[Havok, Piasu, Ryomania, 2:43 PM, May 7th, Tuesday 2025]
Cathy and Amelia continued flying above the city.
Amelia had finally stopped screaming. She was looking all around in bewilderment, not believing her eyes.
"Wow, we're so high up… Everything looks shiny from up here! Hehe!" She giggled and looked up at Cathy, who was glancing all over, trying to calculate a good place to land without being spotted.
"Yeah, well, so do I… I can imagine a few people already saw me. If reports get out about this, then I might not be able to get out of the house again. We'll just have to pray that they get overlooked." Cathy began flying lower, going up onto the Ariston Center building in Havok. "This is the highest vantage point in the city."
She put Amelia down gently. Amelia peeked out over the edge.
"Oh goodness, what if we fall from here?!" She looked back at Cathy, scared.
Cathy sighed and stepped closer, waving dismissively.
"As long as you don't jump off, you're fine… Now listen, my house is over to the north, just beyond that grocery store." Cathy stepped closer, pointing to the store. "I'll need you to use Tinker Bell to… I don't know, make me invisible? I remember what Erika said about the whole concentration thing — if I can focus on my Divinity, I can turn it off using Flow or something."
"So why not just do that?"
"Because… I can't really focus right now." Cathy spat out the last word, clearly agitated.
"It's because of Mistress Erika and Master Jack, isn't it?"
"Well, you're a bloody genius!" She scoffed and turned away, looking over the edge. "I don't want to talk about it right now. Can you use Tinker Bell or not?"
Amelia wanted to keep pushing her, she wanted to console her, but decided not to for now.
"Yes, of course… Tinker Bell!" The small golden bell appeared from thin air, hovering in front of her. "Please make Cathy Ariston invisible!"
Tinker Bell rang once, twice, before Cathy seemed to vanish in golden particles. Yet her purple aura remained.
"You've gotta be kidding me! Wha — look at this!" She looked down at herself. Her body was covered in a thin layer of golden light that made her appear invisible to others, but the gravity aura around her remained.
"We're really going to have to sit here and do this the hard way, huh? Fine… tell it to stop."
Amelia nodded gently, grabbing Tinker Bell in her hand and shaking it.
"Um… Tinker Bell, please revert all wishes?" she asked almost hopefully.
The thin layer of golden light vanished from Cathy's body — from her point of view — and she seemed to reappear before Amelia.
"Wow… This never fails to amaze me! Yay!" She clapped her hands in joy, bobbing her head from side to side.
"S-stop that! That's more embarrassing than someone seeing my aura… And I need to concentrate for this, so be quiet."
Amelia stopped, crouching low and sitting on the roof with her knees forwards, making a zipping gesture over her mouth.
Cathy sighed and ran a hand through her hair, closing her eyes. She began focusing on the mental image of a purple flame — her so-called 'soul'. It was more so a representation of the inner part of her Divinity, not seeing the outer ethereal prism layer yet. Cathy had always been very focused. Her entire body seemed to stiffen up as she began utilizing the Flow within her body, the aura around her seeming to quiet down.
That's when they heard a noise.
The roof access door of the building swung open, revealing a strange man wearing a black suit with a red tie, black shoes, and white gloves on his hands. But the strangest feature was a giant eyeball on his body instead of a head — the green iris stood out instantly. It looked like a giant cat's eye, and it didn't seem like an accessory. It seemed real.
It blinked.
Cathy didn't even move at the sound, didn't open her eyes. She had to keep concentrating.
Amelia glanced over her shoulder, her heart sank upon seeing the stranger.
"Oh, what do we have here?" The stranger shut the roof-access door behind him gently and stepped closer.
Amelia scrambled up onto her legs, walking backwards towards Cathy, whose aura was visibly dimmer now. Cathy heard his voice too, but couldn't do anything or she'd lose progress. The process of turning off her Fracture required a certain proficiency with Flow she did not yet possess. Since a Fracture was a part of a Divinity, thus they could be easily separated.
Amelia squeaked, holding up Tinker Bell before her. She glanced once up at Cathy, unsure whether or not to speak up.
"W-w-who are you? Sir? We don't mean any trouble… We… yes — we were just passing by, that's all!" She chuckled nervously, her hands and knees shaking in fear.
The stranger stepped closer, his hands behind his back.
"Who is it…?" Cathy muttered, trying her best to focus on containing her Fracture.
"I'm the building manager for this fine Ariston center. Are you two new hires? We've gone through a large-scale interviewing campaign recently and a lot of people have joined our crew! Haha… So?" He shrugged, his one large eyeball seeming to curl, seemingly pleased.
Amelia let out a deflating noise. She nudged Cathy's aura with her shoulder.
"Mmm… Miss Cathy…?"
Cathy groaned and opened her eyes, her aura going back to normal as her concentration was broken. A second longer and she would've stopped levitating.
"Who—" She was stunned, looking upon the strange man tilting his head at both of them. This looked like another threat.
"Who are you?" she asked calmly, despite the uneasy feeling in her bones.
"You can just call me The Overseer. I'm your new boss — you two are supposed to be on the ground floor. Get your keycard from Asia at the front desk and then report to your division leader. I don't know your file off the top of my head, but you look like you'd fit in division A… right?" He seemed to chuckle, his large green eye blinking as he clasped his hands together. "Oh, I just can't wait to get started… You look like you have such nice capabilities! I wonder just who interviewed you?"
"Uh… Sir? I think you've got us—"
Amelia jumped in front of Cathy, shushing her loudly.
"Ah! Um… yes! We are the new hires, yes yes, we are in division A… led by our, um… glorious leader! And you, sir!" She bowed politely before him, shooting Cathy a glance.
"Oh… right… Yes, I suppose we are the new hires, sir?" Cathy seemed very confused at her sudden behavior and the strange man, but she decided to go along with it. She matched Amelia and also bowed politely.
"Great! Now come along, I'll give you a brief tour of the place as we go down to the ground floor. I've got some people bringing something special in, so I'll be heading there anyway!" He turned briskly, marching towards the roof-access door, expecting them to follow.
"Amelia, what the hell was that? Are you trying to get us killed?!" Cathy said in a hushed whisper, glancing between the maid and the stranger.
"Miss Cathy, please, just trust me! This is a good opportunity for us. We can use this as cover and as a way to get to the ground floor — then we can go into the city, correct?"
Cathy stood up, a smirk breaking onto her face at Amelia's cunning.
"Clever girl… I see, after that we can just leave and go home! Hah, alright, let's play along. He doesn't look blind, whatever he is, so he must not care about our abilities. Frankly, that's bollocks. This place is hiding something." She locked eyes with The Overseer. She couldn't tell, but felt as if he was smiling at them.
He stood there by the door, waiting patiently with his hands behind his back.
Amelia quickly stood up and stepped forwards.
"I'm glad you understand… Now let's not anger him." She gave Cathy a brisk nod and walked ahead.
Cathy sighed and begrudgingly followed after her.
"Come on, you two, we don't have all day!"
The two of them followed behind him as they descended into a strangely painted staircase with black walls, gold and purple markings alongside them. Cathy knew enough about the company to recognize this wasn't their style — it was usually red and white, not gold and purple.
"This building is 30 stories high and this is the 30th floor. It's my entire office." He said as he walked past a sleek black door with the number 30 on it, painted in gold.
"Gee, boss, this place sure looks ambitious!" Cathy said mockingly, her arms crossed as she hovered behind Amelia.
He suddenly stopped, slowly turning around to look her in the eyes.
"Don't call me boss. I'm The Overseer." He stepped closer, making Amelia almost stumble as she shrank backwards, trying to make herself smaller and get away from his intense gaze. "Do I make myself clear?"
Cathy felt her throat tightening and drying. She tried looking tough and holding her ground, but she didn't like how he commanded the air around him. He felt strong.
"Y-yes, sir. I'm sorry, sir. It won't happen again."
"Good! No worries here, right? Haha… Alright, come on." He snapped his fingers in Amelia's face, causing her to squeak and scramble upwards.
Amelia leaned in closer to Cathy, whispering. "Please, please, please don't anger him… We can't afford to lose our chance…"
Cathy sighed, gently pushing Amelia with her aura.
"Yeah, yeah, I got it. Keep walking."
The strange man was already two stairs down from them, although he looked up, somehow hearing them.
"The maid's right! You can't afford to lose this chance. It's truly something special."
Cathy and Amelia exchanged a glance. Amelia quickly rushed over, peeking over the railing at him.
"We're s-s-sorry, sir, it won't happen a-again! Mm…" She looked back at Cathy before going down the stairs at a faster pace after him.
"Wait! There's no reason to rush!" Cathy matched her pace, going after her.
"Alright, I love the energy!" He began running down the stairs. Cathy and Amelia followed.
"S-sir! Please slow down, ah… my legs…" Amelia panted from exhaustion, Tinker Bell ringing in her hand as she ran.
"Hold it, this won't do at all. You two are clearly exhausted! Why not take the elevator instead? I've got some business to attend to here with a certain employee." He said, stopping before a door numbered 25. They had all run down five floors already.
Amelia was basically wheezing, clutching her knees.
"Y-yes, sir… We will meet you on the ground floor then…"
"Good, I'll wait for you there. Rest up if you can. Here." He reached into the pocket of his suit, pulling out a wallet, and from inside he gave both Amelia and Cathy twenty dracos each. "Use that to buy food from the vending machines downstairs. You're welcome!"
He gave them a nod and walked into the 25th floor. Various people were working at desks, typing away on computers, filing documents, moving about like busy bees. But something stuck out, something that caught Cathy's eye as the door opened —
A split second.
Krist Cobain was sitting on one of the desks, the strange third eye with its two dark blue pupils sticking out like a sore thumb. He noticed her too.
"Shit! That was that creepy old guy! He works for—"
The door opened again, The Overseer peeking his head out.
"I'm sorry, is there a problem?"
"Uh…" Cathy was stunned. His ability to hear despite having no visible ears or way to hear them was incredible.
Amelia practically jumped up, gesturing wildly with her hands.
"No, sir! W-we're just both very, very tired… We didn't mean anything by that, she didn't — she just got spooked by that man's strange features! Yes, of course!"
As Amelia was talking, suddenly a fly flew over The Overseer's shoulder.
Kekekeke, so the girl and the maid have found this place? No wonder!
Before Teen Spirit could do anything, The Overseer reached out and in a quick motion caught the fly with two fingers.
Ah! No, I'm sorry, sir! Please let me go… I wasn't going to do anything! The fly said to itself, seemingly communicating with the man telepathically.
"Play nice, Krist. These two girls are part of the newbie group, like you! Now, how about you tell me exactly what you found… Hm?" The Overseer glanced between Cathy and Amelia before going back inside, shutting the door.
"That was—"
Amelia reached out, trying to cover Cathy's mouth with her palm but failing to reach her through her aura. She shook her head and whispered.
"Stop, please! Let's just go… before anything else happens."
Cathy nodded without further complaint. They both got onto the elevator. Amelia quickly pressed the ground floor button.
"Phew… that was so unnecessary… My legs feel like jelly. Carry me?" She smiled gently at Cathy, who rolled her eyes at her.
"If I'm fine, so are you. We still have to get home, remember?" She sighed, leaning back against the wall next to Amelia.
"Miss Cathy—"
"Just Cathy. It's not Miss, it's Cathy. I'm fifteen, you're more of a Miss than me."
"Oh, right, sorry! Cathy, do you mind if I ask how you got your powers?"
Cathy glanced over at her, unsure if she should talk about all that happened.
"Well… I guess it started yesterday. Our entire school was blown up by this maniac, Keito Nakamura, The White Rose. He was apparently a part of The Syndicate's special ranks, like Erika, at the bottom tier… And he had a strange vial with him filled with rainbow liquid, and I tried to kick his ass and well, it sort of shattered on me, and it apparently awakened my dormant Divinity or whatever." She rubbed her forehead in frustration. "Gosh, it's so messed up. I haven't even had time to process it all. So many people died… All because of us. Because of me."
"Oh no, Miss Cathy, you shouldn't say that about yourself! It's not your fault at all… It was clearly his fault for coming there! Dear me… I-I never knew that The Syndicate was so aggressive. Since Mistress Erika was so kind to me, and well, I never really knew what she did…"
"Yeah, well, now you know. Closet full of skeletons with her, I bet."
An awkward silence stretched between them as the elevator reached the ground floor.
"I'm sorry if—"
"Come on, we've got places to be."
Cathy stepped out of the elevator. Amelia quietly followed, and they both knew The Overseer was waiting.