.

"Lyle, you've been saying the same thing for the past week. It's getting old."

He narrowed his eyes. "What do you want me to do? Inflate your ego?"

"Just don't make comments, it's not that hard," you said. "Did you take a break yet? Don't overwork yourself."

"Don't tell me what to do."

"There goes my attempt at being considerate."

"I don't need your consideration. If you're here to drag me down, just leave. Might as well withdraw from the trial while you're at it."

"Can you stop that? Sure, underestimate me all you want. But keep it to yourself." You took another sip of your water and sighed. "It's getting on my nerves."

"Were the bandages wrapped around your head too tight or are you just stupidly confident?" Lyle walked over to you, his colossal height towering over your figure. Man, he just had to wear a semi-tight short-sleeved shirt, huh? Was he trying to show off his muscles? "I'm being realistic. You don't stand a chance in the trial, so give it up. Seeing you train annoys me."

The self-restraint you had to not throw hands at Lyle right then and there was commendable. Sure, you already had a good idea of the reason behind his words, but that doesn't excuse his actions. It served as an explanation, not a justification. And yes, his words had some merit. Realistically, a support would not stand a chance in the SF trial. It wasn't like he was aware of your abilities. Still, that didn't give him a pass to belittle you.

You took in a deep breath and composed yourself. You were going to make sure these next words go through his stubborn skull before doing a 180 and punching him right in the face.

"Sure, let's say that was the case." You stood up, maintaining eye contact. "But what does it have to do with you? If you see me lose an arm, it's on me. If you find me dead, it's on me. You can disagree with my actions, but don't order me around. I don't understand why you're so irritated with me when nothing involves you. We're not close friends and we have no past together. I'll appreciate it if you respect me as a candidate and get off my case. If seeing the sight of me training annoys you, deal with it or choose another time to train."

With an annoyed huff, you grabbed your items and left before giving Lyle a chance to respond.



===



"Third time visiting here this week. Let's hope he's here this time."

You checked your phone one last time. Yup, it was definitely late at night. It was only this morning when you went off at Lyle, but that was the least prominent thing on your mind right now.

You entered the building and immediately melted into the atmosphere. Laughter, lighthearted conversations, joyful cheers, upbeat music, and the clink of glasses; an amalgamation of different sounds dominated the air.

When you played Anomalous, you'd always visit here. Aside from the fact that the drinks served had very good buffs for Amias, the people were fun to interact with. The ambiance was far calmer and the place was a lot safer. Of course, that didn't mean that you shouldn't be cautious about people spiking your drink or when someone gets too close to you, but incidents like that rarely occurred.

The drinks were unique, new tastes were always introduced. During the two previous days you visited, you tried some out of curiosity. Some you instantly took a liking to, others you just couldn't get used to the strange flavour. One you took one sip of and blankly stared at it, trying to discern what you just drank.

"Ah-ha! They say third times the charm!" you whisper shouted to yourself.

A familiar man with jade-green hair was working behind the bar counter. Thankfully, luck was on your side and he wasn't talking to anyone at the moment. Approaching the counter, one look at Cecil and you suddenly felt shy. It was definitely because of the uniform, he looked really good in it. You sat on the seat furthest away from him and stared at the huge shelf that contained what looked to be hundreds of different types of alcohol.

Sometimes, I just want to uppercut myself.

A chuckle prompted your body to stiffen and for you to sit up straight. Even under the music, his voice was so distinguishable. You slowly turned your head to the side and immediately made eye contact with Cecil. If anything, he looked amused. You sighed out of embarrassment and walked over and took a seat right in front of him.

Hair tied into a messy low ponytail, bits of it fell over his eyes and down to the sides of his face. He was wearing a grey dress shirt covered with a black vest that you see all bartenders wear. His long sleeves rolled up to his elbows showed off his toned arms and granting you a full view of his snake tattoo that ran along his right forearm.

"Missed me?"

You didn't respond. Instead, you held up a finger and urged for the male to wait. He observed you with curious eyes when you opened your purse. Taking out a wad of cash, you placed it onto the table and slowly pushed towards him. You rehearsed this in your head many times. There was no way you could mess this up.

"Take it."

"..."

"..."

"...Is that all you have to say––"

You wanted to slam your head against the table. You tried to say something else, but you were internally malfunctioning. The plan was to pull a cool anime moment where you slid money over to him and smoothly ask for his 'personal services'. You realise now that actually saying it would be very embarrassing.

Cecil held a hand over his lips, stifling an amused laugh. "Hm, could it be that you took my words seriously when I mentioned my personal services? To be honest, I didn't expect that. Need to let off some steam before the SF trial?" he asked, a flirtatious hum flowing at the end of his sentence. He pushed the money back to you. "I don't need to get paid for that. Let's head to the VIP room, shall we?"

Your heart was doing three hundred summersaults per second. With a seductive look in his eyes, he gently took you by the hand and led you towards the back of the building.

Okay, okay. (Y/n). Breathe. Calm thyself. Be one with absolute serenity. Achieve complete stillness.

For context, you were obviously not here because you wanted a steamy night with Cecil. You were here because you wanted to discuss a few things with him in private. If you were to try and find him in the AEI building and asked him to come with you somewhere hush, you felt like the chairman will somehow find out. Organising a scheduled date to talk to him outside of the AEI was too much of a hassle. So here you were.

Cecil opened the door to a luxurious looking lounge. You looked around in awe, it felt like you needed to pay an hourly rate to breathe in its air. Momentarily taking your focus off him as you observed the room, you didn't notice the faint click of the door being locked.

So when you turned around and saw that Cecil had already taken off his vest and was beginning to unbutton his shirt, you almost screamed.

"Wait! Cecil, hold it right there!"

The male paused. "Oh, would you like to take things slower?"

Slower––You frantically shook your head. "I'm not asking for this kind of service. I came here to talk!"

"..."

"..."

"Uh, Cecil––"

"Talk, huh? Well, it's not like I'll deny your request."

With a casual shrug, he sat on the couch. One leg crossed over the other, he folded his arms and gave you an expectant look as you sat across him. You did your darn best to not look at his slightly exposed chest. Gosh, it was a lot easier dealing with this man behind a computer screen.

"Having a conversation in this room is...well, it's not like I judge. Are you sure that you're not just shy? I can help guide––"

"Stop. Don't finish that sentence." The subtle smirk on his lips was enough of an indicator that he was completely messing with you. "I didn't know how else to get alone time with you."

"I'm glad to see you here, but you realise that you could just come to me in the AEI, right? I figured that would've saved you a lot of trouble."

"That's true, but it'll look suspicious." And putting money in the equation makes you more willing to listen to what I'm about to say next.

"Suspicious?"

You were silent for a moment as you tried to collect your thoughts and figure out how you were going to approach this.

"How do you feel about the SF trial? Nervous?"

Cecil didn't seem to be expecting such an abrupt mention of the trial. "Not particularly. Do you feel nervous?" He looked off to the side thoughtfully. "Hm, this is the first time someone has asked me to be a therapist. Not sure if I can pull it off. Are you sure you don't want to just––"

"No."

"Alright, your loss."

You sighed. "What I wanted to talk about in particular is the selection of candidates for the trial. I spent a lot of time thinking about it."

You've established the fact (to yourself) that the chairman wanted to expand the skill variety because apparitions were becoming more formidable, but there was also another reason.

"What if the chairman had intentions of targeting specific people? That's why he chose members from units you'd normally wouldn't expect. Amias, someone with an unknown background was chosen. Me, someone who displays odd abilities to withstand possession and claims to know little about them. We're both suspicious.

What if he intends to keep us in check? And if we are deemed as a threat in some way, he'd get rid of us and use the SF trial to cover his actions? Even if our disappearance might look suspicious on his part, I don't doubt that he can come up with an excuse and everyone will believe him."

"Those are some interesting words," Cecil said. "I wonder why you chose to come to me out of all people. What if I reported this and got you into trouble?"

"Let me finish first, then you're not going to want to do that. Remember the emergency operation that happened on the day we met?" Cecil nodded. "I was caught up in it––like, big time. And it seems like the source of the storm was coming from the technology design division lab. Any thoughts on that?"

You carefully observed his expression. The whole point of this conversation wasn't to get information from him, you already knew the answers. The point was to get him to tell you the information himself.

Cecil is an ambitious individual, someone who wouldn't shy away just because something may be risky. It's thanks to this that in the original story he ended up discovering a crucial secret of the AEI. However, before he could reveal the truth, a mysterious individual––who you presumed was working for the chairman––killed him.

If he hadn't died, Amias wouldn't have discovered that secret later on in such a...harrowing manner. You shuddered when you remembered his cold expression after murdering everyone.

If you can get Cecil to trust you enough to tell you information, that was a start to saving his life down the line.

"You look like you're expecting something from me."

"I'm just testing my theory so I can have more of a reason to believe that the chairman didn't only select us because we have interesting capabilities. You're the only other person I know that's not from the offence or defence team. Also, since you're the head of the operation design division and you mentioned that you interacted with the other heads, I assumed you might know something about the lab."

"I see..." Cecil mumbled, a flicker of intrigue in his eyes. "You seem to trust me enough to say these things, but how can I say the same for you? What if you're setting me up?"

You took out the money from your purse. "Okay, then let's call it a business transaction. I'm employing you."

"So that's why you brought money." Cecil smiled, suddenly looking a lot more compliant now. "That's fine by me."

Yup. Cash really is the answer to everything when it comes to this man.

Cecil uncrossed his arms and tapped his finger against the armrest in contemplation. "I said that you were a personal interest of mine, so this works out in my favour too. If it ends up backfiring on me, I'll figure a way out. Do you know an individual who goes by the name Eve?"

"They're the head of the technology design division, right? That's all I know about them. Not even their gender and age."

That wasn't a lie, for the most part. Eve was a recurring name that appeared during Anomalous, but they were a mysterious figure not only amongst the AEI, but also people who played the game. There were scattered hints throughout the story and that helped you work up a few theories. However, at the end of the day, they were just theories.

"I personally talk to the head of the data analysis division all the time. I've never directly talked to Eve before, I exchange information through their assistant."

"What do you usually talk about?"

"Only when something substantial like a vengeful apparition occurs. Before issuing the report, I would have to inform them first. I honestly feel like I'm talking to an AI at times with how short and straight to the point Eve's responses are."

"I see...then––"

You stopped talking when Cecil suddenly stood up and walked over to the door. You gave him a confused look as he hovered a finger over the light switch before flicking it. The lights went out and darkness clouded your vision. It took a while for your eyes to adjust to the darkness, you were thankful for the minimal moonlight that seeped past the curtains.

You heard light footsteps approaching your way.

"Say, (Y/n)." Cecil's voice was low and alluring. My god, the way he said your name should be illegal. "I can elaborate a lot more if you'd like."

You swallowed, feeling his presence right behind you. You briefly turned your body around and subtly glanced over your shoulder. From your peripheral vision, you could see a beautiful illumination of green and yellow from Cecil's eyes; his pupils resembled a snake's. It was captivating, like a predator luring in prey.

"...I mean, that'd be great."

He leaned forward against the couch and looked right at you, his hair falling over his eyes as he tilted his head. There was a fair amount of distance between you and him, he wasn't invading your personal space.

"But it'll be unfair if I spilled everything without you giving anything else in return."

"I did pay you."

"That payment is for the mutual agreement that we're working together. What if I tell you what I know in exchange for something else? Something more intimate?"

You didn't respond and slowly reached into your purse. You stopped when your fingers felt an outline of the object you were looking for. After getting the courage to look Cecil right in the eyes, you said, "Sure, I'll tell you more about myself. Getting to know me personally is pretty intimate."

You abruptly took the object out and turned it on and a blinding beam of light shone right in Cecil's face.

Did you just shine a flashlight at him? Yes. Yes you did.

It would be weird if you didn't come prepared to defuse situations such as this knowing Cecil's character. A smug look on your face, you asked, "So, what do you want to know?"

The male brought his hands to shield his eyes from the light right on time. You held back an amused laugh at the confusion on his face before directing the light to the ceiling. Nice, now your vision wasn't dominated by darkness anymore.

He sighed, but he looked more entertained than frustrated. "Seriously, when will you accept my advances?"

"Never." Trust me, I kind of wanted to. "Anyways, can you turn on the lights?"

Brightness flooded the room and you let out a sigh of relief and turned off your flashlight. Cecil went back to his seat.

"Sorry about that, I got a little too carried away. I was planning to stop a few sentences later. I didn't expect you to shine a flashlight in my face." He laughed. "That was a surprise."

"A nice one, right? Anyways, I'll tell you more about myself––"

"It's fine, I'll tell you what I know."

You blinked in surprise. You were ready to spill your connections with the apparitions, even the silver-eyed one. "Seriously?"

He nodded. "One word: weapons."

"Weapons?"

"I always had my suspicions against the technology design division ever since I became the head of my own division. I agree with you about the apparition break-in having to do with their lab. After all, I snuck in during the crisis."

"You did what. How? Did you get caught? You're still alive??" This was your exact reaction during your gameplay when you found out about this information.

"You'll figure it out once I display my abilities during the SF trial. When I was in there, all I could catch a glimpse of was a stack of blueprints."

"And they looked like weapons?"

"That's just my assumption. I was confident that I left unnoticed, but maybe the chairman caught wind of my actions."

"But since he selected you before you snuck in, he definitely didn't chose you as a candidate because of that. Do you have any other ideas?"

Cecil thought about it for a moment. "It likely relates to the nature of my abilities."

"I'm assuming you're not going to tell me them?"

"Showing it off is a lot more fun, isn't it?"

"Then, make sure to keep a close eye on me during the SF trial. I'll show off my ability as well."

Cecil smiled. "Oh? Are you trying to flirt with me right now?"

The unamused look on your expression was enough of a response for him. When the male stood up again, your hands slowly inched towards your flashlight. Cecil laughed at your actions and reassured you that he wasn't going to pull another stunt on you. He then grabbed a bottle of alcohol and two glasses before pouring you a drink. He sat down and raised his glass.

"It was certainly an unexpected visit and an unexpected conversation," Cecil said. "Though, I'm not complaining. Shall we commemorate our partnership?"

With a pleased look on your expression, you raised your own glass and raised a toast. You were beyond relieved that the conversation went well and, dare you say, a little excited. Now, the next thing you needed to do was survive the SF trial. You had a few plans in mind on what to do during it and one of them involved meeting the vengeful apparition again.