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Approaching the statues, he slowly realized that the second one was missing -

- wait the sentence on the plague changed, shorter, that's why he noticed. It talked about "creation", "a last project" and "replicate". Those words caught his curiosity. As a creator, these terms were expected. But why he felt so uncomfortable?

=========

He looked around the Shrine, and finally locked on the Goddess of Paranoia. She -

- alive!

She was moving.....was she still a statue?

She was embracing with the fogs just like the monsters he encountered, or better say....like him before he obtained the first blessing. He took a good look of her. She wasn't like him, she was distinctive. He could see she was holding a glowing device in her hand.

He was observing, standing not doing anything when a bag hit his bosom. It was all of a sudden that he tossed it up and down like ball before he concretely grabbed onto its strings. A gift? He picked up the key hanging on the string.

Nothing.

He stared at the Goddess, when she suddenly aware that something was missing. The goddess's tone was rather excited that she didn't notice she spoke too fast. So quick that he could only catch keywords like "part", "special labs" and - "heart". The term "heart" touched his chord lines within him. When he thought of the word, he got a special feeling. A heart.

"Who are "they"?" He asked but only received a smile. Carrying the scissors, he walked towards the exit and let himself swallowed by the darkness within, until his silhouette was no longer seen.

Thud.

The door behind him shut, he was locked in it. He instantly turned around and knocked on it with his fists.

You are trapped.

Feeling the scissors in his hand, he remembered he has a task to do, so he made his first step out. Each step was of cautious within the darkness. His body wasn't used to without vision. He can't walk as he usually did, so every step was like trying to see whether there was obstacle right in front. He just walked towards where the sound was.

The first few steps were smooth, until his foot hit onto something. Something empty but hard. The hollow heavy sound echoed gave him some idea of what it might be. A crate.

Thud.

Using his foot to examine the size of it, he could know it's a really long box. It completely blocked the path, no space left. When he was thinking whether to climb over it without realizing it was opened.

Thud.

He moved closer, just to touch onto a shape. At the second he grabbed onto it, the sound stopped, abruptly. Silence was restored. Being curious, he fingered it around. It was soft and flexible.

What was that?

He tried to remove it, but it bounced back. He pinched it lightly just to learn it was soft but firm underneath. There was nothing resembled this in his memory. Wait. He didn't have one, except the new one since he opened the gate towards the room where the statues were.

Thump-thump.

Um? He heard something like drum. It was the heart.

Thump-thump.

The heart that Paranoia asked him to bring back. It was beneath the soft firm layer of the obstacle.

The beating of the heart was the only sound within the abyss, he wanted to get out. He felt unnerved. He wanted to have someone to talk to but he had a task to finish before getting out. The beating kept reminded him to do it.

That's the thing he needed.

Couldn't see anything made the task difficult, he put both of his hands to locate the location where the bumping is sensed. He dug the scissors into the obstacle, persistently and repeatedly, until he felt there's a nick. He put his hand inside, it was so warm that he wished to put it in forever, he stirred to feel around before he pulled his hand out again through the small opening he made.

"AJAX!"

The obstacle bounced up and clawed into his, screaming a name that made him shivered, as if dropped into a sub-zero water suddenly. It then bounced back, and silence restored once again.


Shishou.

That's how she made him called her. She taught him combat skills, sparred with him while telling him stories about the Halloween as well as another world.


He shook the memory away, it wasn't his. He continued his work.

Something spit out, he heard a small gushing sound and a metallic smell. But that wasn't his concern. He wanted the heart. So he forced the scissors deeper, bit by bit into the soft texture. However, he met with resistance again. Some throbbing pieces in pair. "Useless." He commented while cutting them out, throwing aside. Jaxa found sweats coming down his face, this job wasn't an easy one, all the efforts involved just made him quicken his task.

"Do you know your name is actually the name of a cleaner in that world? That's why I laugh out when you introduced yourself!" She grinned at him, rubbing his hair and pinching his face widely. "Don't give me that face. Do you know you are so cute when you make that face?" She laughed and gave you half of her pizza.

The image and voice in his mind annyoed him, he didn't have the patience to do it narrowly anymore. He grabbed on the two sides of the opening and torn, something slid out and made heavy thunk, liquor flooding the bottom of the crate.

Finally.

"Hey kid. You are soaked in blood" A woman's voice. "Not your business, go away." He replied. Giggles were heard. "You know, I like grumpy scareling like you, that's just adverse effect if you want me to go away." He didn't made a reply, he closed his eyes and let the rain hit his body. "I watched the whole thing. You know why you get so much injuries? You only know how to strike, but not any defending or dodging skills. Kid, techniques are important if you want to win every single fight, wanna to become stronger?" He really wanted to become stronger, more powerful that he could prove himself to others. He nodded, wanted to listen to what the woman would say when his stomach roared. The woman burst into laughter when his face turned like a red octopus. "Well, before we start, I guess we have to go to the restaurant." She offered her hand to him, who was sitting on the floor, inviting him to join her umbrella. Her hand was warm.

He put the stop-beating heart into his bag.

Why? Why Shishou.....

The invasion of the foreign memory affected his feeling, he seemed to know them. However, he utterly did not. He felt a sharp pain, suffocating, but it can't be compared to a weird mixed sensation of anger, sadness and disappointment.

A sense of being betrayed.

He desired to get rid of it, things not belonged to him. He can't die here, he was needed somewhere. He had to leave and return to the goddess.

"You are not her, and I am not him." He said, in plain tone.

He pushed the scissors into them, emotionless and merciless. "Sorry, I don't have time." He didn't meant to be a goddess, but he might ask her to do a flavour.

They made a deafening shriek and disappeared.

No more water, he coughed out some disgusting dark substance. It wasn't water from the beginning

Anyway, he saw the exit.

Just about to leave the area, he turned back just to see the same figure stared at him malefically, hollow eyes. They are holding his scissors, tightly.



Who were they?


Who was the "he" and "she" in the extract?








Who's Ajax?

Here was his Goddess, she was glowing in the same color of his core. Crimson red. It's his favourite color.

"You cannot escape forever."

"Escape? From what?"

Eat or be eaten.

She wanted to know which side he was, he was given a dagger, with jewels decorated.

"You will need to learn to fend for yourself, to take on your challenges and judge for yourself what it means to sacrifice. That is the only way you will become stronger, else you'll fall prey to someone greater still."

She was right. He needed to be stronger. He didn't want to be the loser or weak.



He moved still feeling her gaze behind.

He looked for hints for the password, and saw a red-stained paper, it smelt metallic.

"A - C - E - G -?"

Letters. The lock required digits, he needed to convert them.

He got a foreign urge of hurry, even though he knew it won't work, he pushed against the firm door.

"You are useless, you are failure. You are misfit. Why do you exist?" The voice said, in a dull flat tone.

He didn't understand any, he shouldn't know them, at least not in his memory.

Outside was much better, at least it was more spacious and breathable. Tree were good even they were as grey as him, minus the core. He hided in them to avoid the creepy figure.

He looked back to check, they were there, slowly after him.

"Jacking!"

They were annoying, like a crazy stalker.

"Give me back my heart, your little dirty lizard" A female voice insulted him.

It was a dangerous bridge made of broken decayed wood boards, swinging in the wind slowly. The figure was behind, blocking other possible routes of escape. So he was forced to cross the bridge.

"I will take yours if you don't give me back mine! That's fair enough, right?" The female voice talked again, suggesting him to return her heart.

Ignoring them, he stepped onto the bridge and began to cross it. Holes were here and there, he minded each of his step while clawing onto the rope on the two sides. Wind blown made the bridge to swing, the frequency was totally random.

His heart was beating like a horse. Sweats were dropping down even it's not hot at all.

Only a few steps from the land, he felt something dug into his shoulder, causing a sharp pain. He abruptly swayed his body and fled, leaving all the thoughts behind.

SNIP SNIP.

He could hear the sound got further and further.