Chapter 4: Callsign: Oblivion (1)

I stared at the girl in front of me in complete silence for a noticeable while, I can't quite explain why my eyes were lingering on her appearance as I was already done assessing her body for any damage.

But for some reason that eludes my awareness there was something about this person that just...drew my gaze to her more than what was required by the mission, as if in the deepest depths of my mind something was urging me to take a closer look at her, a feeling of instinctual recognition almost as if I was meeting an old companion that I haven't met in a LONG time.

""Have we...met somewhere before? You look familiar""

Unconsciously, my mouth moved before I could properly process this feeling, completely eliminating any chance of me holding back these words.

((Why did I say that? Of course I haven't met her before...why...why am I asking this? There is absolutely no way I could've forgotten meeting someone before))

The conscious part of me questioned why I am doing this after all it's obvious I've never met this person in my life. I of all people should know, after all I can remember every single event that's ever happened in my life with perfect clarity. Every single second of my 9 years, 3 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 3 hours and 26 minutes of life was recorded into my memory as if someone took a heated blade and carved it into my skull and that's why I could say with ABSOLUTE certainty that I've never met this girl before in my life.

((Well unless they wiped my memories...wouldn't be the first time an agent has had to undergone mandated mental reconditioning))

The possibility of the organization "editing" my memories did cross my mind but in the end I dismissed it.

((No that's not possible...even with the organization's techniques and magic being centuries ahead of most of the world, the most advanced memory alteration methods available to us would still leave inconsistencies and nonsensical details in my recollection that I would immediately be able to notice given my access to all of my memories even those of when I was just a baby and a bit even before that. In my 5 years of service to the organization so far I have never undergone mental reconditioning, my memories of the last 5 years of my life are too seamless and consistent for that to be the case. I did go through a lot of physical and mental conditioning in my 4 years of training but there's no way I could've met this girl during that time period...))

I wondered if I came across her in some form during my 4 years of training before my first deployment on the field and the memory of her was just lost during that process but that was also out of the question as GEN 7 such as myself were not allowed any contact with the outside world before we had finished our basic training.

((And if a more advanced memory alteration method had been used on me, the only person who could carry out such a task would be the Maestro...is that why he sent me on this mission?...No as much as I dislike that creepy bastard this isn't something he would feel the need to hide from me))

The possibility that a more advanced memory alteration method being invented without my notice and being used on me did cross my mind but I dismissed that as well since if so the Maestro would not let ANYONE touch his prized creation except himself ((a sentiment I find both oddly touching and absolutely revolting)) and if it was the Maestro who altered my memory he would tell me straight up that he did it, there's no point in us hiding things from each other after all.

"Uhm...my apologies but no, I don't believe I've ever met someone of your...disposition before"

The girl after a noticeable period of silence meekly responded to my words, it was clear from her tone and body language that she was still very much shaken and uncomfortable with current events, understandably so I suppose.

""Ah no need for apologies, it was my mistake""

I responded to her in a professional matter, not wanting to unnerve her any more than this, dealing with a hysterical client is a real pain in the behind ((Speaking from experience)).

"I uh...if you don't mind, may I ask why you're still patting my head?"

With an awkward voice the girl's violet eyes turned away from me refusing to continue eye contact, I suppose it was only natural that she felt weird since I stared at her in silence for a good minute while my hand kept petting her.

Pulling my hand away I asked:

""Are you uncomfortable with it? I was told petting someone on the head was a powerful gesture of reassurance so I assumed it would be useful in calming your nerves""

"W-well it IS but...usually not when a stranger does it to you"

The girl answered turning her glance back to me for a moment.

""...Understood""

Taking that to mind I stood up and offered my hand to her.

"T-thank you"

Although she no doubt still had her reservations the ivory haired girl took my hand and stood upright, dusting herself off.

After I let go of her hand and took one last look to make sure that she was definitely uninjured I spoke again with the same dry enunciation.

""Although I'm sure you still have your concerns I must insist that you be at ease. Should you wish you can ignore my presence entirely until your escort party arrives. I will only be standing guard until then in case the perpetrators of this incident had reinforcements that were unaccounted for""

"My...escort party? Sorry but might I ask what you mean? I had assumed that-"

With her voice seeming to regain it's composure the girl asked.

""No I'm afraid I won't be the one escorting you home. As I said before I was ordered only to ensure your safety and take care of these kidnappers. Getting you home would be the duty of your father's men"" ((Assuming she really is the daughter of this Marquee character that I keep hearing about))

Hearing my words a million different expressions seemed to have appeared on the girl's face, I didn't even think it was possible for someone to have so many emotions and emotes at once.

"You...don't work for my father?" ((Oh so she is the daughter, hmm? Why's she making that face?))

Suddenly she asked me that, what is that expression suppose to mean? Disappointment? Hope? Relief? Why is her mood suddenly so dour?

((Regardless it is a part of my mission to keep her calm and having a conversation with her would be useful in achieving that goal))

Setting the myriad of questions I have aside for a moment I decided to shift my focus back on to the mission.

""No, I'm more of a private contractor of sorts. Your father or perhaps just someone from your house made a request to my superiors which was then passed on to me""

I explained to her concisely that I was not affiliated with her house in any way and that our relationship was purely transactional.

((Although the details of how or why the Maestro even accepted this request or why he passed it on to me remains out of my reach. Actually I'm not even sure if the Maestro was the one who received this little errand directly...it could've been passed on to him from someone else, unlikely but it's still a possibility))

I was once again reminded of how odd the circumstances of this operation are; "eccentric" doesn't even begin to describe my mentor. Try as I might, I cannot grasp what goes on in that wooden head of his as he does with my own thoughts.

"I see..."

That expression again...what does it mean?

I must admit reading people's moods is NOT one of my strong suits, reading their body language sure but their expressions? Yeah not really.

""Any further information is classified so for your safety I respectfully suggest you cease any inquiries""

Deciding that continuing this conversation further would get us nowhere I decided to end it and sit her down somewhere so she can collect her thoughts. Those crates over there would do the trick, I could use the chair but she might feel uncomfortable sitting on the same chair she was tied up on just earlier.

"Please take a seat somewhere, I'll keep watch"

I gestured to a set of crates that seemed comfortable enough considering the circumstances.

"Yes...thank you"

Her tone had a very noticeable stain of melancholy in it as she thanked me.

((Weird...usually people would be more excited about being saved))

Noting down her odd behavior but deciding that there's probably nothing I can do about it right now, I turned around and started to secure the area.

Kneeling down on the entrance into this room, I made a gesture with my left hand, outreaching my index and middle finger before swiping down.

(([movement detection], [spatial awareness]...))

A purple rune appeared on the door before rapidly duplicating itself and spreading all over and covering the surface area of this warehouse, from roof to floor and from wall to wall.

""...""

I stood as still as a statue guarding the door for a while using my Prana to sense the positions and directions of the group of people I detected approaching this area earlier.

((They're near but judging by their current course it'll be a while longer before they reach this place, maybe I should've left a few bodies to help guide them here. But then again I'm only making the assumption that they're the marquee's men based on their disciplined movements, for all I know they could be reinforcements for the kidnappers and regardless I was ordered not to reveal myself to anyone that's not the target...worse case scenario I've already secured a route so I can carry the girl out of here before they'll notice if I determine them to be enemies))

"..."

""...""

The silence continued for a bit in the warehouse with only the occasional sound of the girl fidgeting in her seat to break it.

"Is that...magic?"

Finally after a while the girl broke the silence and asked me, the simple detection rune I just conjured and layered over the room seemed to have caught her eye.

""An enchantment to be precise...this'll make it so that I'll be able to detect when anything enters this room""

I answered as dryly as ever, perhaps it was a side effect of the augmentations but my words are almost always enunciated in this deadpan tone, that combined with the fact that my voice has been described as unnaturally echoey like there's two people speaking at once when I talk has made most people adverse to holding a conversation with me for long.

I could more or less talk in a normal voice if I made a considerable effort but that's too much trouble for me so I generally talk in this voice unless there's a need to disguise myself or negotiate during missions, "talking normally" hurts my throat a lot.

"Huh, it's impressive that you're adept in both magic and physical combat, you don't seem that much older than me either...you must be training a lot"

It seems she calmed down enough to attempt small talk, even if it is incredibly awkward...

""It's just a part of my job""

I answered simply.

"Still..."

She seemed to be holding back something as even with my complete lack of any ability to read the mood I could see how obvious it is that there's some words stuck in her throat.

((Fine...I'll lend her an ear, I've got nothing to do anyway and it's not like we're ever going to see each other again after this))

((...))

((Wait hold on...what? Why do I care so much about this particular client? Is there something wrong with my head today?! She's already calmed down so there's no need to entertain her more than this...so why am I?...))

This situation is getting weirder and weirder by the second, usually I never talk to my clients more than what's necessary, but something inside of me is compelling me to give this particular client more care than usual.

It's that unexplainable feeling of Deja Vu again, the more I interact with her the more I feel the need to explore why it is that I'm feeling this way.

""You know...my presence here is off the record""

Against my better judgment I listened to my instincts. No, more accurately I had no chance of resisting in the first place, the compulsion to know more about this odd feeling of Deja Vu overpowered any other sense of self control.

"Huh?"

The girl seemed confused at what I was saying.

""What I mean is, nobody knows I'm here, or who I am and they could care even less if all goes to plan...so if you want to, you can say whatever your little heart desires to me and there'll be zero consequences. No need for this pointless small talk""

In a roundabout way I just told her to spit it out.

"..."

The girl was tongue tied for a moment.

And then...

"Pfft! Hahaha! Is that your way of getting me to open up? That's so convoluted"

Success, it seems I got her to laugh, not exactly what I was aiming for but it's a step in the right direction.

""Convoluted is the story of my life I'm afraid""

I humored her for a bit more, although what I said did have a degree of truth to it. The life I've led so far couldn't be called "normal" by any stretch of the definition.

"I suppose so... after all I could not for the life of me call someone who looks around my age pulling all of THIS off "simple" by any means"

The girl gestured around the entire room now covered with duplicates of the purple rune I conjured.

""The enchantment itself is not that special, any well trained mage could do the same""

I replied to her giggling praise with measured realism.

"That in itself is quite incredible, I don't know that much but I heard that magehood is a very time consuming path to pursue, most people wouldn't be able to pull it off at your age no?"

""...""

I stayed quiet for a moment.

((She's not wrong...the average magic caster will usually cast their first spell at age 14 and that's only if they start learning and training early, some people cast their first at 10 if they're particularly talented and enchantments like these are too complicated for any beginner to pull off... Ok how do I explain this in a way that won't cause a leak in confidential info?))

I considered the average crop of mages and began thinking of an answer that won't reveal too much but will be satisfying enough to deter her from asking any more.

""I'm a genius""

I flatly stated.

"..."

This caused the girl to go silent for a moment.

((Did it work?))

I took a glance back at the girl to gauge her reaction.

"PFFT! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

She broke out in laughter once more, it seems that this girl was easily amused.

"Heh...ha...I see I see! I suppose there's no other possible explanation is there? Haha- my apologies I just didn't expect your answer to be so...straightforward"

The girl wiped a tear from her eyes and said.

""I have no reason to lie""

I technically didn't lie, I'm just not providing her with all of the context.

""You seem interested in magic""

I said trying to bring up a new topic to veer the conversation away from my supposed "genius".

"Well I mean there's not much else to do in that big empty mansion except browsing the library for any books that catches my eye. I just happened upon a few entries about subjects of the arcane is all"

She answered.

((Hmm...the way she describes her home is a bit odd))

I noticed the tone she took when referring to her home life had a small amount of bitterness to it.

""And how is your daily life in the mansion?""

Although I could tell it was a touchy subject, that damn compulsion drove me to broach the topic of the girl's home life.

((Seriously this is getting uncomfortable, usually I have more self control than this...How is her life at home any of my business?))

"..."

At my question the girl once again paused for a moment with a gloomy expression plastered on her face, honestly I'm quite impressed by how she could switch between so many genuine emotions on her face in such a short time, I myself could never do that even if I tried.

""You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. I can go back to standing in silence""

As if to correct my lack of self control I told her that she didn't need to tell me everything.

((Actually please stop talking to me in general, this is already the most I've ever interacted with another person outside of work. It's getting real tiresome to keep this up))

Inwardly I hoped that she would take the initiative to end our little chat as again for reasons unknown I seemed to be completely incapable of controlling my mouth today.

"Ha...you know I'm quite jealous..."

Despite my inner pleas the girl began talking again.

""...""

In order to prevent anymore unnecessary incidents I kept my mouth shut and only listened.

"You're about as old as I am and yet you're so capable, you can say whatever you want, do whatever you want and if anyone tries to stand in your way you swat them like flies. It must be nice...to have all that unchecked impunity I mean"

With a resigned tone laced with ironic laughter the girl stated.

Hearing this and glancing at her face once again, something inside me prompted a response to her feelings.

""I think you're getting the wrong impression of me, no one is without their chains""

I spoke to her with a degree of honesty in my words although I'd never tell her the meaning behind these words.

((Seriously shut the fvck up! Stop speaking to her before you get in trouble you idiot!))

The conscious voice in my head telling me to shut up grew weaker and weaker as this conversation went on.

"You're probably right, but some are less equipped to walk with their chains than others"

The girl replied smiling dryly.

""No one is ever completely prepared for every situation, you can only work with what you have""

"Heh...if only I had a fraction of your level of strength maybe, and I'm not talking about physical strength..."

""...""

I had no reply to that and simply waited for her to continue.

"Yeah, I know what you're probably thinking: 'Why are you whining when others out there in the world have it much worse?' or "You should be grateful to even be alive" or any of those tired phrases I've heard countless times. Well, I'm sorry if I come across as weak and pathetic. I didn't choose to be this way; it's just who I am."

((...))

""...""

At those words, I froze in place for a brief moment...

""NO""

Until something inside me cracked.

"H-huh?"

The girl seemed a bit surprised at the raising of my tone, although to be fair I didn't raise it that much it was merely a slight shift.

""I don't know about others but me personally I don't see a problem with a kid being a kid""

With as much candidness as I could muster I stated.

((What the fvck am I saying?!))

Inwardly I started to panic, it was almost as if someone else had taken over my body and speaking with my own voice. Try as I might I could not stop myself from speaking.

"A-a kid?"

The girl stated.

""Isn't that what you are? When you're young it's absolutely normal to act selfish and expect more from life. What is so wrong about complaining when something displeases you? To my knowledge there is no law that states being selfish is a crime, and if there was a law like that I'd assassinate anyone trying to trying to enforce such idiocy""

I continued my impassioned speech in the most flat and deadpan voice possible.

"A-as...I'm sorry did you just say assassina-"

((Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!))

The sound of my thoughts dying of shame was drowned out.

"W-wha-what are you saying?"

The girl asked confused.

((That's what I wanna know!))

""What I'm trying to say is, it's wrong for you to believe that the problems in your life aren't worth regarding just because someone else out there you don't even know has suffered more and if there's someone putting that idea in your head I suggest you sock them in the jaw""

I turned back and looked her straight in the eye as I said what I wanted (?) to say.

"I-I...I've never looked at it that way before..."

Seemingly at a lost for words the girl gave me a stuttering reply.

""However I do think that you could be doing a lot more than just complaining about it""

Not finished with all that I wanted to say I continued.

((Ok I'mma need you to stop right there DON'T YOU DARE SAY ANYHING MORE THAN THIS!))

In my head my conscious mind tried everything to stop my mouth from spewing out words with very little success.

"Huh?"

The girl once again looked at me.

""Listen kid let me give you one piece of advice, as a fellow prisoner of circumstances...""

I approached her and leaned down a bit to be on her eye level.

""When it comes down to it don't put your hopes in the hands of someone else. The only one who'll be your savior is and always will be YOURSELF""

"..."

""Take control of your life before it takes control of you, because life can and WILL make a mess out of you""

*Tap!*

I flicked her forehead with my index finger as I said that.

"..."

The girl was completely silent now, her eyes seemed to be absorbing my every action and her ears capturing my every word.

((...))

At this point the conscious part of me had already given up on trying to stop this.

""After all it's because you lack control of your own life that you ended up in this place to begin with""

I decided to drop her a hint.

"Huh?"

""Not sure if you've noticed or not but what happened to you today wasn't some simple kidnapping and ransom. It was planned by someone "higher up on the ladder". Do with that info what you will""

After dropping that information I backed off from her.

"Wait! What do you me-"

""Well it seems like my time here is coming to an end, someone just entered the warehouse""

Before she could finish her question I noticed some presences surrounding the warehouse preparing to bust in as I took a look in that direction.

"Ha?"

The girl followed my eyesight.

""They don't seem to be working for the kidnappers judging by how well equipped they are. Lucky you kid, someone came to save you this time""

I listened to the sound their armored boots made and judged that they weren't working with the perps I just dispatched.

I turned around and began to make my exit.

"Wa-wait a moment!"

The girl reached her hand out to me but by that time I had already climbed up to a door to the attic.

""Oh right...I never did catch your name kid""

Turning back down I asked for her name.

"Eh? M-my name? It's Sophia but..."

""Goodnight Sophia""

That was the last thing I said to her before pulling myself up into the shadows of the attic.

"Wait!"

*Slam!*

The last thing I heard was the sound of the door being busted down and someone screaming:

"Rosewood knights! Drop your weapons!"

I didn't stick around to watch what happened after that...

...

A while later...

It has been a long night of evading notice and dashing for the woods but I had eventually gained enough distance to collect my thoughts.

And the most prominent thought in my head right now was...

((What the actual FVCK was that? Why in the Gehenna did I yap so much to that girl?))

Every fiber of my being was now back under my conscious control and my mind screamed in complete agony.

""*Sighs*...I really hope I don't get in trouble for this...""

An exhausted sigh escaped my mouth as I took a moment to gaze at the stars above.

((Ok...ok calm down...it's fine...Nobody except the Maestro knows I'm here anyway, no need to overreact))

It took a bit but eventually I managed to calm my inner voice down.

""...""

Regardless of my feelings though, there is one thing that I'm sure of now.

""Sophia...""

I repeated that Ivory haired girl's name again as if to etch it into my memories so that I won't forget.

""I've definitely seen you somewhere before""

I concluded to myself, after all that the feeling of recognition was stronger than ever.

""But where exactly?""

No matter how much I scanned my mind I could not find a single scrap of information on her.

((Maybe...just maybe...it's related to "that"?))

Something deep within me told me that to find the answer to this question I needed to dig deeper than just my memories...

At that moment.

*RRRR!*

A vibration in my thigh snapped me out of my trance.

""Oh...right, mission report""

Looking down at my thigh, I remembered I needed to report back to Maestro when the mission was complete. Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out a rectangular device with a smooth black screen and a few buttons scattered across its surface. A standard-issue communication device.

On the black screen, a few green words shone brightly in the night:

"Mission Control: C.O, status report" Short and to the point, as always, I thought.

*Pip*

Pressing a button on the communication device, I brought it to my mouth and said:

""This is callsign: Oblivion reporting to mission control. Operation successful. Client has been returned to her rightful place. Exfiltration from the theater is without issue""