Chapter Text
"The figure...of her late mother?" Acheron replied upon having heard the important secret from Seele's very own mouth. "That really does sound concerning."
"Way too concerning." Seele continued. "She barely has any peaceful night that goes without being tormented by it. I originally thought it could be some awful nightmare, deciding to stay by her side during some evenings." The girl crossed her arms, a sorrowful frow and frustrated expression on her face. "And yet, Bronya still wakes up every night in disturbance. It's reaching to the point where she locked herself up in her own bedroom. And no one can go check on her except for me and the captain of the Silvermane Guards."
"And being the ruler figure of our nation, it is only a matter of time until the population starts to suspect the sudden vanishment of the Supreme Guardian from the public lights." Luka added, also aware of Bronya's problem. "If everyone in Belabog discovers that their ruler is sick, it can generate some general concern."
"And Bronya told me that no matter how ill her condition might be, to keep it hidden from Belobog's population until she gets better in order to the citizens to continue living their normal lives." Seele sighed, remembering what Bronya told her privatly while visiting her chamber. "However, some guards and officials have already begun to question why they haven't seen the Supreme Guardian for quite some time now."
"How many of you know about her current condition?" Acheron asked to the other girl, wanting to know if the secret was still being kept well hidden.
"Apart from me and Luka, who's a pain in the ass and insisted for me to tell him..." Seele gave a grumpy look to her friend on the side. "There's also the captain of the Silvermane Guards, his sister and Natasha, the head doctress of the clinic you just visited."
"But you know how rumours are. They can spread like wildfire." Luka said, not sure if their secret could be kept hidden from the public anylonger. "If we don't get Bronya to feel better soon, it will be a question of time until everyone in Belobog gets to know. Giving nasty people like some IPC managers to take chance of the Supreme Guardian's weak state to detriorate the planet to the last drop."
"Well, then start spreading the news!" Morte finally speaked, having been smoking and hearing the conversation until now, moving away his back from the wall. "Gonna get a megaphone. The people deserve the truth!"
Seele's heart skipped a beat immediatly upon hearing that. "N-No! Don't do it!"
"Hey, you're the ones that decided to share a secret with strangers you've just met literally an hour ago! Not us." Morte told to her, thinking it wasn't very wise for both her and Luka to have revelead a crucial information that could potentialy change Belobog's future to two randoms they had just met.
Despite being certain that Morte was just messing with them with a joke, Acheron still couldn't but feel he had made a good point. "Now that I think about it, he's right. Why would you really share such important secret with people you've just met? What gave you that trust on us?" She asked to Seele and Luka.
"Well, you do look like to be good persons. At least you." Seele said to Acheron in particular. "But it's more that we've got a feeling of sorts."
"A feeling?" Acheron raised an eyebrow, not quite understanding.
"It's that you two look like really great fighters!" Luka clarified. "I mean, that sword and scyhte, I can tell that they wouldn't be wield by your average guy. Being foreigners, you must have had quite some wild experiences before, right? You are definelty strong!"
"Eh, would you know? Boxer-boy isn't as dim-witted as we thought." Morte said with snark.
"Then you decided to tell it because of our strenght?" Acheron still couldn't comprehend why that would be motive enough for them to tell the other two.
"Because we have a suspicion. A suspicion that someone must be behind this whole ghost of Cocolia scheme!" Seele responded to that. "Like, people just don't come back from the dead, do they? It has to be some kind of illusion being casted by a person or that type of weirdness."
"And what makes you so sure of that, detective spunky-girl?" Morte asked, still not having called Seele and Luka by their actual names once, using 'spunky-girl' and 'boxer-boy' instead.
"At first, I thought that it could be a mere product from Bronya's mind, but she told me how real it felt. How it wasn't a dream nor nightmare. That Cocolia was standing right there in her bedroom, breathing, speaking, moving, her eyes blinking. As if she had never died in the first place." Seele retold Bronya's daunting experience to Acheron and Morte. "Bronya even tried to make her go away but it was of no use. She told me Cocolia would always overpower her, leaving some bruises as 'recordations' of the nights."
"Sounds like a severe case of schizophrenia to me." Morte wishpered with a smirk to Acheron.
"Treat this seriously." Acheron replied back in a stoic tone, not wanting Morte to joke about something as serious as this.
"If only I could have been there at the beggining to prevent that..." Seele cleenched her teeth, obviously upset with herself. "Even when I spend the night with her, in order to protect Bronya, she still ends up being tormented in her sleep, waking up in startle. I always try doing my best to be there for her, to comfort her. But if even with my presence she still suffers to the point Bronya fears to be going insane...Maybe I'm not doing enough!" She said heartfelt, closing her hand into a fist, deeply wishing that Bronya's condition could get better.
That confession made Acheron feel bad for the girl and the ruler of Belobog. It seemed Bronya was suffering a lot psychologically.
"The blame isn't yours, Seele." Luka tried to console his friend. "You're already doing more than enough by assuring that nothing awful further happens to Bronya as well as trying to find a solution to the problem non-stop. You mustn't have even slept right these past few days with how obsessed you are in resolving this!" He patted Seele in the back. "Whoever is the cretin that is behind this, I sware we will make them pay with a beating party once we catch that culprit!"
Seeing the sheer optimism of Luka, Seele ended up smilling a bit. "Eh, now I know why I keep you around most of the times. Thank you, Luka." She then moved her gaze to both Acheron and Morte. "And that's why we are sharing this secret with you. If we end up finding the culprit, or even Cocolia herself, we are expecting it that will give us an hard fight. Which is why if that happens to be the case, having someone like you to help us out in combat can come in handy. So what do you say to that? Wanna help us out? I know it must be a tad disconcerting to be asking this to tourists who havenothing to do on this planet affairs but...there's much thing in game here."
Not even giving much thought about it, Acheron's mind automatically accepted the plea of help. "If it means to stabilize the things here with Belobog and its people as well as making your friend free from what's torturing her, yes, we can help you." Acheron turned her head and gave a rough look to Morte the moment she mentioned that not only her would be helping, tagging him alongside.
Staring back at her, Morte was aware that the look in Acheron's eyes was one that wouldn't be satisfied with a refusal, wanting him to be into this as well. "And as if the good deed at the clinic wasn't enough. How rude, Acheroni." He sighed. "But sure, let's play saint for a while longer."
"Glad we're on the same page." Acheron turned her head away after getting his answer. "We will give you any help that you need."
"Awsome! That's great!" Luka said, showing his joy.
Seele was also content with the decision. "Thank you! It means a lot having your help!"
"But a type of illusion mimicking a dead person. Could it be..?" Acheron's brain went on to think for a bit, wandering if Cocolia's supernatural appearence could be tied to a certain someone.
"What are you contemplating about, Acheroni?" Morte asked her, able to tell that his travel companion was reflecting on something.
"I might have an idea on who this culprit of yours is." Acheron told to Seele and Luka, having high suspicions on a specific individual.
Both Seele and Luka's faces ligthened up in surprise.
"Really?!"
"Who?"
They asked to Acheron.
"A mischiveous girl named Sparkle." Acheron gave the answer. "She also someone that is passing through this planet as a tourist of sorts."
"Are you honestly sure about that?" Morte questioned Acheron, having some doubt about that claim. "She arrived today just like us. How could she already be playing tricks with the ruler of this place for weeks if that's the case?"
"We can't be sure if this is Sparkle's first time here in Belobog. She could as well be lying about that." Acheron replied back, not underestimating the Masked Fool's psyche. "Plus, the way you described how the deceased mother of the Supreme Guardian was said to act naturally as if she never died, sounds exactly like the illusions she creates of other people."
"Sparkle? You're saying that this girl can conjure clones of other people or something?" Seele asked, being the first time she was ever hearing about this mysterious girl.
"Yes. I do not know exactly how she's able to do it exactly, but I assume that it's through some sort of visual contact with a person." Acheron tried to explain how Sparkle's abilities worked despite having little understanding and knowledge of it. "If there was a previous point in time from when Cocolia was still alive and Sparkle visited the planet, and laid her vision on the previous Supreme Guardian, it's possible Sparkle copied and transfered her appearence and fighting skills, engraving them onto a clone she then creates with her powers. And now, she's much likely using that clone to torment Bronya as means for her own entertainment. "
"I see." Luka replied, having more or less understood it. "That Sparkle and her methods sounds really like that of a despicable person!" He already imagined what type of individual Sparkle was to revel in such one's suffering.
"You might haven't met with her before, but she came to Jarilo-VI today, accompained by a native of Belobog. A man." Acheron brought a hand to her face, her mind now going over some problems. "Eghh...But what was his name exactly?"
"Shampoo?" Morte leaned over, reminding it to her pal.
"Sampo?! He's also into this?!" Luka exclaimed in big shock.
Seele on the other hand punched the wall next to her in fury. "Grrr! The bastard! I know that guy is usually a lame two-bit thief but if he's really behind all this suffering of Bronya as well...I sware that when I find him I'll-"
"It's just speculation as of now! We can't be a hundred percent sure if he's into it or if Sparkle is the real culprit as well." Acheron said in beforehand, calming down Seele's anger. "But if we find him, we'll definetly find Sparkle as well. And if not, we can still ask him where she is."
"Right! Then let's head to Rivet Town!" Seele exclaimed, her mind now focused onto the objective of finding Sampo. "He lately has been going there while on his way to that Giovanni guy arena! We will certainly find him the-ugh!" However, as she begun to walk forward, Seele felt a bit weak, her body stumbling a bit.
"Woah! Hang on there!" Luka quickly grabbed her before Seele could lose her balance. "Since when was the last time you had proper rest?"
"That blood of yours sure does seem to be running low." Morte commented on how tired Seele looked.
"Are you alright? You don't look good!" Acheron approached Seele, a bit concerned for her health. "Have you got any sleep?"
"Of course she hasn't! I told you, Seele!" Luka reprimanded her. "Going all around from point A to point B relentlessly without rest in order to find a cure will only drain you out!"
Seele gave a weak smile to that. "Eh, and I thought you were the reckless here."
"Look, we better try and find Sampo and that Sparkle girl tomorrow." Luka proposed to Acheron and Morte. "We better get all some rest for today."
Seele didn't seemed to like the sound of that. "What? N-No! We have to find him now! What if he-"
"He ain't be going anywhere! I bet that Sampo will still be here on Belobog tomorrow. Be it down here or above there." Luka told to Seele. "Wherever he is, we will still start the search on Rivet Town!"
Seele tried to insist. "But-"
"Don't argue. Take some rest instead." Acheron interrupted her, taking Luka's side. "Your friend is right. The search can be postponed to tomorrow. In the meantime, get some sleep and rest, will you?" She adviced to Seele, not wanting her to push herself too hard.
"It doesn't matter how fast you run to a destination at the beggining if you lose the fuel before the finish line, spunky-girl." Morte speaked, being his own way to tell Seele to take some rest.
Having basically been told to sit down and have some time to rleax her body by all the three, Selee ended up giving in. "Aaah, fine. I won't push myself and will sleep this night then. The search will be made tomorrow. Hope to see you there."
"We will. You can count on that." Acheron reassured to Seele. "But also, do you know any hotel where we can spend the night?"
"Preferably cheap." Morte added, being an important factor to him.
"Well, there's the main one at the town's center." Luka told them, naming a place to the duo. "It's nice and usually not that expensive. A comfortable choice for a stay in my opinion."
"Okay, thanks for the suggestion." Acheron said with a smile. "I reckon it mustn't be that far from here, so we'll already be on our way."
"Be careful tho. There must be more IPC troops around the area." Seele warned them.
"With the whole commotion that happened on that pub? I don't think so." Morte responded, leaning his head backwards to the narrow alley they came from. "They must still be with their brains concentrated on understadning what the hell happened there."
Acheron agreed. "Right. With all their focus on there, the number of IPC units in the square mustn't be that high. We will still be careful however. Take care and see you tomorrow." She said goodbye to both Seela and Luka, thinking it was time for them to part ways for today.
"Same for you both. See ya tomorrow!" Luka replied back with his big smile on the face.
"Yeah. See you all in Rivet Town. Remember to be there!" Seele told the duo. "Anyways, have a goodnight!" And so she and Luka begun to walk away. But not for too long as Acheron had still something to say.
"Hold on!" She said all of a sudden, her arm reaching out forward, getting the other duo's attention. "Seele, right?"
"Humm, yeah?" Seele turned around, giving Acheron a confused look. "That's my name. Why do you ask?"
"I just have a feeling that...haven't we met each other before?" Acheron asked to Seele, being a question that completly got her by surprise.
"W-What?" Seele gave a puzzled look to Acheron, not quite understanding it.
Even Luka was muddled. "You've met before?"
"..." Morte didn't comment, giving such a small smirk with his lips.
"It's that when I look at you, my mind can't help but to remind me of a certain someone." Acheron explained, only now noticing that the physical appearence of Seele caused something on her brain to static hazily. Recordations that felt and didn't felt like hers at the same time. "That face, those eyes, the hair, the name... It's all like I knew you from somewhere else."
"..."
"..."
Seele and Luka didn't said a thing, just briefly staring to each other, speechless to what Acheron was saying.
Morte stepped up. "Sorry, forgive my buddy here." He put a hand on Acheron's shoulder. "Her memory muscle isn't the best, so she has tendency to mistake and forget things naturaly."
"Well, when putting like that...the cosmos is a very big place out there, right?" Seele pondered, wondering if there might be some truth to the Self-Annihilator's words. "So maybe there are other people named Seele across the stars and planets, who knows?"
"Wow! It must be crazy just the thought that there could exist people who have the same appearence and name as me!" Luka said, also visualizing the concept. "But it must very well be real. I mean, they say the universe is endless. So there must be another person names Luka who also looks like me."
"Y-Yes. More or less that." Acheron replied, seeing that the topic could feel a bit weird to the two. "You do look familliar, Seele. And maybe that's just it..." She scratched the back of her head. "Let's put that aside. Have a goodnight and see you tomorrow."
"Sure! Bye and until tomorrow!" Luka waved goodbye.
So did Seele as both her and Luka finally walked away for real this time. "Bye! Take care!"
Acheron waved back at them, seeing the two leaving. "Bye..." She said lowly, sighing as she lowered her hand and turned around to Morte.
Who was unsurprisingly smoking another cig. "Let's go."
Now, walking through the town's streets by taking chance of the IPC being majorily occupied with the accident at the pub that they themselves caused, Acheron and Morte were heading to the hotel at the center of the area.
Altough Acheron had something to say along the way. "Now that we're 'alone' can I make you a question?" She speaked to Morte, walking slightly in front of her, his scythe holstered on his back.
"Depends. Is it about intimate secrets?" Morte talked back, being more focused on just walking.
Acheron ignored that and went straight for what she wanted to ask. "Was it really necessary to kill that guy at the pub?"
"It was the other dude who pulled the trigger, not me." Morte justified lazily. "I just made that poor fella listen the requiem, Acheroni."
"Still, you made something to have that person killed, didn't you?" Acheron eyed at Morte with suspicion, continuing to walk behind him. "I know you had a hand on his death. Or you just decided to say and be miraculously right in fact, that he would die in ten seconds because you were drunk?"
"Aww, let's all feel sad and pity because of the deliquent who died!" Morte fakely sobbed and grieved, his voice full of sarcastic sorrow. "I'm sure he used to pray religiously every morning and help grandmas bake cakes!"
"Ah..." Acheron continued to be astonished at how much nonsense could come out of his mouth. "Honestly, are you actually insane?"
"Normally? No. Clinically?" Morte turned around suddenly, grinning to Acheron as he pointed at her. "Perhaps."
Giving a weirded look at that response, Acheron just let it be, already having accepted that Morte was trully an individual to the unhinge side as they both continued walking. And as they walked, the Self-Annihilator would always stare to the man's back in front of her. How relaxed and at ease he looked, his guard seemingly open and exposed, without a care in the world. Both hands on his pants pockets. He was defenseless, Acheron could tell.
With that thinking, that desire sounding like a broken record inside the Emmanator of Nihility, she was so focused and enticed on actually doing it. It could be a chance right there. Maybe that was the secret, her hand slowly reaching out for her sword's hilt.
"Maybe-"
'2y48DfIbbio0Ehh90?2pObuN8y0yr9Cy!8g8Ebio8'
"!" However, as soon as she had done that, Acheron was met with a bombardement of flashing psychadelic images of piles of skeletones, bones and a horned skull, jolting her entire body into stopping what she was about to do, having scared her out of nowhere. It were visions that left as quick as they came, her vision being back to the Boulder Town street theyr were walking on, Morte continuing to walk in front of her as if nothing had happened.
"W-What the hell was that?!" Acheron panted as some sweat fell from her face, her heart beating fastly, trying to calm it down. For a moment, she thought she was about to die upon seeing those daunting images. A thing that could even shake The Nihility to their very core. Looking again to Morte's back, Acheron now figured why he was looking so laid back and relaxed with his back unguarded. As if something was staring back at Acheron. "There's something...deeply wrong with this person!"
Morte's back was always guarded.
He was much likely immune to surprise or sneaky attacks, his pose being an actual trap to lure the most obtuse or unaware to actually attack him, only to get the answer right back at them. And Acheron could tell that if it was anybody else who did this and not her, the consequences might have been ungly. What she got, was a warning.
Recovering her composure, Acheron stabilized her heartbeat and breathing. She noted to herself to never repeat that when in a similar situation. "Of course it wouldn't be that simple." She said to herself, looking at her own arm and blinking, seeing it go from a normal human arm to one of bone and meat like of a skeleton, terrorizing Acheron for a second time. "What?!"
But she couldn't gaze at it for too long since as soon as she blinked again, the arm went back to normal, to Acheron's total bafflement. "Hm? But I had jus-"
"What's the matter, Acheroni?"
Morte's voice caught her attention, making the Self-Annihilathor look up to the grinning man in front of her who smirked slyly.
"Why do you look like you've seen a ghost?" Morte asked to Acheron, his smirk only growing a bit more.
Acheron flinched her eyes and lips before crossing her arms and trying to pass it as not that big of a deal. "N-Nothing. I just got distracted by a cat passing by. That's all."
Morte chuckled a bit, catching the very easy lie. "Sure thing-...huh?"
"Excuse me there, scythe uncle."
Feeling someone pocking right at his ankles, Morte looked down to see a blonde toddler calling for his attention.
Acheron also looked at her. "A child?" She saw how incredibly short the toddler was when compared to Morte's height, being basically a gnome to him.
"What is it that you want, pipsqueak?" Morte asked with a slightly bored face as the young kid continued to poke him for attention.
"Don't call me a pipsqueak you meanie!" The girl immediatly shouted with an angry face. "Show some respect! For you are in the presence of Pitch-Dark Hook the Great!" She exclaimed, trying to sound important and menacing.
"Humm...Pitch-Dark what?" Acheron didn't quite heard it.
"How insolent! Have you never heard of the great leader of The Moles before?" The kid, Hook, said in upset to Acheron. "Well, you should be since we, The Moles, are a group to not be messed with! Down here in the Undeworld, we are well known and feared by our intimidation! So you better apologize already before provoking my wrath!"
"I...see." Acheron replied with an unimpressed look as she stared down at the child.
"If you mean 'being annoying' then yeah, you might be intimidating me right now." Morte said, showing to have little patience with Hook.
" Hey! I'm Pitch-Dark Hook the Great! And I demand some respect!" Hook pouted at the tall man, not liking to be talked down. "Hpmh! You're lucky that my papa requested me to find you and send his gratitude to you!"
"Your papa?" Acheron replied, wondering who Hook was talking about.
"Oh! That old coot Oleg!" Morte snapped his fingers, cackling while rubbing his forhead. "Yeah, yeah, it was nothing special. I did it because he's a cool old man. Nothing more." He said while looking away with a neutral face. "You can tell him that, pipsqueak."
"And it's only because of that gesture that Pitch-Dark Hook the Great will tolerate your disrespect." Hook said, once again trying to sound tough. "So you better have learned it! Because next time, I won't be as tolerant!"
"Oh noooo, my life feels so threatened right now..." Morte said in the most boring and emotionless tone ever, scoffing at Hook's warning. "Anyways, go and do stuff kids your age do. Which is...I dunno, play in the mines?" He took a random guess, not knowing nor caring what the children down here do in order to have fun.
"Bah! You grown-ups are all the same, having no respect! Continue like that and you'll get on The Moles bad side." Hook continued with her though act despite neither Morte nor Acheron buying it. "Hope you consider that! Because one day, you'll regret having challenged the powerful and terrible, Pitch-Dark Hook the Great!" And with that, the child went away running, not giving opportunity to the 'lame' grown-ups to reply to her.
Acheron just watched the toddler go away to only god knows where. She could tell Hook was far from being a well-behaved kid, much more likely to be a troublemaker. "That child seems very carefree. I hope she doesn't end up into trouble."
Meanwhile, Morte just sighed, glad that the annoying brat was gone, grabbing a cig. "Now I see why poor Oleg looks old." He lightened it up and took a smoke out of it. "Here's a lesson, Acheron: never have kids." He told her, turning around only to end up bumping into a shady looking guy of hunched back.
But instead of saying a thing, even an apolegy, the person comtinued to walk, ignoring both Morte and Acheron.
"What's this? Not even a 'sorry'?" Morte said in open arms with some indignation, receiving no reply from the guy who continued to wander until leaving their vision. "Tsk. Talk about the people down here having manners. Is it so hard to have some these days?"
"An apology to you would be the same thing as talking to a deaf person." Acheron replied to him, gaining a brief chuckle from Morte.
"And here I thought everyone deserved a second chance. Buuut it's not like I need one." Morte quickly discarded his cig, adjusting his cloath. "Besides, when did you decided to get funny today, Acheroni."
"When I feel like it." Acheron walked past Morte. "Don't expect that it means I'm on good terms with you. Got it?"
Morte shrugged. "If you say so. Who am I to object, right?"
Giving the same careful and surly glare she'd give him most of the times, Acheron proceeded to walk to the hotel at the town's center, with Morte following behind, both having had enough activity for today.
The hours passed and like most of the times ever since The Nihility, had claimed her, Acheron was unable to fall asleep, having stood majority of the time staring stoically to her room's ceilling.
Like Luka had told them, the hotel was cheap. Cheap enough to get them two separate bedrooms. At least the Self-Annihilathor could rest easy knowing that for today, the IPC wouldn't find them, much likely having begun to do interrogations of other people that where in the area and the pub by now. Perhaps that would eventually make the IPC find her and Morte, but she wouldn't worry about it now, only wanting her mind soft and at ease, being a problem to deal with later.
But being all alone, waiting for the night to pass, was a tad boring for Acheron. Unlike other times, where she could kill time by roaming around, talking to other people at the bonfires, any kind of activity, here she had to stay in her room without anything to do.
"Hmmm..." Acheron had even tried many different positions to see if it would bring sleep to her, tossing and turning on the bed sheets, but alas she was still awake. Truly, when was the last time she had fell into slumber? Not counting that specific occasion in Penacony.
The Emmanator of Nihility grabbed her cellphone, checking for any updates on the messages of her contacts. She had sent a message to the Trailblazer two hours ago, asking if they were up, but so far, no response. Acheron understood that they were probably busy on another planet right now with their crew, living their own adventures, making new friends and enemies while on their Path across the cosmos. Maybe they would finally respond later.
She then checked her messages with the other contact on her phone: Black Swan.
Their last conversation have been over a week ago, were the Memokeeper surprisingly told to Acheron she would soon go on about helping a fellow acquaintance to 'produce a movie', by the name of Mr. Reca or something. Acheron herself didn't understood why would Black Swan be interested in doing such thing, wondering since when she was interested in movies. But then it hit her how much mysterious the Memokeeper was, her interests perhaps being plenty. Black Swan liked being a riddle, her mind unable to be read by others. But so was Acheron's mind. The Memokeeper would generally be teasing and considerate with Acheron on their chats, the Self-Annihilathor always feeling the playfulness and amusement behind Black Swan's messages. Guess it was in her nature to be like that. Someone like Black Swan would surely be helpful against Sparkle since the Memokeeper already had experience with the Masked Fool. But like the Trailblazer, she was probably occupied at the moment.
And then...to be sincere with herself, Acheron didn't had that many contacts on her phone. She remembered of having Boothill's and some others. Acheron could only thank the Aeons above that the contacts were permanently registered on the phone because if it was to type the numbers, she would definetly spent a good hour trying to remember it. But still, more of the same while searching and scrolling on her phone. No recent updates from that page of manicure cosmetics yet.
Looking over to the small sack where she used to keep the peaches on the table just next to her bed, Acheron put her hand inside it, getting the terrible news that there was no peach left.
"Great..." Acheron murmured with slight displeasure as the stomach groaned inside. "Huh?" Acheron reacted to that sound a bit weirdly. Was she feeling...hunger? But how exactly? When was also the last time her stomach ever made a sound like that when not having anything to eat?
However, a thought she quickly pushed aside, judging to be only the dissatisfaction of having nothing to do speaking. As she still laid there on the mattress, Acheron's brain begrudgingly thought of the only opting she could do now, much to her own distaste: Check on how Morte was going on his own bedroom.
Exiting her own hotel room and into the hall, if Acheron's memory wasn't failing her, Morte's room was two doors to her left. She hoped she was recalling it right, sine it would be embaressing to be knocking and waiting in front of someone else's door. "But how exactly am I gonna do that? Every door here looks the same!" She protested, her brain already having trouble by just the sight of the straightest and simplistic hallway imaginable.
Thankfully however, she spotted a door opening, catching her attention. From there, two women exited out of it, their clothes barely hanging on their bodies as they walked away cheerfully, whimsically giggling to each other.
Acheron wondered what happened for those two women to look so happy. She hoped she wasn't about to enter in the wrong room. Once Acheron spied to its inside, she spotted Morte sitting lazily on a chair near the hotel room's window, smoking and in naked torso. Seeing that it was the right room, she entered, ending up to catching sight of another peculiar detail.
The bed of the room looked messy, the blankets and pillows all over the matress as well as looking a bit moisty and- "Yeah. He was definetly busy." Acheron said, now understanding why those two young woman came out of the room with joy.
"Don't worry. I paid them their fair share." Morte speaked, sensing Acheron had entered the room while still looking to the window, his scythe lying to the wall near him.
"I'm very sure that you can't also smoke inside an hotel." Acheron mildly rebuked him, now standing close to his chair, staring to the same window as well.
"Why do you think I'm smoking close to a window then? I open it up an all the smoke goes away. Simple and easy, just like that and nobody has to know." Morte replied to her, taking other go at his cig, having spent well these last hours. "Do you wanna know why that deliquent guy died?" Morte speaked with the cig hanging on his mouth, peacefully staring to the street on the outside through the window.
"Hm?" Was Acheron's reply, just simply lifting up an eyebrow and staring at him, changing her gaze torwards Morte.
"Because he simply didn't valued his own life." Morte told her, putting the cig out once he pressed it against the ashtray on the table to his left.
Acheron could understand where Morte was coming from. "Getting in dangerous situations can really shorten a person's life, can it?"
"Indeed. A fleeting second of the simplest act can make all the difference depending of its weight and consequences." Morte told her, liking that Acheron was getting it. "The Song For the Departed plays sooner as minutes turn into decimals. Such stupid way to end life, wouldn't you agree?"
"And why exactly are you telling me this? Is this a sort of philosophical way of justyfying having killed that man?" Acheron questioned Morte, wondering why he decided to tell her this out of nowhere as if it was a sort of unnanounced lesson.
"Don't people philosophy all the time here?" Morte smirked at her. "I'm just saying. People who die early don't value their lives or have lives not worthy of value." Morte told to her, lying his back on the chair as he let out smoke from his mouth and into the air. "Or you think that a person that puts their heads inside a lion's mouth has value for their own life?"
"Not exactly." Acheron responded briefly.
"You see. That's the problem. People who live dangerously, do it so because they want their lives to be spetacular. Out of the ordinary!" Morte gestured with his arms and hands, proceeding to rest his feet on the window's inner parapet. "But at the same time, it is putting their whole lives at risk, being one accident away from the ending." Morte dingled his lighter beetween fingers. "The value a person has on their life is determined by how long they are able to live."
"That does make some sense. Longetivity is often attributed to those who take good health in consideration for their lives as well as a desire to live longer. Even amongst the macro-species." Acheron replied, gaining some good insight through Morte's talking, looking pensative.
"But what if I then say that the game has been rigged from the start?"
"Hm?" Acheron looked to Morte, an annoying fly beggining to roam around them.
"That no matter how much you take good care of your life, you will still die at a specific location, of a specific date from a specific death?" Morte said, shrugging his shoulders. "Wouldn't that then make all the effort of valuing life pointless?"
"That is The Nihility for you." Acheron replied, crossing her arms while staring through the window. "Sometimes you ask to yourself what is the point of certain aspects and things."
"Eh. Do tell me, Acheroni. If you knew your date of death from the start, would you still try to live a satisfying life?" Morte asked her.
"Maybe, yes." Acheron replied.
"How many lives until you'd felt satisfied?" Morte extended the question.
"I don't know. Why that question?" Acheron asked him while starting to get bothered by the fly that didn't stopped flying arond them.
"No reason at all, really." Morte said, placing his arms behind his back. "It's just sometimes we can't do everything we want and be satisfied in just one lifetime, can we?"
Puzzled if Morte was trying to imply something else, Acheron just pushed that thought aside. "Perhaps." She responded before looking once again to the window and the street beyond it, seeing the inhabitants of Boulder Town strolling in it.
"Look, a perfect exemple of what we were just discussing." Morte leaned over to the window. "Looking at all these individuals passing by, who would you say to be the first one to pass away? Logically, majority would answer to that old lady over there." Morte pointed to a civillian in specific. "She must already be pushing 90 and needs a cane to walk. Certainly, the most obvious choice. Or perhaps that guy at the food stand?" Morte pointed to another civillian. "Now, it would be a weird choice. Unlike the old lady, he looks young, athletic, healthy, at the peak of his age! Unfortunately, his heart has been diagonosed with a terminal disease, perhaps caused due to his excessiveness of physical training. If so, he could die in a matter of days or weeks while looking fine, passing away first than the old lady. All because on the persuit of the 'healthiest' lifestyle, he carelessly didn't gave value to his own life."
"It is a mystery." Acheron responded upon observing. "No one is able to be certain who of the two would die first. Despite of the different ways each took care of their own life and likely have opposed lifestyles, we can't guess when they will die and how much time they have left. The old lady could continue to live for the next ten years while the athletic man dies tomorrow and vice-versa. Whether their decisions influenced or not their life expectancy, it is up to anyone's interpretation on how they tackle the topic."
Morte grinned, clapping. "Well analysed, Acheroni! Such way of thinking!...Unfortunately, you're wrong. Neither the two die first out of this bunch."
"What?" Acheron gave an addled look to Morte as he pointed at the window to her, wanting her attention on this.
Continuing to look to the street, the duo ended up witnessing a shady man steal a woman's briefcase.
"H-Hey! He stole my briefcase! Someone stop him!"
"It's the same man we bumped into on our way to the hotel." Acheron said, recognizing his appearence.
"You know Acheron? Truly, no matter how we live, there can always be a chance of a little accident that can put a finishing point sooner than expected." Morte rested one of his elbow on the table as he eerily gazed at the thief trying to escape. "Also, a person that steals from others? How lowly. It makes you wander the value his life must have to the other people." He smirked malliciously, the fly that had been zig-zaging around them finally landing on the small table near Morte. "Perhaps to them, his life is as valuable as of an insect." Sticking out his thumb, Morte lowered it torwards the fly on the table. "Of a fly."
And what happened next, was pure shock to Acheron and horror to the inhabitants.
"Gyaaaaaaaaaah! H-He's dead!"
The woman that had been stolen yelled in terror as she and the other inhabitants that were nearby all saw the squashed and bloody corpse of the thief on the ground.
"How did the hell that happen?!"
"I don't know! He was fleeing when his body just squeezed out of nowhere!"
"Ah..." Acheron couldn't believe in her eyes. He had died, just like that. In the most unforseen and gruesome way possible, being a cruel surprise to the inhabitants that saw it. In one second he was trying to escape and on the next one, his corpse was there, dead. "He's just gone! In a blink of an eye!"
"Welp! At least it must have been painless." Morte said as he took out his thumb from the squeezed fly he brutally murdered, wipping off the insect subtance on the table. "Look on the positive side. Now these people will not have to worry with one more criminal!" He cackled and grinned, being obvious that he had enjoyed it. "That's a plus in my book!"
Acheron glared to the man with disdain and revulsion, seeing the evil glee on his face. She knew it was Morte who killed him. That the thief and the fly were somehow connected. But how Morte did that exactly, she couldn't quite tell. "You're a psycopath." Acheron told him with aversion, wanting to ask him what was the necessity of killing that man now.
"Oh please." Morte smirked as he got up from his chair and grabbed his cloak, little bothered by what Acheron said. "As if your body count isn't high as well." He then picked up his scythe resting near him and guarded it on his back, approaching Acheron who was still giving him a odium stare. "Spent too much time walking in the sun and you might end up getting burned, Acheron."
Chuckling, Morte approached his face to her ear as he was about to walk past her and tell her: "Or should I rather say...Raiden Bosenmori Mei?"
"!" Acheron's eyes widened, as if she had received a shock to her brain. "My real name? How does he know about that?" Turning around to demand answers, Acheron saw Morte instead already leaving, hands behind his back as he exited the room without telling a thing, a possible grin on his face as he made Acheron stand there almost speechless, a scrabbled thought in her mind about how did he knew her true name.
Was Morte someone she knew but forgot? Someone from her past? Had they met before? Was he a relative of hers? Did somebody else told him or had Morte miraculously guessed it by luck?
Whatever reason it was, Acheron, or rather, Raiden Bosenmori Mei, learned something out of this experience. That Morte was as dangerous if not more than she had originally thought. And that he knew more about her than meets the eye.