Archive of Our Own ^beta

Hello everyone, before I gave the story to the mysterious narrator over here, I got something to say beforehand, just bunch of stuff.

First of all, reading the two fic is a must, so if you just click on this fic, click the previous part and read both. Because it’ll make references and directly connected to the both stories, otherwise, you’ll get confused at what esgoo and tsunul even talking about and how they even here in the first place.

And yeah, this is the first fic putting both Esgoo and Tsunul in the same place. No longer is an individual story but slowly formed to a collective group story. Now I don’t know if it’ll make this a one-shot series, sometimes I was hoping that Tsunul’s story would be the last, but eventually… this is it. Not that I hate the fic, or the whole “anomalies Journey” series, it’s mostly about my own self doubt, sometimes I felt burdened by this fic, not by anyone but purely myself. That’s because I set a standard when making this type of stories. I USED actual person as a character to my story, and with them acknowledging their like and image by me, I want to be respectful to the respected youtubers. I don’t want to make a torture fic where esgoo and tsunul get [CENSORED], and then [CENSORED] by some people, until they [CENSORED] also [CENSORED], and finally [CENSORED] all over the place. I mean, that’s just fucked up, and no way I’m going to do that of shit, NEVER!.

So that’s why I tried to make their suffering more in-line with the plot, which is…. Very long for reason. One of which is I respected their image, that’s why the fic can be very very page-y with like 22K words for Tsunul, and the reason why it’s only a oneshot chapter.

Will I finish the series? Or will it just end up only as this three-part series? Who knew? If I continued, it might be a full tale of mashed up limbus tubers being Limbus company 2.0. but for now, we’ll see how the future brought us. Will I continue? Or will I stop? I supposed only time will tell. Though I’m happy having the title for ‘the first person to create a fic of prominent limbus company youtubers’

So for now, enjoy this chapter, the first time where I put both Esgoo and Tsunul at once, and maybe, just maybe… there’ll be lot more in the future. And this is also an intervallo, that’s why it’s only 15K, pretty much just a compilation of chapters as they discussed and fighting their way to get to K corp’s nest, along with small teaser of the next limbus youtuber for the next ‘(Blank) Got sent to the city’

You can contact my twitter @thelaststraq if my writing could be useful for your channel, maybe, idk lol XD. I won’t expect much, this is like the second time I did this, I repeat myself. Hoped I don’t jinx myself again.

****

Moment to reconcile

So let’s start this story a simple one, hmm? It all started on an alleyway in one afternoon.

“That… that was… shit, that hurts a lot”

“Oh come on, it’s not that bad right?”

“When did forcing myself not to passed out after being tased is not bad?!!” Said a messy hair guy wearing a uniform that are more fitting as a casino employee than a fixer, if we’re calling them that now.

His name is Tsunul, and he’s sitting on the ground, leaning on an alley wall while holding his head. His weapon, gambler’s edge was sitting nearby, still in a form of a hammer.

“Not… gonna argue with that, but at least you can cross that off your bucket list” Someone else chuckled, standing nearby him, wearing clothes that would be fitting for a rogue. “We… didn’t kill them, right?”

His name is Esgoo and he had a weapon sitting on his hip. The claw sword, not named by him, hasn’t been unsheathed at all, even though it’s clear that he is itching to do so.

“Are you trying to?” Tsunul asked back.

“If all I got is an ached knuckle, then I sure hell not” Esgoo spoke back

“It’s worth the trouble, you two” then said a gray jacket woman, with the hood covering her head, she was holding a staff with a glass globe on the upper tip. Her nickname is The Gray Nightmare, of course we won’t tell her name right away, would spoil the fun of finding out. “Now come on! They’ll be waking up soon”

With that, Tsunul took his weapon and turned it back to the tube shape as Esgoo helped him to stand up, the trio then soon skedaddle away as they went to their rv.

They’re the ragtag group called “The Anomalies”, as in numbers of people who weren’t mean to be in the city but ended up anyway. Their normal lives were taken from them, their home is now far far away as they tried to survive the grueling tough world they are in right now. But now, this group are on a hunt, on a journey to find the navette glasses, possibly scattered on many places, that would fill a mirror frame, believed to be their ticket way home. With one caveat, they would have to go where the limbus company sinners went through to get their golden boughs, as the navette glasses usually floating there, waiting until someone took it. They didn’t know why it existed but if it’s their way home? They won’t asked.

After some quiet moment on the Rv, their mean to transport, they decided to stop at a nearby ramen shop after parking their rv in a secluded area.

“Did we have enough to spent it?” Tsunul asked her once they all went inside. It was not that full but not too empty. At the very least, they’re not in district 23. “Kinda a waste of ahn”

“Not… really, but observe” she blankly told him as they went to the cashier, ordering their food.

She held a small black smoke on her palm as she gives it a blow, it flew to the distracted cashier, as they were busy with the cash register, counting their amount, not realizing the smoke entered their ears to the spectate of the two.

“We’ve paid… didn’t we?” She confidently, though blankly, asked the cashier.

The cashier was quiet for a moment, taking a few ahn from their pocket as they shake their head, seemingly snapped out of something “Oh! Of course, you three already paid, your order will be delivered soon at your table”

“Hmm… good” She nodded

“Oh wow…”

“That’s… cool”

The two commented behind her, as the trio went to sit down, a moment for them to reconcile after a jumpscaring ambush moments ago. It was one that none of them could expected, it was supposed to be a simple stop, only for them to get jumped as Tsunul got tased and almost passed out, but he really perseveres and not going sleep sleep.

“Tsunul, you alright?” The gray nightmare asked him, noticing him holding his head after the ambush

“I’m good, miss nightmare.” He answered, and then huffing “Still recovering after volts of eletricty getting to my body, but I’ll be fine”

“And speaking of that…” Esgoo looks slightly worried, as he crossed his arms “It’s… them, right? The one we feared?” looking at her slightly hidden face by the hood

“It has to” She nodded at him “No random hooligans or thugs can be that coordinated, they all moved with an organized pattern, no ordinary backstreet dwellers would do such.”

“I think the tase and the ‘if you three would come with us’ is already a red flag, they’re just disguising themselves to not stands out” Tsunul added.

“Ah…. fuck… that’s already bad news” Esgoo grumbled. “so… shit is finally started, huh..”

“They’re… from the company, right?” Even though he got info dumped about everything when the two are at his apartment, he had to make sure. “Like… THE fucking company?”

“Duh, obviously THE limbus company. Not the way I wanted to interact with. Though…” Esgoo pondered “After the game, I was surprised that they didn’t brought the whole force with, did they have funds issue or something?”

“No” The color shook her head “We simply didn’t worth the necessary funds, yet. For now, they only saw us a minor inconvenience, not much of a threat. But only times will tell until they sent the full force.

She continued “That’s why I told both of you not to kill the so called, ‘Limbus Company Covert Compliance Enforcement’ or CCE. If we do, they will send a much brutal force than what we faced…”

“So our first run-in with them, huh…. Fuck… that was ironic as shit” Tsunul chuckled, in a more worried way. “CCE… covert compliance enforcement, cool name. I supposed with your presentation earlier, that’s why you told us not to kill them?”

“Yes,” she nodded again “As i acquired one of my lost power backs, I can now have Orchestration and dominion over oneiric horrors and subconscious malevolence”

“…. Huh?”

“What the hell does that mean?” Confused by both Tsunul and Esgoo.

“Oh, apologies, I forgot that’s what he called of it. Nightmare Manipulation is more appropriate answer” She put her palm open on the table, and a small dark smoke floating there “Simply put, it’s one of my lost abilities to manipulated one’s memory as I demonstrated with that cashier. Right now, as they regain consciousness, they’ll believed that they’ve been robbed by some thugs, that’s why I also told you two to loot them.”

“But that’s absurd” Esgoo said, still a bit worried “They’re not dumb enough to believe that they’ve been ‘robbed’, a literal enforcement for fuck sake and some thugs suddenly beat them”

“No, I think I understand what she meant” But Tsunul objected “We’re just buying time while the CCE were disorientated with false information. They’ll knew one day that they were fed with fake memories but for now… we’re safe. Still though, this is bullshit.” He cursed, still holding his head “The company, those bugs people, and the contract hunters... we're seriously are wanted fugitives now”

“At least… the good news so far, we fend them for the time being, that generals and his bugs still hasn’t get to us, and… at the very least it’s contract hunters not taboo hunters” Esgoo tried to reassured.

“Hmm… are contract hunters and taboo hunters two different things?” the gray nightmare asked, she knew she still had to learn a lot of info or lore about the city, unlike the two in front of her who knew everything because just so happened they played the games.

“From what I’ve known… yeah” This time Tsunul answered, he remembered asking this from Haeng-un out of curiosity “It’s not like with the oufi, where they had to witnessed the whole deal, nor taboo hunters where it’s a violation when… I don’t know, murder a high ranking official in S corp or something? Whatever shit taboo is, a contract is more often about written agreement or deal that are written and signed by both parties, not in the same level as taboo or with an oufi association member in place, matter in fact, contract hunters could’ve been some low life office searching for extra cash.”

The whole discussion went to a halt as the food their ordered has arrived, three bowls steaming with delicious smell and drinks. Then they immediately began eating, nothing good than a bowl of hot ramen after surviving from getting jumped and subsequently tased. It’s their FIRST ever run-in with the company, which I understand why. Though it won’t be the last, oh no no, it’s getting crazier as times goes on, but for now, we’ll focused on this one.

“Tsunul, could I ask such sensitive topics regarding your… place?” she asked the now eating man, slurping noodles in his mouth.

“Um… sure?”

“Speaking contract… does that woman, always so child-like and carefree like that?” that question from her made the two men stopped.

“Ugh…

“Ugh….”

Tsunul knew how unhinged the manager could be, he had months of experiences and that time on that warehouse. And even though Esgoo didn’t experienced much compare to him, that short exchange as he was in her office already explained enough.

So what happened at that casino? The plan is for the three of them to sneak with the help of Tsunul into the mines, I’m not going to retell the whole event but just know that things happen. Like…. A lot of things, pretty much a lot, like… a lot lot. Things go wrong after they got the second navette glass, with tsunul premiere of getting stabbed by it.

And thus, the gray nightmare had to make with her backup plan, where she turned all three of them into smokes and flew with dashing speed outside the casino much to the dismay from Esgoo who still hated the whole motion sickness.

And it’s pretty clear when they flew as far as they could and landed on some alley, a hard landing nonetheless.

“Come on, we should go” even with her voice sounded blank, there’s urgency on the tone.

“Uggh… I need some moments” Esgoo was leaning, covering his mouth with a heavy breath trying not to puke with his head spinning.

“Geez.. I’ll help” Tsunul put his arms around the dizzy man and help him standing “You should try to get on a boat sometimes, man. Trained with the sickness”

“Oh thanks, should’ve told me before we get sent here” Esgoo said sarcastically before slightly gagging on himself.

As the trio about to leave, as they just took one step from walking away to the rv.

“Leaving so soon~?” That voice from behind them, voice that boils Tsunul as he heard it, voice that made him… mad. “Woah there...”

she clashed as Tsunul immediately let go of Esgoo, and taking his sword too, turning and swinging at her. “You bitch… I’m not letting you hurt anyone ever again!”

“awww~, did I get too rough with him that time? Sorry~” that tone, that voice that mocks him… he knew that she didn’t mean and she enjoys pretending to care.

“TSUNUL!” The gray nightmare exclaimed after checking Esgoo who was fell to the ground after suddenly being let go. She sent smoke to the manager, and noticing it, immediately jump back, creating distance from the smoke.

“Come on now, I mean no harm~” she giggled at the mad looking tsunul.

“You! I’m not letting yo-“

“Enough…” She grabbed the back of his shirt before he could lunge at the manager. “We didn’t have time to deal with her, the whole casino’s after us, and we needed to go, now”

“She’s right, Tsunul~. The whole damn place is looking for you. Then again, you three thrashed the entire mines and the floors~, I had to pay the damages, the broken equipment that you three breaks, and bribing, possibly even killing some people so the central base won’t hear this~” despite them causing troubles, and possibly head aching issues to the manager, she doesn’t care by her tone. She knew that she’s in for a treat, a fun game she’s been hoping so long “So go, off you go, shoo shoo~ and try to last more than a month, it’s the record of the last one who escapes”

“…” Tsunul clenched hard at the claw sword. His mind still works rationally, despite him trying so hard to ignore it, he knew better.

She sighed, creating a rectangle with her thumbs and point fingers, and closing one of her eyes “If only I put this in a portrait right now~ yes…. I see that it’s going to be fun, I simply can’t wait!~”

It’s a moment that three of them couldn’t forget, as she just watches them running away, not even trying to stop them, only… watch as they all went in the rv and escaped with a tint of excitement on her look.

“I mean… if she made Tsunul dropped his dear friend that needs help, then yes, she is unhinged” Esgoo remarks

“Look, I said I’m sorry okay? You can’t blame me for being pissed, the thing she did…”

“Alright, I think that’s enough” She had to stop him, I think she understood enough, how much Tsunul had suffer. “Thanks for the info, Tsunul”

Then it was followed by more silence eating. It was a moment of peace for the trio, as they safely eat without any headaching thoughts troubling them.

“You know… with our ‘The Anomalies’ group like this” Esgoo pointed out “Someone need to take the leader role, I’m just saying, to keep things organized.”

“Hmm… good idea” The gray nightmare said while she was still looking at her bowl “If it’s going to expand, someone need to lead-“ then she stopped, realizing something. And her suspicion was made correct when she raised her head, only to be looked by the two. “It’s me, was it?”

“Well… You’re a pretty powerful color…” esgoo started.

“And you did everything to keep the group intact” Tsunul continued “Your critical thinking, miss nightmare, keep us both from death, so it’s fitting if we both follow your lead, as your smoke power helped us both.”

She sighed… not that she expected to be chosen by the two “First of all, thank you for the consideration” she said with a blank tone. “And for the record, I was only using my smoke to disorganized that CCE, you two did the close fighting, they’re a teamwork group yet fall short when they were confused. And all I did in that casino was just getting us out of the with the smokes, only at the back watching as you two took out the peccatulum.”

“So… is that a yes?” Esgoo leaned forward.

“I’m not going to decline.”

“Haha, let’s cheer for that” Esgoo raised his glass “For the Anomalies, you two?”

The both raised their glass too as they cheer.

Thus, they both left, going out to their next destination as the color took her role as leader, one that’ll be very very important later on. And for the CCE? They’ve woken up moments ago, and passing in front of the ramen shop the anomalies were sitting on. Only the gray nightmare who noticed but she didn’t want to spook the two so she just carefully watches as they all went away.

In the end, the CCE returned to their vehicles as they all planned how they’re going to explain the embarrassing failure of their mission. What will they say to HR? that the Convert Compliance Enforcement squad, designed for combat mission, got jumped by some backstreet’s thugs.

***

The city that changes us

The battle came a halt, the remaining thugs ran away seeing dozen of their members fall dead to the ground.

“Phew…” Tsunul huffed as he wipes his brow. His gambler’s edge turned back to the tube from turning to a giant hammer. Luck isn’t on his side for now but it’ll adequate, he just wished it’ll turned to a lighter weapon.

Esgoo on the other hand, went to loot the dead bodies, taking what they’ve brought. Mostly just ahn on their pockets, or other stuff that they decided to stashed.

“Ah…. this one’s not dead yet” Esgoo said, unsheathing his claw sword before stabbing it on a thug, before wiping the blood away with the thug’s shirt. “Ugh… I think it’s everything, miss nightmare”

She nodded even though she’s not looking at them “You two can wait in the rv in the meantime, it’ll took a while to extract their smokes.”

“Alright”

The two immediately went inside the rv, taking a seat on the back. Esgoo huffed as he leaned on the back couch, but Tsunul handed him a tissue “You got some blood on you”

“Oh” he noticed some blood on his hand as he took it “thanks…” and wipes the remaining bloods off his hands. “You know… your weapon is interesting”

“You mean this?” tsunul held it on his hands “It’s called gambler’s edge, not pretty original name, I know…”

“It’s… that random, huh? Like you rely on RNG just for a barely good weapon”

“Yep” he nodded “I can’t even count how many different weapons it can turned to. Might be a hundred” ah… how it felt nostalgic for him.

“And you still use it despite the disadrvtages it brought?” he asked, leaning back.

“I will, I had my… personal reason to do so. Besides, it was made with a small amount of X corp’s alloy. It’ll be sturdier than your sword” Tsunul pointed out.

“Hmm… We would love if it turned to a shield like that one time”

“At the very least we haven’t encountered firearms…. Yet”

“It’s the City, man. Not America” esgoo then sighed, staring at his own gloved fists.

“What’s up with you?” Tsunul noticed his uneasiness.

“Well, speaking of the city…. How do you feel when you first murder someone?” Esgoo asked, leaning forward on his seat.

“Sheesh… honestly, it’s..” Tsunul paused for a moment “It’s really hard when you first had to kill someone, before I ended up in the casino, it’s just kill or be killed for the rats. Live is… miserable, and murder is unavoidable, then again it’s the city.”

“Yet after a while, it ended up being very easy to kill someone. Like… ughh for fuck sake, we just kill bunch of people moments ago, we had… we had bloods on our hands.”

Tsunul were stunned to see him losing it. But he decided to stay silent, letting him continue.

“We’re just youtubers, making videos, living an average life, playing games for content. How… how we ended up here? Why we ended up here in the city of all fucking places… I” he groaned silently “It felt… weird”

“…..You never have someone to lend an ear, huh?”

“W-well, first of all, yes, and second, I feel more comfortable talking about this from someone who befall the same fate. Not that miss color is an issue, it’s just…”

“I know. Having someone who can relate the issue is much more comforting.” Now he understands, esgoo hadn’t someone to talk about this. And he was right. Yesterday, months ago, they were making videos, and chilling on the bed with phone on their hand. Then hours later, months later, here they are now, murdering thugs without hesitation.

“The city changes us… turning us into another of its denizen. Will we… will we became a monster? A cold-hearted monster when we returned home? Will we even be the same? The same youtubers we were once before ending up in this shitty place?” Esgoo asked, he had to ask. It’s the question that has been plaguing his mind. The shits they all went through, the things that forced them to adapt.

“Listen, in the end… we’re just a survivor trying to be able to wake up when morning rises.” He put a hand on Esgoo’s shoulder “Yeah… this isn’t some bullshit limbus company’s spinoff story, this isn’t a new game made by project moon, this is the real life we’re facing. We’re no monster, until you listen to her voice that is”

“Hell no I’ll listen to her. But…” esgoo huffed, calming down from his frustration. “At very least we survived thanks to our knowledge of this place, and we had a chance to return back home. Thanks man, I really need it”

“Wow…” Tsunul pat his shoulder “You really need to vent so badly, huh?”

“I spent months on my own thank you very much. Had to lay low and quiet when you stole some serums and then reselling it for a few ahns” esgoo chuckled, fully relaxed now. “So, I got no time to have a conversation, even if I do, it’s mostly raging addicts trying to kill me.”

With that Tsunul lays down on the couch, crossing his arms. “Touché… wake me up if something happened”

“Before that… I was wondering something”

“what is it?”

It felt… wrong for esgoo to ask this, even to thought of something as terrible as this… but with tsunul right in front of him, it only made it worse “Does…. Does our friend also got sent here?”

Tsunul who had his eyes closed, immediately open in an instant “Fuck no!” and sitting down on the couch. “There’s no fucking way they’re here”

“Dude, buddy, I’m here….” Esgoo pointed at himself “And you’re here” he pointed at the other youtuber. “….You get my points, right?”

Tsunul grumbled “You…. Could’ve kept it to yourself, now you made me worried”

“Well sorry, I’ve been itching to ask ever since you joined us…”

Tsunul brushed his own face with a sigh added “There’s no way our friends could be here… Welvader, Frey, emi… I just… don’t want to believe it. I don’t want to imagine the pain they’ve had to get through”

“Sorry, but at least we should anticipated without having some jumpscare moment like in the casino” Esgoo tried to reassured “Though…. There’s a chance that I might be wrong, but a chance that I’m not.”

“But with us being here….” Tsunul paused for a moment… he hated to think about such. About if they all got sent here, he doesn’t want to think the shit that they have to go through, the suffering, and the harsh adapt of this god forsaken world “We’ll… we’ll find them…” Tsunul stated. “We’ll find them, we brought them along, and we’ll go home together.”

“We will…” Esgoo nodded along “Let’s just hope that they will be waiting, somewhere… somehow… and not dead”

The driver door went open and the color sat behind the wheel. “All fueled up, should be enough until… what district we’re going this time?”

Tsunul and esgoo stared at each other for a moment, before tsunul answered “District 11, K corp”

“Canto three, man… your favorite” Esgoo slightly teased holding his laughs.

“Shut up….” Tsunul huffed. “It’s just the place”

The rv started as the gray nightmare put her hands on the wheel… she looked down before looking at the two “You know…. I pity both of you”

“Huh?”

“Pardon?”

“I pity both of you…” She repeated “I know that you two arrived from a different realm that were more… peaceful than here, a utopia of order and law where you two no need to worried if you would wake up the next morning with body still intact. I understand the struggle and the pain to suddenly adapt the harsh and vile foreign city that demands survival.... that’s why I feel bad and pity both of you… and that’s why as the leader, I’ll make sure to bring us all home, back to where we ‘the anomalies’ rightfully belongs to”

She turned back at the road as the rv began moving through the road. She can feel their confusion at her statements which she tried her best to sound emotions, even if her tone was still as flat as ever but at least her words checks out. Though maybe she should tell them that she could overhear their entire heartfelt conversations from the outside of the rv, but…. Not now, probably something she’ll keep to herself for the meantime. She doesn’t mean to be a pepping tom, yet… she wants to be a leader, a commander, a captain that they entrust her to be, and to do so, she wants to understand them since they all are going to stick around for a while.

And this feeling… she realized something, that reminds of her… “So… this is how you feel to be a leader, huh? I didn’t know that it could be….” she muttered to herself, she fixes her hood before pressing the gas pedal even more.

***

Nightmare binds

Nightmares, how it is for everyone to have nightmares during their sleep? As far as I know, nightmares are a part of your mind, broken, destroyed, ill, wounded mind. Nightmare is a response of a trauma, all the suffering one felt. Scary isn’t it? Nightmares is unexplainable, one can describe a nightmare but it is HOW they interpreted it sometimes, unless you paid a hefty for a corp to read nightmares, but who has the time and money to do so?

So this story, started with a heavy pant of breath, sweats dropping down as Tsunul held his own body. Another one of those nightmares of his. “Fuck… not again…”

“Tsunul, try not to be too loud”

Tsunul, who is still panting, knew who it was… “Wha- what the hell you mean not too loud- HOLY SHIT!” he jumped back and accidentally fell of the couch as there’s a pair of red glowing eyes staring at the windows. “Fucking… sweepers…”

The said sweeper returned their gaze back forward as they continue to clean the backstreet.

“Wait here…” She said as she walked to the back of the rv.

Tsunul still breathing heavily, took out the pocket watch as he held it on his chest. He’s not going to have a panic attack, not today… not anymore. He doesn’t want his mind to go scramble, so this is the only way to do so. Then he was handed a glass water by her. “Thanks…”

She nodded as she sat down on the other side of the couch, slightly at the edge not to wake the still sleeping esgoo. “Nightmares I presumed?”

“What else?” he put down the glass down “I swear… I felt like my soul was being drained… don’t tell me…” That’s when he noticed a dark smoke on the glass globe of her staff.

“If you won’t mind, I tapped inside your nightmare and managed to take it before it harms your mental even further.” She told him “it’s only two minutes of nightmare before you woke up from it…”

Tsunul sighed once more “And speaking of waking up… it’s your turn right now?”

“Yeah, Esgoo just went sleep a while ago, supposed that’s why he doesn’t hear you.” She looked at the one sleeping, it’s a bit cramped that she had to sit a bit to the edge, but she doesn’t mind.

Of course, it’s unanimously agreed from the three that night watch is important. So simply they took turns to keep on the lookout while the other rest. Sometimes it might be a peaceful night, and sometimes they had to kill a guy or two from trying to break in. but tonight… It was peaceful, none dare to going around when the sweepers are making their patrol. At least they ignored their vehicles and just walked by it.

“…..It’s really my nightmare, huh?” Tsunul pointed at the staff.

“Yeah… a dark thick smoke, not that it’s uncommon, just another nightmare I extract…” she said, patting her staff that is sitting on her lap. “You can talk to me about it if you want to, just because I take other’s nightmares doesn’t mean i can prevent such....”

“…..” He’s still stays silent. “What did you see from my nightmare?” and decided to ask her a question.

“All I saw is a jumbled mess” she said, patting her staff “If you worry that I saw too much, then know that I’m not a detective that can pieces all puzzle. All I knew that you bear immense pain, self-doubt, and many negative thoughts when I took your nightmare, and that it has something to do with you screaming to yourself when writing that diary of yours, and that pocket watch you held…”

“….ugh…” Tsunul then pocketed it back. “I just… don’t want to talk about it. I thank your offer, gray nightmare, but I just…. Can’t”

“Of course…” She closed her eyes and nodded “It is an appropriate answer, forgive me for a harsh word that I’ll be giving, but remember that if you cannot deal or put closure to that nightmare of yours, it’ll slowly eat you up from the inside out. Nothing is worse but a psychic pain…”

“Spoken from experience? Hah…” Tsunul let a sad chuckle at himself “Who am I kidding? You’re the gray nightmare after all…”

“hmm… tell me, tsunul.” She tilts her head to the side “Do you believe me?”

“W-what? What’re you talking about? Of course i-“

“Not that kind of believe” Her voice dropped down with her eyes opening again, staring directly at him from her hood. “You believe Esgoo because you two came from the same world, and you believe me because you shared the same goal as us. But, do you TRULY believe me?”

“…..”

“Now… I have no trouble with that, trust and believe didn’t happened in an instant, but it grew over time, we can’t force trust to happen. But another variable is intention.” She said, pointing at him. “Trust and believe can grew fast if an intention is pure, trust and believe can stagnant or came to a halt with an opposite intention, that’s why spies and undercover agent never gets carried away by trust. I understand that you want to go home like us, but I understand if you had other intentions in mind… one that you kept to yourself”

“….all three of us had many reasons to go on this journey, even you”

“Yes, even me. Listen, tsunul, I trust you, and he trust you, that’s why we’re willing to take the risks of being manhunt by the contract hunters, and you trust us that you’re willing to risk your life being killed, even if our journey’s end may be nothing but a void. But…” she paused “If trust and believe only stand on which we three just share the same goal, then we didn’t believe each other.”

“…..I want to trust you, we both do, that’s why we’re agree on making you our leader” Tsunul said back

“That’s why as the leader, I’m saying that we should try to trust each other more, without other intentions halting us from doing so. If I can trust you to not go berserk and lose yourself on your emotions, and you can trust me if I had to make such hard decisions…”

“Then it is truly… believing...”

“Correct, for example…” She made her point by slithering her hand inside esgoo’s vest, taking something from his pocket while the unsuspecting man is still out. “you know this?”

She holds a… syringe, with an orange colored substance inside it. “What’s… that?” Tsunul even questioned why esgoo even had it.

“This… is what the people in C corp called, serum. I’ve seen such few using it as drugs. But in some cases, it is a physical enhancing one. I knew better not to let him inject this in his body, I could confiscate and throw away all his serum if I want to or he might suffer from addiction, a deadly torture, but…” She paused, putting the serum back in his pocket. “I trust him not to stab himself with it. My journey with him has given me trust and believe that he will not use it unless it’s critical. Not just any trust or believe based of same goal, but one that came from this… kind of friendship. You get my point?”

He nodded, understanding her point. “I get what you mean miss nightmare, I get you loud and clear, and hey, maybe one day we get to know your real name when we believed much” He chuckled, this time calmer.

“Hmm… I supposed so. Though, I won’t force you to tell your stories now, take your moment until you’re ready”

“I will… and you? I never even heard your stories aside from knowing that you’re also an anomaly like us, having weird smoke power, and being a color”

“Well…I could… share a few bits of my world” maybe that’s what He meant to her when he told her to start trusting more people. Maybe that’s why he taught her the right way to trust and believe and to sound livelier…. maybe this moment is what he meant… yes, she understands it now but she knows that she get carried away by… this. It has to be careful, it has to be slow, for trust and believe can easily shatters in a mere second.

“I’ll use simple everyday words to make it easier to explain. In my world, sorcery like this is a normal daily life. There’s a long list of history of how this… type of power manifested but I won’t waste you the long complicated history. In summary, things happened thousand and thousand years ago with gods, demons, angels, and we now harness this kind of power. There’s plenty of type of categorized sorcery that we all used, there’s one for farming, fishing, construction, and many many more, some are good on a specific type of sorcery, and some special can wield different types of it. I remember it is something you would called, isekai, in your world, yes?”

“Ah… he… he told you that word, didn’t he?” tsunul slightly cringing at it, sighed.

“On one occasion, yes. It’s quite interesting that my type of world is being used for fantasy narratives. Either way… as much as sorcery can be used for peace, and the well-being of the people, obviously… many types of sorcery like mine, can also be used to inflict pains to other. Wars, battles, tyrannies, terrors, and   some use this opportunity to exploit the aftermath of it.”

“I’ll say that it’s haven for people with power of nightmares like you.” Tsunul commented.

“Ah… but would you know that only a select number have harvested the power of the nightmares?”

“Wait what?” tsunul raised an eyebrow “How? I thought that kind were booming, it’s a field of profit with how fucked up war is”

“Yes… but there are some select of sorcery in the ‘warfare’ category that are called… primal”

“Primal, huh? Like you need to sacrifice some humans to use it?” Tsunul asked, interested by her story.

“Well, not all but the blood arts did need some blood sacrifice. Whatever sorcery it is, the primal, or many have called It sacrificial arts, or bound arts is… the kind of sorcery that requires… sacrifices, not just humans but many, depending of what primal arts that one wanted.”

“….Ah….” Tsunul understand where this led to “So that’s why you’re so…. Well, emotionless?”

“Not quite” she shook her head. “If I was truly emotionless, I won’t even care to rescue his life back when he was surrounded by addicts. Thankfully, I learned what emotions is”

“You… learned emotions?”

“Tsunul, the power of nightmare isn’t just some sorcery to understand nightmare” She let her smoke free from the glass globe, it flew around in front of them. “To wield this, one must indulge themselves in the darkest pit of suffering, in one’s haunted mind like this, your nightmare.”

It’s… kinda weird for tsunul to look at his own smoke, it is his nightmare manifestation, the one he had merely moments ago, and seeing it in a physical form… made him slightly sick of himself.

“Nightmare is…. Fascinating. While others try to avoid it, and get scared by it, we…. We decided to embrace it as a power… but exposed to such vile things, such dark and gruesome metaphor of the darkest human minds is… very dangerous even to the nightmare wielder.” Even if her tone is still flat, tsunul can understand what kind of things that she had to get through. “It doesn’t cause physical injury but the mental toll it gave is…. Much more worse than death. Many ended their own lives because they simply cannot withstand the nightmares, many minds break apart simply because the pain is too much, and many goes insane simply trying to understand it.”

“You…. Had to go through a lot, I can… picture it. I understand why only a select number can fully master one…”

“To wield nightmare, to use nightmare is to reject and sacrifice our emotions if one truly wanted to be a master. And so… I did… and I almost ended up as an emotionless husk when I decided to let go of my emotions...”

“but you didn’t…”

“yes… I did not, somewhat like that” She nodded “I was…. Taught to understand human emotions, what made one happy, what made one sad, what made one angry, what made one confused, and what made one scared. Did I ever truly feel emotions? No, I know how to be happy, but I can’t feel happy, I know how to feel hopeless but I can’t truly feel hopeless. I smile and I frown because I was taught that it is emotions, just like how you look when you woke up from your nightmare…”

“I… kinda feel bad. But you knew what you’re up to when decided to push through, did you?”

“……” She stays silent, looking at the rv floor before at tsunul “For now, I won’t answer that question.”

“Ah…” Tsunul rubbed the back of his head. “Alright, so umm… moving to a slightly different topic, how… how was you when you’re still a color? When you still have all of your nightmare powers before you lose it?”

“Color… the words they used here.” She had a small smile. Tsunul wondered if that’s a genuine smile or she smile because it’s what she had to do “I’m not sure if color had the same equal ranking to what I’m called in my world, but I supposed I am that powerful. Having the power to take nightmares from everyone, and use it to my will, with the supplies being endless. I… also got other names aside from gray nightmare”

“what’s that?”

“Nightmare lurker, night nightmare, lurker in the shadows, darkness embodiment, a lot of names when words of me flew around, but gray nightmare stuck to me… thanks to him. I… remember, when I arrived at a city, if they didn’t try to finish me, they always begged for me to take their nightmares, to take their pain onto my staff.”

“D-damn…” While it’s not too shocking for him, it is pretty… interesting

“It’s a symbiotic mutualism. They lose their nightmare and I got their nightmare, only further making me stronger. I know I was supposed to be feeling great, feeling powerful, feeling cocky, feeling greed and lust for power, it’ll sure to make me greater than ever, but in the end, it was nothing.”

“huh…. What were you before?”

“You would call it as fixers in here. A weapon for hire… if they managed to find me that is… I think it was fun while it lasted”

“Geez..” he crossed his arms “Must’ve been sucks when you lose it, huh?”

“I supposed I feel sad by it, yet only a small annoyance at the end. A rift just opened and I was taken here, and suddenly all the powerful smoke arts that I could did was… gone. But the navette glasses we’ve been collecting slowly gave me my power back so not the worst...”

She leaned back in her seat, sighed. Tsunul think to himself that he needs to stop guessing if she actually feels the burden or she had to feel it because it’s what she should feel. It’s getting confusing for him.

“Tsunul, go to sleep.” She told him that.

“Huh?” Tsunul raised an eyebrow “I thought it was my turn right now”

“Yes, but you just had a nightmare, you’re not physically exhausted but you’re mentally tired, I’ll have my rest later” she doesn’t sound tired, or she can’t sound tired at all

Tsunul slightly shook his own head, he really needs to stop guessing the legitimacy of her emotions. “Alright…”but he decided to sleep anyway. She’s right, his brains hurt.

He laid back on the couch, and as the gray nightmare returned back to the front seat, he stopped her “Hey… miss nightmare?”

“Yes, tsunul?”

“I was seeking something, something that was taken from me thanks to the casino. For months… for weeks…. It became my source of nightmares… this burden I feel, the thoughts that weighted me… I want to be free, to be free to do anything” tsunul quietly told her, it… definitely hurts him a bit.

Haeng-un didn’t stopped him during his escape, Haeng-un isn’t there to have a one to one duel against him, Haeng-un isn’t there to give him a final goodbye. It can be an epic moment, but what happened? He only stares at the casino as the rv took him away. Nothing like what he had hoped, nothing like what Haeng-un hoped. And just when questions were being answered, more suddenly hit him like a damn truck, and this time… he doesn’t have Haeng-un to answered it.

“But tsunul, you weren’t chained by anything” the color gives her thought, with a hint of confusion.

“…..” tsunul didn’t answer back as he looked away from her.

“Alright, I hope your find your freedom, and we’ll help” she nodded at him before finally walking away.

He stared at the ceiling of the rv…. It hurts, it still hurts, and there are still his friends possibly get sent here, lost and confused, fallen to their own endless torture, endless pain, and endless lament.

Maybe… he’ll find them on their journey. But who will be next after him?

***

Roadblock

Of course, not only their journey to get the navette glasses can be tough, but also the journey TO the place of the navette glasses aka inside the nest of K corp.

Well not all is sunshine and rainbow, if it is then their whole story can be summed up in ‘went to the said place, find new ally, get their navette glass’ and so on. Haha… unfortunately or fortunately for us, it is far from over.

“This backstreet is a no brainer” Esgoo commented, he just arrived to the hidden parked rv “I don’t know how they made easy in canto 3”

“From what I’ve gathered, it’s been getting… intense ever since many small bite gangs and syndicates were planning to attack the checkpoint… but there’s an issue” The gray nightmare said, holding a smoke in her palm, freshly taken off a dead.

“Guess ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ doesn’t really worked for these assholes” tsunul sighed, shaking his head “Well, we can just drive our way in, might be badass”

“And dead from some explosions? Hell no” Esgoo shakes his head “They definitely got traps.”

“Lastly, we can’t risk losing our only transportation. So, we have to deal with them, Tsunul” The gray nightmare added too. “Though fighting gangs and syndicates by the three of us is suicide”

The road that leads to the checkpoint is… ‘blocked’. Not in literal blocked by a blockade, but it’s safe…. Suspiciously safe. And with the recent nightmare she took, and esgoo sneakily checking the area. It is the clear that it’s a false haven, only ambushes that are waiting for them. So here they three in a stagnant. They cannot go around to find another way, it’ll take too long, they can’t just drive their way, too risky, and dealing with them head on is asking to be killed, the gray nightmare’s powers are still limited.

“Geez… we don’t even have a visa for them to take. Vehicles like this always attracts those kind of peoples” Tsunul leaned on the gray colored motorhome rv they’ve been living for the past weeks, it’s pretty much their home now.

“I found the rv in its destroyed state, broken, and ruined almost to no recognition. I can safely say that it is that valuable here” The gray nightmare said. “It took very long just to fix it”

“Guess we gotta do this the sneaky way, you two?” Esgoo proposed an idea. “listen, they had explosives, all stashed. And since explosions draw people in…” Esgoo paused with his hands flailing around “We…. We could try, yes?”

“Hmm… we could” The color thought “We take the explosives, put it somewhere away from the road, and explode it. With the standoff around here, no one will suspect us"

“I can see the idea here” tsunul nodded too “So we both went there while you wait in the rv?”

“No… I’ll join you both, can’t risk any failure here, and we’ll ‘smoke rush’ our way back, was that fine with you, esgoo?”

“No it’s not fine for me...” Esgoo huffed “But if it’s necessary, alright then.” He did propose the idea first anyway, and even if they had to ‘smoke rush’, the thing the gray nightmare did by turning all of them to clouds of smoke and dashing their way out, also that esgoo disliked.

They snuck their way through the buildings, as they heard two thugs talking

“You heard what’s those void rats doing?”

“Void rats? Are they new here or something? I swear, more gangs keep showing up out of nowhere”

“Yeah, I heard they swarm the sewers, poor ruth, he got dragged by one of them and…. Yeah, it doesn’t end up good…”

“Damn…. Void rats, hah… what a name”

“So that’s why, they’re planning to bomb the sewers, seriously”

“Fuck… weren’t we going to use that for the checkpoint?”

“Ask the boss… the void rats were dragging people down, someone needed to deal with them. I heard he also make deals with the The Ashwalkers”

“Right, right… the bombs, honestly it won’t last a week before we start beefing with them again…”

“Duh, that’s why the bombs were put to that factory over there and no one were allowed inside-“

The trio then gazed at each other, and nodded. They were about to left until these two talks about the explosives.

Then in one quick session, when they are still talking, they were rushed and thrown the ground before a good stab knocked their lights forever.

“Alright…” Tsunul get off the dead thug with his neck snapped “We got lead… that’s… that’s good”

“Yeah…” while esgoo brushed his sword with the thug’s shirt. “Can’t believe it is that easy, hehe…” he chuckled nervously.

“Don’t jinx yourself, esgoo. We got to get to that factory” said the gray nightmare while she uses her staff and took their smokes to be stored on her staff. “hmmm”

“So? What did you find?” asked tsunul, looking around at an open window.

“We got people scouting the roofs, the bombs were going to be used, not only for the void rats or whatever they are, but also… the checkpoint”

“THE K corp checkpoint we’re going?” esgoo this time asked, leaning on the wall. “That checkpoint?”

“Yes” she nodded at him before standing up. “We should go… let’s try to avoid killing for now, we don’t want anything to get chaotic.”

The three of them left as they continue to sneak their way. One of the upsides is that the color can use her smoke to detect anyone passing by, like a radar of some sort, so it’s helping them to get through. The factory is starting to get closer, it was evident by that red paint from the distance and that more of them were strolling around.

It definitely is a standoff, and everyone’s on the edge. The small gangs or wannabe syndicates didn’t fight purely due to their similarities and that they wanna get inside K corp, the renowned district with the best medical system. But a small fire lit could potential break everything off, it’s just no one dared to try so.

But eventually, despite her smoke power helping them getting by, there was one single tiny thing that went oversight to the anomalies. None were suspicious when a road was surprisingly empty, no one getting by, and pure silent, she didn’t also detect anyone on the roofs for potential ambush.

“It’s clear, let’s move” she ordered as they walked, this time with their back not too hunched forward. 

“It’s quiet… weirdly quiet” tsunul whispered as he walked behind her. “Where’s everyone going?

Esgoo snickered as he going behind tsunul, he was the last one. “Maybe bing-“ Esgoo tried to make a small joke, until he was tripped over something and fell on his stomach “Ow!... the hell? Did someone hold my- HOLY SHIT!”

The two immediately turned around to see someone upper half on the manhole they just went by, and holding on esgoo’s legs with a cackle.

“LET ME GO YOU- AHH!!!” esgoo yelled as he got dragged before he can do anything, down the manhole he goes.

“FUCK! I’m coming!!!” immediately, tsunul went for the run and jumped in the opened manhole, followed by the gray nightmare who turned herself to a cloud of smoke.

They just missed the manhole they walked by, and the warning about the void rats. Yes, she can detect anyone in the vicinity of her smoke, but she failed to notice anyone under the ground they were standing upon, and eventually a void rats member waiting to catch esgoo’s leg before dragging him down into the sewer.

The void rats. No one knew how and why they were formed, but these types of gang are scattered on the underground part of the backstreets. They ‘owned’ the sewers, the caves, and the tunnels that they marked their territory upon, hence their name, rats, and void because they really like the wait in the darkness before charging at the prey, and dragging them to the darkness too, and unfortunately, esgoo got the beginner’s luck like his rolls sometimes, and got dragged by the void rats.

Tsunul landed on the ground, as he slightly gagged “Ugh…. Sewers” the sight of typical sewer, trash and waste, possibly toxics. Good thing that there’s light here on the walls.

“Let’s go, before anything happens to him” The gray nightmare said to him.

“I am, miss-…..”he paused “still in the smoke form, are you?” he looked… quite unamused.

“I don’t want to get myself in sewer waste, I can also cover more ground”

Wait… does she hates getting herself dirty or she knows that she has to feel- Tsunul shakes his head, and took out his gambler’s edge. No, he should focus on finding esgoo.

He went running through the disgust of the sewers. His gambler’s edge turned into a spear as he pressed the button, not too good for such tight space but better than a small knife.

He ran until he reached a cross section “Tsunul, wait” The smoked gray nightmare stopped him, “Hide”

Tsunul immediately lean himself on the wall as many of those void rats went pass, he can see their color… a dirty ragged outfit, with the color of mush green.

“Where is he at?”

“he’s right there!”

“find him”

He could hear their chattering as they went pass until disappeared from his sight.

“I think that’s esgoo they’re talking about” the color said “At least he doesn’t get mauled alive by them”

“Yeah… I’ll follow them” Tsunul suddenly stated, gripping his spear tightly on his arm

“What?”

“If they’re going to his direction…. Then he must be there” tsunul stated confidently as he walked forward to follow them. “We can’t risk getting lost in enemy’s den. Especially since he’s alone, he’ll be dead like victims in slasher movies if we wasted any more seconds”

“Weird example but alright” the gray nightmare went quiet “Wait… someone arriving behind-“

“You! What are-“ the void rat then dropped dead to the ground, their neck was pierced by the thrown spear.

“Thanks for the heads up” Tsunul went and pulled the spear before going for the run to the direction that the void rats went through.

The more left and right turns he made, and occasional stabbing when running into an unsuspected void rat member, the more he began seeing dead bodies laying on the ground.

“Fresh…. Stabbed by a sword” Tsunul knelt down to check on one since they’ve been passing few already.

“Definitely him, he must be-“ and just as the gray nightmare said that, an explosion occurred, shaking the whole sewer for a moment

“Shit!” tsunul cursed and immediately dashing to where the explosions happened. He was wondering on what the hell happened, and was esgoo alright? he got his answers in just…. Few more seconds.

Through the dust particles flying everywhere, he stopped at a T-junction and turned right. That’s when… he saw an incredible scene that would fit a show.

 He could clearly the back of esgoo, facing a fire, possibly from the explosion early. his back was raised up and down, and his claw sword was covered in bloods, and he was looking down with his other fist clenched tight. There’re bodies of void rats everywhere, some even destroyed beyond recognition. A disgusting sight if it weren’t for the city. “Filth…. Nothing but disgusting piece of shit…. deserved to suffer…. Deserved to die…” to them, he was muttering inaudible words under his breath.

He slowly walked to him, after seeing no more void rats coming, carefully stepping over the bodies. “Hey, man… you alri-“ he tapped his hand on esgoo’s shoulder, and he suddenly flinched away before realizing who it was.

“Oh… hey.. didn’t know it was you two” esgoo slightly chuckled

“We… called you, but you didn’t answer” the smoked cloud gray nightmare said “Are you okay? We immediately jump in when you got dragged”

“Me? I’m… perfectly fine, see? Just slight bruises, limps still intact, standing straight… just like a solo MD run, but in fucking real life, right?” esgoo looks and sounded okay, but the hand clutching the sword was shaking and his pupils were dilated, and almost bloodshot red.

“You could say that… well now that you’re here…” tsunul looked at where he was walking from “We should find a ladder and climb out of here, the less we spent here, the better”

“….Let’s slaughter them” esgoo looked down and muttered under his breath, barely noticeable by the two.

“Huh? What did you say?” the gray nightmare asked

Esgoo immediately snapped back to his mind, and reached something to his pocket “I mean… I found this” he shows them… a ragged map, nothing fancy, just outline of the sewer they’re in “We could… find our way with this”

Tsunul looked at it, and the gray nightmare immediately noticed “I think I know where we should go… come on”

The smoke cloud flies off, and as esgoo walked to follow, tsunul grabbed his shoulder “Hey… you’re definitely fine, right? You were harshly dragged away, and we thought…”

“I can stand still… that’s what matters”

“…..Okay then”

The three of them, following the map, soon reached the ladder that brought them back to the surface. Thankfully, there were no gangs or some thugs nearby so they can easily climb themselves up and shut down the manhole.

“Let’s hope… we never have to be in that situation again” esgoo panted, leaning on the wall.

“Fuck no… let’s hope not” tsunul answered “It smells like shit in there”

That’s when the gray nightmare finally went back to human form, standing on the ground. “And good news… the factory is nearby” she pointed with her staff. “I’ll look around, you two can take a breather for a while”

She went off somewhere and that’s when the two guys sat on the ground, taking time to calm themselves. Tsunul is… slightly suspicious and worried with what he saw of esgoo and how he flinched when he touched his shoulder, and that look on his face for a split second…

What exactly happened there? Tsunul wondered as he took a peek on esgoo, he looks normal but he felt that he saw someone else there, someone… different. Maybe he should ask…. Later.

After that, the mission was simple, nothing’s going to stop them, not even some sewer dwellers. They took out the nearby watchguard, and went in the factory, it was locked but being a smoke easily got them through. It was what they were said, explosives, gunpowder, all needed to make a huge bomb. All scavenged, enough to make everything went kaboom on the checkpoint, just steal a truck from super secured K corp’s transport, if they managed to do that, and load the entire thing on the back of the truck, and drive through it… it’ll be enough for a literal uprising.

Too bad, it’ll get to waste, as the anomalies won’t know about this fact. As they all immediately fly off, Boom! It rang throughout the backstreet, as dark clouds fly to the sky.

As the anomalies were about to returned back to the van, someone run to the scene of the crime.

“Hello! Hello! Did the entire factory explodes?!” a buzzing sound came out, a walkie talkie.

“Yes, Yes it di- STUPID thing!” the thug smacked the walkie talkie, the transmitter jammed, after he accidentally dropped it from the shock of the explosions.

“Dammit! Is it the K corp operatives doing?” the other side of the walkie talkie buzzed through.

The gray nightmare took noticed of what they just said… then an idea formed “Wait..” she stopped them before they all could leave.

“Cmon, work you stupid-“ then, out of nowhere, from behind he was put into chokehold by her staff, and as the air from his neck was taken away… he went to sleep.

That’s when the gray nightmare power shines, she let go of the thug and put a smoke on his ear as he whispered “You were here when K corp operatives went and sabotage the entire factory, you saw them leaving, before the blast knocked you out…”

“What is it that you planning, miss nightmare?” Tsunul asked as she took the walkie talkie of the thug

“Ohh, and it sounds fun too” Esgoo chuckled, before he was suddenly handed the walkie talkie by her.

“Come on, we can talk about this once we passed the roadblock, in a few minutes, every single gangs would be here” The gray nightmare stopped the conversations.

And… they were right, they managed to pass the roadblock without issue, no one ambushing the van as it easily drove away, leaving a mess to the backstreet, and fortunately… no one will remember that they’re the true culprit behind it.

The van stopped after passing the roadblock, just a bit close to the checkpoint, but hidden enough.

“Let’s have a break first, we deserve a bit of rest after… what just happened” The color just casually said that in a flat tone as she opens the door and steps out. “Oh and go take a shower”

The two immediately looked at each other

“Hmmph… said the one who didn’t even touch the sewers” Esgoo complained as she left.

“But we did smell like shit” Tsunul huffed as he stood up “I’ll go in first”

Esgoo watched as tsunul went in the door on the backside of the rv. The bathroom for shower and other stuff isn’t quite…. Spacey, but they at least could have a few steps inside it. Though water refills can be an issue sometimes, they’ve managed it. And they were planning to refill once they went inside the nest anyway.

Esgoo leaned back, staring at the roof of the rv. He clenched his fist hard, he literally just lost himself moments ago. But what could blame him? His life in the city is already shitty enough that it’s a surprise if he didn’t get one trauma at the very least, especially when he got sent here out of the sudden.

As the water splashing can be heard, esgoo stared at his own palms. Dirty, muddy, and there’s dried blood on it… he remembers… oh how he remembers so well when he cut them all down, when he felt their flesh being opened by his claw sword, when he heard their pained and dying voices, and when he felt bloods going down his swords.

They deserved this, he thought to himself. But he just wondered… was it hypocritical for him to do this? When what he witnesses was the other side of the coin, the other end of the stick? He sighed once again, he wondered if the city will turn him to a cold-blooded psychopath, when the was feeling of murder felt so disgusting, to now felt so…. Normal, to will be… joyful to him? He can’t lie to himself that he felt satisfied seeing them dead for what they made him saw, for what they remind him of, a memory that he wishes to forgot when he was at C corp.

He clenched his fist again, no… he will not give it up, he had a chance to go on… and he wishes for his chances to come into fruition, he won’t mess this up, for he… for he wanted to see the end of it.

I know, surprised that esgoo had his owns hidden goals? Then not, obviously everyone on ‘the anomalies’ had their own motivations, one that drives them to go this far…

It is more than just going home, it’s a lot more than that.

***

K corp checkpoint

Over the day, they all waited as they watched over the walkie talkie. It keeps buzzing with conversations after the whole explosion thing that has happened yesterday, a lot and lot of important conversations that they heard.

“They’re not even bothered to use secured channels” Tsunul shakes his head in disbelief.

“What’re you expecting from these dumbasses, man?” esgoo answered “They won’t be competent enough to get through the checkpoint”

“That… yes” The gray nightmare nodded besides them “But they’re a useful tool for us to get through the checkpoint and to hide our tracks”

“Speaking for that…. What’s the plan anyway? Why we need to wait here, listening to them talking of a… honestly pretty shitty idea”

“The why… you two, is this” she took out from what’s looks like a black colored card from her pocket, but they read something on it… the two words in white, contrast to the overall coloring of the card, they remembered very well. ‘limbus company’ “This is the employee card of the CCE we took care. You two almost miss it but thankfully, I did not. Only one was in their pockets, supposed it was accidentally brought”

“So…. That’s our trump card to get through?” tsunul raised a question, crossing his arms. An employee card sounds like a great idea, it’ll be a breeze like how the sinners went through the checkpoint. “It didn’t have any photo cards inside, pretty convenient”

“It won’t be as easy as that” Esgoo objected “The company will take notice if there’s a suspicious usage of their cards, and I’ll doubt that they didn’t check their logs daily.”

“Also… there’s cams everywhere on the checkpoint.” The color added “If they found out that we use their card to get inside the nest, then they knew where we are, potentially even could do a whole blockade to cage us in. We, ‘The anomalies’ didn’t have any backing for financial supports or even official citizenship of the city, so we had to be slick to get pass, and I just got the scheme in mind… you two trust me on this? We’ll only get one single…” she emphasized “one singular chance to both get through, and hides our track”

“Well… as long as the plan wasn’t to drive through the checkpoint and had an intense grand chase… I’m listening, though that’ll be cool to experience” Esgoo huffed, his mood had improved ever since the sewer incident a day ago. And has been cracking small jokes here and there

Tsunul huffed as he nodded “I trust your plan, miss nightmare. So let’s do it”

“Thanks, both of you… so here’s the plan.”

Of course, a long exposition texts of her describing the grand idea won’t be fun to read, no? so I got a better idea, I’ll explain it as they are executing the plan, see? It’s better.

The strategy started once they got info on when of their attack. Just as the time of execution were announced, it is time for them to strike.

“Quite… the security...” Esgoo commented as he confidently, at least tried to, walked through the checkpoint. The amounts of drones, and even some excision class staffs guarding. Seeing them with tubes filled with the green ampule in person is… quite horrifying in a way. They stood majestically, standing as a literal wall between the Checkpoint, holding their double-ended green polearm and sleek black frame with neon-green energy circuits pulsing along its length, giving it an almost predatory glow in the darkness. And with how they stood tall like a statue, not moving an inch from that armor and helmet… Esgoo didn’t want to deal with them, so why the hell does he have to do this? He thought to himself.

“Wait wait wait” he put his hands forward “Why me? Miss nightmare, you had the most poker face imaginable, respectfully. Going to the checkpoint, alone…”

“Unfortunately, you cannot...” she shook her head “Someone needed to deal with the camera watching you, it is much more important”

“And I’m quite familiar with how cctv works, been tasked to deal one quite a few times in the casino…” Tsunul added in “I can wipe the footage”

“….. fucking dammit, you two.” Esgoo facepalm himself “My poker face isn’t that…” he sighed furiously

“then you’ll have to try your best”

Esgoo stand on the line of people while his eyes keep gazing at the camera on the beeping camera watching the area. He cursed In his mind, trying to look as calm as possible as the line get shorter and shorter. He’ll just have to do his role flawlessly, or at least attempting to without being suspicious.

He takes a deep breath, straightening himself and fixing his rogue outfit before finally he stands at the checkpoint and the K corp checkpoint official.

“Please state your affiliation and purpose of visit.” The same words, words by words, sentence by sentence, tone by tone, verbatim… felt like a déjà vu.

“I’m here for business on the behalf of Limbus Company, please refer to my wo-“ He quickly changed his words “I mean… employee card” he hides his shaking hand as he took out ‘the black card’, their trump card and set it on table, oh how short he felt, as if the world were against him, as if he was truly alone... he shook his head, this isn’t the past anymore… he had someone else on his side, no longer alone… the one he could trust, he hoped so.

The guard were looking on the no photo black colored card, with the word CCE and the small abbreviation on it below it in whites. Esgoo tried to not looked panicked as he quickly wipes the sweat that threatened to fall, the guard took longer on his card and the screen in front of him.

Esgoo decided to look around, or else he might hyperventilate if he keeps watching in anxious. He could see the other side of the glass, the separation from him and the unlucky ones. He remembered how don Quixote thrust her lance to it, shattering it, and causing a ruckus. Now it looks flawless, as in there hasn’t any cracked or even shattered glass at all.

“Do…” the sudden word of the checkpoint official caused him to snap his head back “You had any types of transportation arriving here?”

“y-yes” he nodded “An Rv outside, waiting, silently…” he chuckled, a nervous one. “I drive…” and take the sitting card to his pocket back.

"Due to the recent explosions that occurred yesterday, all vehicles must undergo inspection prior to passage. Any complains to this procedure may be formally submitted through your supervisor for review." Damn, esgoo thought. This guard is even more soulless sounding than miss nightmare herself.

“Sure, sure yeah” he nodded. And before he could say anything more, the rv was being pushed inside the right side of the checkpoint. Yes, literally pushed by two of excision class staff, and with ease due to little sound they made… or maybe because the rv doesn’t have any gasoline inside.

“hoo boy” he muttered to himself, he can’t get himself hyperventilate, even when his chest was beating so hard. He was used already into getting himself in danger, hell he was pulled down to a literal sewer, pennywise style and he wasn’t that panicked at all.

The two excisions class went inside the rv, as he walked and stood besides the Rv. There’re few drones circling the rv, emitting red lights, scanning any possible contrabands or bombs hiding. “Could you please provide an explanation for the presence of smoke within the gas tank?” a checkpoint official asked.

“Uhhh… new type of fuel, company’s secret” he answered the best he could.

The two K corp security nodded at each other as they keep checking the rv, esgoo stood silently with his arms stood stiff. He wanted to cry, he wanted to explode from this tension…

Why would he agree to do this role? He thought to himself, with a small whimper.

In the other side… two figures were inside a room, one that is hidden from the cctv, the inside and employees only area on the checkpoint. “That… that was fucking close… we almost got caught” Tsunul panted, leaning on the wall. Oh how cleaning storage room had no cameras at all, it smells like sterile hospital in there. “Shit… we almost got caught”

“Expected…” answered the gray nightmare, she looks… the same still under her hood, but thinking really hard right now. “I always knew what we did yesterday won’t go unnoticed, we still proceed as planned, the entrance log should be noted somewhere”

“Will he be okay? He looks miserable trying to stay calm…” tsunul asked.

“I believe he could deal with the stress, I trust him to do so” she answered shortly before peeking the area outside. They were in the staff area, where they deal with logistics and shifts.

“Alright… find the admin area, remove the logs, then find the cctv room and delete the footage… Yeah… we can do that” tsunul reminds himself, exhaling a breath.

They both turned to smoke cloud as they slid outside the room, cautiously flying through the area, and flying to the nearest vent, finding their way around.

“Wait, wait wait, why not we three just going through the checkpoint like usual and simply make them delete the footage themselves and erase their memories of the checkpoint? Simple right?” Esgoo tried to rebut during the discussion.

“Yes, I can do that, esgoo. I once made a whole village forgetting a terrible tragedy that haunts them.”

“The issue is, it was you, right miss nightmare?” tsunul emphasized on the ‘was’

“Correct” she nodded “My power is still in an unstable infant state and It was recent when I got the nightmare manipulation technique back. I can only steal and manipulate memories at best a few minutes worth, and not helping with how limited my smoke was…” she stated flatly, fixing the hood of her jacket.

Esgoo let out an annoyed huff of breath.

“You do your part, and we’ll do ours, just pretend that we’re in some canto cutscene” a…. I would say, an attempt for tsunul to cheer him.

“Dude, that’s barely comforting”

Back to the vents, the two-smoke clouds flew through the air shafts, sometimes going down just to check if it’s the right room or not. But In a matter of times, they found the control room with only two guards watching the cams.

“You hear about the explosions, yesterday?”

“Yeah, what happened anyway?”

“Don’t know, probably those backstreet rats fighting with each other… but manager doesn’t want to take risk, especially with how loud it was”

“You’d think we can be like those elites?”

“As if, all we did is sit our asses every day, watching cameras.”

“Hah… true, at least we’re safe from being in the frontlines”

Then moments later, they were on the floor, knocked out. Being a cctv operators, obviously they barely wore any armor, only a standard neon green striped uniform. And while the gray nightmare deal with their memories so it would seem they fell asleep, tsunul went to the screen and began messing around with the keyboards.

“There he is…” Tsunul said as the camera shifts to the checkpoint “At least he got through, and let’s… delete that shit from existence…”

“Wait” the gray nightmare added “don’t forget to remove a few footages too, random interval at random time and date. We can’t get them suspicious of anything”

“Got it-“

Suddenly, an explosion happened again, this time… it was much more closer as the shockwaves went through the room they’re at. “what the fuck?” tsunul shifts the camera back to the checkpoint “Weren’t they supposed to attack later? This is way too early for that, shit!”

Meanwhile on esgoo side, he got thrown to the ground from the explosions, as chaos, an ever more chaos ensued with people screaming and running away.

“Code red. Code red. Violation of Taboo K450 on site.” One of them spoke through the radio

“Requesting additional erythrocyte units. Repeat, requesting additional erythrocyte units” and other spoke too.

“Finally,” the excision staff spoke as they walked forward, firmly holding their polearm with a deep filtered voice.

“Attention all personnel: Code red. Code red. Circulation Hall 3, Inspection Booth 16. Thrombocyte, Leukocyte, Erythrocyte” Yeah… a big déjà vu for esgoo, with the blaring signals ringing everywhere.

As he heard the battle cries of the thugs and them coming out of the smokes with weapons drawn, one official with their riot shield and baton, stood next to stunned esgoo "It is advised that you proceed with your travel unless you intend to provide assistance, as the gates will be closing shortly."

It caused him to stands up immediately “Hell if I’m going to!” he immediately went to the driver seat, slightly gazing at the cctv sitting there before going in the rv. He would want to watch the fight so badly, it would be cool to witness an excision staff manhandling dozens of thugs, but that’s none of his business, he’s getting the hell out of here.

“Okay… he left” Tsunul said as esgoo went away with the rv just before the gate shuts down.

After that, they set the knocked-out operators back to their seat, with one slumped forward on the keyboards, and to make it more believable, the gray nightmare took a cup of water from the nearby water dispenser and spill it, causing everything to go malfunctioned.

“Next…. deleting the company’s entrance log” she said, staring at a nearby layout of the area plastered on the wall. “At least we know where to go this time”

Tsunul let the slide door slightly open and took a peek “Yeah… we’ll have to be fast about it, the whole area is full of them, how’s your smoke?”

“Barely… but enough for us to get through undetected” miss nightmare said, holding her staff close. They have spent quite the smokes to find the control room of the checkpoint, and they have to find the admin room while they were busied with the attack.

“Afternoon, tomorrow” esgoo restated back on the rv, repeating what said on the walkie talkie. “Honestly… pretty smart thinking to use them as scapegoat to hides our track”

“Yeah…. It’ll be hard for the company to know its us…”

This is how they were back then, playing dirty tricks, trickery, foolery, and any manipulation tactics to get through the goal. Because all is fair in love and war, and with how The City works, there’s no dirty or cowardice methods, only that the ends justified the means…. For now

With the chaotic fighting still ongoing on the checkpoint gate, it was simple for them to freely go around as a smoke cloud, opposed to having to carefully fly through. Like… seeing a smoke cloud flies unnaturally would rouse suspicion, but everyone’s too busy to care for now.

Going through the chaos, with blaring alarms, and constant explosions coming from the hail mary attempt of the thugs trying to break through the checkpoint, but as we all know, it’s all futile nonetheless. With HP bullets, and those excision class staff, it’ll be moments until their numbers had weakened and they had to make an embarrassing retreat.

They both reached the server room, where logs and information were being kept before it was sent to each corresponding associations, offices, or companies. There were three to four server racks, akin to a small library. And unfortunately, also few people inside.

“Hey! Who are y-“ and just like in the sewer, tsunul threw his black tube at the surprised staff, who were promptly got knocked cold

“Hide” Tsunul said as he pulled her behind one of the server racks when he noticed the other guard pull out a pistol.

“A-AHH!!!” the other one, shooting bunch of decay ampules, as the needles stick itself on the server rack, and even almost hitting them as the shot misses their limps, before they quickly making a dashing escape. “HELP!”

“That was close… that was too close… we… almost get hit..” tsunul was breathing heavily, his body tense… he almost lose his life, he almost lose his friend’s life… close, way too close for our dearest tsunul.

“T-tsunul” The gray nightmare slight groan snapped him back “You tightened my wrist…”

“O-Oh shit! sorry, sorry” tsunul quickly let go her wrist as he went to take his weapon back before they heading to the computer.

“We had to be quick” she said, rubbing her wrist that had turned red though her voice is still as blank as ever “We only have minutes before they swarmed this place.”

“I’m trying” Tsunul quickly turned on the computer as it booted itself “Fuck… password prote-“

“K ampule 12345” the gray nightmare cuts him off as she knelt on the passed-out staff.

“Got it..”

They both heard shouting outside the admin room, and many footsteps approaching. “Go find the log” the gray nightmare quickly run to the sliding door they went from, and use her staff to smack the door panel.

There’s buzzing before it completely shuts down. There’s few talking as the door weren’t opened from their side, and few banging too, hard one also.

“Move aside” muffled voice that sounds like one of the excision class staff can be heard, and suddenly the bang on the door were loud and there was a noticeable dent on it.

“Tsunul, you had to be quick” she warned him, backing away from the door. It was meant to last great impact, but that doesn’t mean it’s foolproof, few hard assault from the excision staff is enough to make a hole. And hole it made as the polearm was stabbed through the door, making a small sized hole, with only the tip of the green polearm can be seen.

“Come on… come on..” Tsunul wiped his brow as he quickly scourged through the files… “Recent… recent.. Ah… here it is..” it was a simple click and delete, and extra delete on the recycle bin. The limbus company’s log was deleted, along with few ones he picked randomly. And to make sure, he took out his tube, as it transformed to a small bat, and proceed to smack the entire monitor and CPU.

“Enough…” The gray nightmare went and stopped him “I think we covered much of our tracks already…”

He nodded, putting it away, back to the tube size. “So how do we- shit”

The door was halfway breached, a medium size hole was made as they try to squeeze few drones inside. Seeing that the hole isn’t enough, the excision staff continues to slash his polearm until a drone managed to went through.

They both quickly run and hide on one of the server racks as the drone quickly scans the area.

“What now?” he whispered at her, carefully listening to the drone buzzing sound.

“We have to try when it wasn’t looking, but I’ll doubt I had enough smoke for a smoke dash…”

“Dammit-“

That is… until there’s a beeping on one of his pockets.

“Hello, you two, are you there?” there was a voice coming out too, tsunul took out the walkie talkie they took from the thug after the explosions on the factory “Have you two deleted the log already?”

“Yeah, we’re here” He answered “How in the hell you contact us-“

“I said, have you two deleted the log already?! Answer the fucking question”

The gray nightmare quickly takes the walkie talkie “Yes, we already have esgoo. Now what’s your plan, we’re pinned on the server room”

And just as she said that, everything went pitch black. As if someone turned off the light, literally.

“So… what do we do with this thing now?” tsunul asked back at the rv. “Should we keep it?”

“A walkie talkie would be suitable for our journey, but it’ll only be viable if there’s a receiver and we only have one in our possession” the color answered. “You can throw it away if you want”

“Wait!” esgoo stopped tsunul from doing that. “I suggest you keep it on your pocket. Just in case, turned on”

“Uhh… why?”

“Don’t ask, just fucking do it, man. Just in case something happened”

And thankfully, tsunul listened, as there was a sigh of relief on the other side of the walkie talkie “Phew… now get outta there, I’ll be waiting nearby with the rv”

“How the hell did mess with the…. Ugh, nevermind. Can your smoke guide us, miss color?” tsunul asked, he can feel the walkie talkie being handed back to him by her.

“Tsunul, smoke is like another eye to me… of course, now hold my hand and try not to squeeze it too hard this time”

“…..Sorry, i… didn’t mean to do that”  he rubbed the back of his head amidst the total darkness. The door is still being torn open and the drone can’t do anything because they already turned into smokes before flying away.

They went below the excision staff, below the waiting K corp security with their baton and shield, as they went through unnoticed by the flashlight on their headgear, just in time as the door was completely destroyed in half “Find and kill them”

But it was too late for them, the smoke clouds had already gone when they breached inside, only finding nothing but dusts.

“That…. Was close” tsunul said as they finally sat their asses back at the rv.

“Well, good thing the great esgoo had come to the rescue, and in time too” esgoo said proudly, with hands on his hip.

“How’d you manage to do that?” she asked him. “I never expected you to hack the lights”

“Had a hunch when you two didn’t came out. so I snuck myself-“

“You snuck back at the checkpoint?” she cuts him off, bewildered by his decision.

 “H-hey, don’t get fuming now, miss color” esgoo tried to explain himself “Come on now, I helped you two”

“You’re right, but then again, man. You risked getting yourself captured, potentially worsening the entire situation” tsunul tried to interject, they were really lucky that amidst the chaos on the checkpoint, esgoo didn’t get caught in the entire mess.

The color then sighed “Nonetheless. We’re thankful for your help, esgoo.” She patted him on the shoulder as she went to the driver seat. “And one more thing, how did you contact us, exactly?”

“I uhh… had another one of this” he briefly took out another walkie talkie, albeit in a very rough rough shape. “Found one in the sewer, I’m surprised that it’s working”

“You could’ve said so earlier” tsunul shakes his head “Without any cryptic bullshit words”

Esgoo just simply shrugged “I like being surprising for once. Oh and speaking of something… what should we do with this card now?”

“I don’t think we can freely use it for anything, really. But we could keep it in case if we run into immigration again” tsunul suggested, leaning his back on the window.

“Just throw it away” But the gray nightmare said otherwise, as she turned the key, revving the rv “They won’t be fooled twice after this, even if we destroy the footage, they could piece a puzzle or two and made the card obsolete.”

“Yeah…” tsunul crossed his arms as he nodded “The company might do some ‘verification’ process to prove that it’s their employees using, it’s just a piece of shit now”

“Hmm… that’s unfortunate, it looks really stylish for just an employee card” esgoo snapped the card in half, and throw it from the open window as the rv began driving “Now, to calw town!”

“Did you even know where it is?”

“Oh we’ll find a way, eventually. Importantly, we’re going to sinclair’s hometown-“

Tsunul sighed “This is getting old”

And the gray nightmare drives as she peeked at the two’s small bickering. She can still remember tsunul’s grip on her wrist, and esgoo’s sight on the sewer. These two… she thoughts, may not be as simple just from the outside. Of course… as being the nightmare sorcerer who had experiences in seeing people’s nightmare, ordinary people who didn’t looked lie they could do much from the looks, it didn’t surprise her.

With how she met esgoo, and what she saw as she extracts tsunul’s nightmare they had much more than meets the eye. Pain… suffering… Weight… burden… all too familiar to her. And she knows they eventually have to face their own nightmare, even her too….

But she’s their leader now, she planned many of ‘the anomalies’ decision, making choices and preventions so they could wake up the next morning, and being the core front of the group. Yet, she knew that she can’t do things alone, in moments where she just stood at the back and watch they handle things, and in moments where she can’t fully rely on her nightmare powers alone, they’ll do the duty.

And she had this worry, with more trials and tribulations they will face in the future, can they actually succeed? Can they really finish the mirror, to guide them back home? Or will they fall and fail?

They had been lucky for the past weeks, suspiciously lucky, but how much she suspected their lucks, and how intentional it felt at times, no one’s pulling the string, no inside person or someone somehow helping them.

She gripped the steering wheel more, while keeping the rv focused on the lane of the nest. Que sera sera, whatever happens, happens, and they…. They will face it.

No matter what

***

Sentinel

A smoke of a cigarette flew into the air as someone took a taste from it with backs leaned on the wall of an abandoned and ruined building. They love the silence, they love the pure quietness, it’s almost intoxicating, it’s almost addicting.

But the buzzing the nearby walkie talkie interrupts them “Hey… you there?”

They didn’t answer, focusing more on the cigarette they held. They didn’t want their moment of respite to be taken away, they wished for it to not happen.

“Zwischenhammer sentinel, I know you’re there… answer me” but with the voice using their whole title… they had to say something

“What is it?” they pressed the transmitter

“Ah, good. i didn’t found you anywhere inside and I’m beginner to wonder. Come join us inside, there’s a small party here” it was an offer, a kind one, a twisted kind one.

They scoffed, being the zwischenhammer sentinel, aberration of the mittelhammers, it was expected for them to come to join. But did they exactly want to? To ruin a moment of nothingness they’ve needed for the past few days?

“I’ll pass” They answered back.

“Listen, listen. You don’t need to do guardwatch, I could get someone else to replace you. We just arrived here, loosened a muscle or two”

They paused to puff another smoke as they sighed “I said… I’ll pass, o one who guide”

“Hmm… suits yourself then”

They dropped the walkie talkie with a small smack before fixing their glasses on their face, at least he wasn’t being such forceful for now, so that’s good for them.

And it’s unfortunate for them also when they saw a vehicle coming by from afar, parking on a quite camouflaged area before three passengers comes out. “Why…. Why something had to ruin my afternoon?” they thought to themselves, picking the walkie talkie again and shortly saying “Found three heretics, not lost and intended to come here, will kill” before turning it off completely.

They stood up, taking a small puff of their cigarette before throwing it to the ground. They then took their metal silver mask, and wearing it ontop of their glasses. And reached to take their waiting spear before walking somewhere.

“This town is total ruins…” they heard someone, a male voice holding a sword that looks like a claw. “No sight of anything…”

“What’d you expect? Everyone’s dead here thanks to kromer, obviously being a dead town now” said another male, holding a… pickaxe for some reason.

By their tone, the three of them were well fed with intel before going here. They even knew the purification purge made by the previous inquisitors. ‘Just who are they?’ they thought as they made their way to find a good ambush spot.

“Is my sense wrong here…. This is weird” then there’s a female voice, as they soundlessly made their way to the rooftop of a nearby home, they could see the three of the heretics clearly, even though the woman was obstructed by the hood she wears.

“What’s wrong?” one of them asked

“I sense….. an anomaly around here-“

Then, with their spear hold tight in both hands, they jumped directly to the unsuspecting three, their spear pointed straight as they take the first strike, taking the first attack.

Haah…. What a way to end the story for now, eh? Fuhuhu, I know you all must be at the edge of the seat now, probably mad at me for teasing a scene like this. But I needed a rest, I’ve spoke a lot, to described the events, their thoughts, and their dialogues. You know how tiring it can get?!

Anyway, the story can be continuing at another time, but for now… just be patient and wait, okay? Even if I’m a god, I’m just a narrator who needs moments to rest, so let’s take a breather with ins and outs of oxygens.

See ya later everyone, when I’m in the mood to narrate or something, narrator signing out!.