Chapter 6-At The End of the Blade: "No, no. I'm certain that she held a special interest in you, Vig. She looked smitten with you."

Smashing each button, one at a time, he wrote, "When? When!? I didn't see anything like that!"

"Maybe you didn't notice? Besides the fact you're only a kid with poor observation skills, your brain's concentration is spread throughout five different senses. Without hearing to worry about, I'm much more sensitive to taste, sight, touch, and smell. Hey! What were those two words you just said? If you just emphatically said a common prophane term towards me, I swear I will get some soap from the bathroom right now and-"

"Vig! I thought I told you not to say 'vaccuum'!"

"Yeah, well, I thought it would be fun to mess with his head but now I feel bad."

She sighed and typed an explanation. Him calmed down a bit. The annoyance did not leave.

"I descended from a mountain just to be teased by an abnormally tenacious boy in a coffee house? Speaking of which, where's that built man, Werner, with our coffee?"

"I'm here, I'm here. Quit your whining."

He came to their table with a 4-cup holder. They each grabbed their own coffee, save for Vig and his hot chocolate.

After they all accidentally slid down the mountain into some rocks, they had no intention to get sweet again and kept their bitter feeling.

Arriving in Bennets once again, Rosaline offered to buy them all cloth. Bitterly, everyone nodded. At the department store, when picking out acceptable cloth, Vig suggested they all just get the same cloth they had on before. No one bothered in disagreeing as they only wanted to get out of their filthy clothes. Afterward, Him suggested coffee to exterminate the remaining cold within them.

They quietly finished their drinks and their mood rose. Comfortable with speaking again, Him asked, "So where is it that we're going to now?"

"That's for Vig to decide," he typed. Werner took the lid off and sipped the remaining coffee left.

"What?" He turned to Vig. "How is it that you're the one running the shots here?"

Vig finished licking the chocolate residue off the lid and simply replied "I'm the protagonist."

"Whatever you just said, I don't accept it. Still, none of your friends are stopping this awful prank and I'm not in the mood to question your authority. Where will we go now, captain?"

Getting the keyboard from Werner, Vig typed, "If I barely remember correctly, the next thing I need to do is find my brother Kegan. Finding him will help me find out more about this spell that's on our family."

"Spell? Now this piques my curiosity."

"Urgh!" He slapped himself in his imagination. He only used his problem to reel Him in with their group. Even if he was once friends with Farce, he didn't want him to get involved with his family's problem.

"So how much do you know about this spell, captain? How would your brother be related in it?"

He hesitated for a moment before typing, "I don't know anything about it. My brother just really needed me to find out what was going on with Kegan. Says he's acting weird and stuff. A special kind of weird that doctors can't find out."

"..." He closed his eyes and fathomed. "Shouldn't we go talk to Farce then?"

"Huh?"

"I can't very well waste time here. I don't like to be separated from my library for too long so I cannot waste any time. If I am to donate my time to your problem, it must be relevant to mine. I simply want to ascertain the relevancy."

"Alright then..." He sighed and began typing, "We can't. The police blocked the junkyard. Something terrible had happened. I don't know what, but it was bad."

"Really?"

"Really," he typed. "Only Werner and Rosaline saw what happened and they don't even want to tell me. They don't even want to go back. Look."

Vig cleared his throat. "Rosaline, Werner."

"Yes?"

"Huh?"

"Do you think we should go back to the junkyard?"

"No!" They both screamed.

Him didn't need anything to be written down to tell what they were feeling and he was convinced. Vig was usually not one to prevaricate facts, but when he needed to, he could make you believe in anything.

"Fine. Let's go see your brother Kegan then."

"Right!'

Ten minutes later, they had returned to the coffee house after walking around in a circle.

"You forgot where your brother lives. I might just have to form a mutiny against you, captain."

"Argh!"

He covered his head in his arm and repeatedly referred to himself as a big stupid idiot.

"Calm down, kid. You can't possibly say that you have absolutely no idea where he is."

"Yeah Vig. Come on. There must be something you remember."

"Hm," Focusing all of his conscious into remember a single thing about his brother. "I do know he likes to brag a lot about his successful job, jealous coworkers, and a nice view."

They sat there for twenty minutes, silently thinking of possibilities. Tired of tapping his fingers, Werner let out a random suggestion. "Maybe he's a scientist?" he threw out in the air.

Vig's and Rosaline's eyes bounced up. Him, who did not hear anything because he is deaf, noticed this by the corner of his eyes and copied their reactions.

"That actually makes sense," Vig said. "He calls himself a genius."

"Scientist are smart," Rosaline quietly said.

"He needed to go to college for the job."

"Scientists today are required to have degrees," Rosaline said normally.

"Co-workers are jealous of him, he says."

"Scientist are green-eyed gamblers," Rosaline said a bit excited now.

"And he told me the building gives him a great view of the entire city."

"The laboratory!" she shrieked.

"It's also quiet, jeez!" After a moment, what Rosaline said had processed in his head. "The laboratory!"

Vitcrea, unsurprisingly, is a country with little to no development in the science communities. In fact, the country in general was very unenlightened. Academic test scores lowered each year. IQ levels here are the lowest in the world. The only redeeming quality in this range were the consistent discoveries of science from its laboratory. Many consider it luck with its callow and lackadaisical scientists, but few know the true reason.

"Alright. Let's go to the laboratory!" Vig got up and ran, but Werner grabbed his collar, briefly choking him.

"Right now, kid? It's already past nine."

"Oh. Alright. Let's go tomorrow then!"

Him just stared blankly at everyone since he heard nothing said because he is deaf.

Turning to the next new day of adventure and school evasion, they headed to the laboratory, located northwest of Bennets, above the amusement park, and southwest of the Sarah Bootch mansion. Looking at the mansion, you could see renovations taking place.

Him, who was walking in the middle of the group, said, "Where in the world were we at for the past twelve hours?"

Vig shrugged. "I dunno. Time flies when nothing interesting happens. At least in books."

He didn't need to type anything anymore. Rosaline bought Him a phone and downloaded a program for him that allows voices to be written in text form.

They continued walking and soon they saw the laboratory.

"Now doesn't this look familiar?" Werner's entire right side began irritating as he remembered a similar building.

Rectangular, chromatic, and uninteresting, it building geometrically similar to another certain research building, but four times bigger and lacked a garage door and a river.

"Judging by the faces of you three and Werner's comment, I infer a building similar to this has caused you displeasure."

"Not even a question mark at the end? You sure are confident," Vig said.

"Hm, question mark? I do not understand. Do you also have a voice-to-text program on your phone?"

"Nope. Don't even have a phone, I don't."

"Is that so? You really are a nebulous leader, captain. Be thankful you're also intrepid."

"Uh, okay?" He wondered to himself what in the world "intrepid" could possible mean and cursed this story wasn't also part-dictionary.

"Ignoring you two, I don't like the feeling of this place." Werner eyed the place suspiciously as he said this.

Vig nodded. "Right. It's only been two chapters since we escaped that weird old guy at Ginseng Island."

"We're in Bennets, though," Rosaline said. "The city has had this building for years now. The lab and the old man couldn't possibly be connected."

"In any case, let's go." A hectometer away, Vig ran the rest of the distance, running with his body tilting forward. He stopped this foolish running after he slammed into something.

"Uwah!"

Knocked back by the reacting force, he was pushed back and landed on his gluteus maximus.

(My butt, right?)

He staggered, getting up and saw what he had ran into. It wasn't a wall or a door, clearly as he is not bleeding. It was a tall bulky man without any hair. He was wearing a black suit with a white dress shirt within.

"This story better not be heading towards anything sci-fi."

"What are you trying to do, little boy?" His voice was mono-toned. He also had a deep voice. Were this not a potentially threatening man, Vig would have laughed.

"I'm here to go see a family member, sir."

"Is that so? Sorry to say this, but kids aren't allowed here. Actually, practically anyone who isn't working here isn't allowed, save for the annual visit from news media whenever another scientific discovery is made here."

"Uh-huh. That's nice, but I just need to see him. Can't you do something like call him to come out?"

"I'm not authorized to do that."

"We can call him if you know his number, captain." Him placed his finger on the screen.

"The scientists don't allow mobile devices in the lab. They can't be distracted over things like text messages."

"Sigh," Vig aggressively said, not sighing. "C'mon. Why won't you let me in? Just for a sec, okay?"

"No."

"C'mon! You have to let me in, you gotta. What do I have to do?"

(What do I have to do?) he repeated in his head. (Right, right. Thinking about it now, this story was originally supposed to be in that form of entertainment. With that logic...)

"So mister, what would I have to do to get in?"

"You could go to college, get a degree in any lab science, then-"

"No, no. Not like that. I mean, what would I have to do to let me in? Even if I'm not allowed."

"I'm not sure what you mean."

"Hum. How do I say it... oh! Him!"

"Yes?"

Vig spouted for half a minute about the deal he wanted to make.

"So how would I say it?"

"I'm not sure. Half the things you have dribbled were tranlated erroneously. However, I know a very important word you might like: bribe."

"What's that?"

"A favor or compensation that you give to influence a person in authority."

"..."

He sighed. "Something to change the guy's mind."

"Oh." He walked back to the guard and asked, "What bribe do you want."

"Huh?"

"Alright, I'm taking over," Him gently moved Vig aside and stood erect and confident. "What would you like as a bribe so that you might overlook us and let us in?"

"Oh, now I understand. Nothing."

"Damn it!" Werner shouted. "Can't we just beat the crap out of him? I can do it!"

"No!" Vig shouted. It came out high-pitched, though, and an immediate shame covered Vig. Irritated now, his mind skipped over Werner's unnatural rage and this narration about it to shouted, "Why won't you let us in? Are you a, uh, uh, a jerk? Huh?"

"Jerk?" The rigid and stern face of the guard flushed. He looked surprised and hurt, like someone had just insulted a painting he had poured his entire life on.

(Aw jeez, now I feel bad.)

"I-I-I-I-I'm sorry! I was just annoyed! I understand, sir! It's your job and all, I know. I just really need to see my brother. That's no excuse, I know. Just sorry, sorry!"

He stayed silent and a small tear slid down to the corner of his quivering lips.

(Damn!)

He went back to scratching and tearing skin of his scalp with his head pointing towards the Earth.

"Stop it."

"Huh?"

He looked up, wiped his eyes, and saw the guard with an open wallet in his had. He was showing him a picture. A small boy of eight years. He had a small face and body. Unsurprisingly, the boy seemed unamused in the picture, defying the common practice of feigning happiness and fun in picture. This was unsurprising because in the picture, his golden blond hair was flat and circular, looking a bit like a melon.

"This is my son."

Rosaline tapped Werner with her elbow and whispered, "If that was his hair, being bald must've been a blessing."

Back to the guard. "He hasn't talked to me in weeks because I've stopped buying him the things he wants. It... it hurts."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

(Don't really understand his problem, though. I never get things I want. Sometimes I don't even get food.)

"I doubt you'll be able to do anything, but if you can, I'll gladly let you in. I'd like it if you went and talked to my son, Crencie, and make him forgive me."

"Uh, sure. Where is he?"

"My wife gave him permission to go to the amusement park. You're sure to find him there."

On the road again, they got off the road, stepping into the amusement park they had entered earlier. While they searched around the attractions and stands, someone was watching them.

"Sir! Those kids from three days ago! They're back!"

"So? We get kids coming and going all the time."

"The one's from Azerty's ship!"

"Oh! Yes. Yes, that's bad... why is it bad? They're just kids, right? It's Azerty were keeping an eye out."

"Sir, that crazy old man is insane but not a dolt. He's like a woman, attacking indirectly with much aggression."

"My wife goes for the direct approach. In any case, what can a bunch of kids do anyway? Are they spies or something, ha ha!"

The superior laughed for an unusually long time as the subordinate looked aat the cameras.

"After some observation, they may very well be!"

"Ha ha ha ha-what?"

"They're looking all over the place for something. A person, most likely. They're looking everywhere, but not in very strange places."

"Let me take a look." He took a look and consumed its screening. "Very dangerous. We shouldn't jump on the mark of it being a person they're looking for since the little kid just looked in a garbage can, but they're searching for something all right. Wait a second, what's this? Look at this here. The group is one member more than before. Another kid... with a cellphone that he never puts away. He's not even texting, but it looks like he's always reading something. Yes, I'm almost certain they're spies now."

"Why would that old man send spies here for?"

"Maybe... he's planning an attack."

"Huh?"

"It's possible. You see, I know something about Azerty that almost no one knows."

"Eh, almost know one knows about Azerty anyway. He's just some guy only you're aware of."

"He's an illegal Gnosisian."

Gnosis is a country in the far north, near the arctic. It is also one of the five superpowers in the world. Its reputation was also something people rather avoided, constantly striving for more power and influence. It's speculated that 40% of all wars in the world since the birth of Gnosis was directly caused by them.

"You think he might be gathering crucial information to invade Vitcrea?"

"It's a small possibility. Very small. On the one hand, if they get their hand on the right information, they could easily take over Vitcrea. On the other hand, they would have to take over Vitcrea and that's something no one wants. In fact, when they asked the undeveloped countries of the east if they would like to live here, most of them began beating the survey takers. Still, if it's Gnosis, they might have a sneaky way to make this hell hole into another extension and further its influence."

"Sir! They're talking to someone! It's, it's...! Another kid?"

"Let me see!"

The security camera showed Vig stepping to a blonde boy. They could only see above them, but the blonde boy had an extremely sharp haircut, fabuously spikey. Vig was waving his arm and the boy looked at him in surprise. The boy started running and Vig with company followed.

"They're leaving! What do we do sir!"

"..."

"Sir?"

"..."

"Are you okay? Sir?"

"...I'm afraid we can't do anything."

"What do you mean?"

"All we do here is run an amusement park, remember?"

"!"

"We're not the police. We don't have the authority to call the army. We don't even have any evidence to accuse those kids as foreign spies."

Neither man spoke for about ten seconds.

"Sir. You think we got overzealous reliving our past?"

"Yeah, I think we did. They're kids for creator's sake. We're as obsolete as the telegram. We're a sad pair of men who just want to relive the glory days."

"At least we live in a time where the world doesn't need the Euphoria."

"Dysphoria doesn't even define the feelings I have. A useless bag of deteriorating meat, ain't I?"

After confronting a blonde boy who looked similar to that of Crencie, the four chased him for about two kilometers.

Red in the face, Werner asked in a strange city accent, "Where'd he go?"

"Ova dere!" yelled the skinny Him.

"This is an awful reference!" shouted Vig.

"Where are we anyway?" Rosaline had asked a sound question. They had lost sight of Crencie and they were in a completely new environment. The landscape was smooth and pleasant. Vibrant green grass that reached your ankles was everywhere and when the wind blew it turned into one of those dream-like settings in movies, absolutely gorgeous. Center of this area, a clean blue lake was placed with water that tempted you to take a drink. Today's weather is fairly cloudy, but the sun was in full view and shone above this glorious place, shimmering the water with a precious sort of light. Also being winter, no one but the group was here to admire the beauty of nature's patience.

"Lake Suil," Him said. "Pulchritude might as well be synonymous with it."

Vig stared at the lake and felt a strange feeling inside. It wasn't the type of feeling you get that vibrated an unknown organ and you ignore it, chanting that it's nothing and a doctor doesn't have to check it. It also wasn't the type of feeling you get when you were about to give a presentation to the class. It was foreign, it was different, it was familiar, it was present throughout his body.

(What is this feeling? Maybe... maybe... it's a message?)

He hadn't even come up with the self-suggestion himself. It just came into his thought without him volunteering to think it. However, the feeling being a message resounded swell with him.

(Maybe it's trying to tell me... that I'm closing in on something? You know, now that I think about it... taking away the islands, I've traveled the entire country.)

A new emotional feeling came over him. From the beginning to now, Vig has been in Entropy Forest, Vitcrea's east side. He had entered and exited the main center, Bennets, multiple times. He passed through areas of strange setting which included his aunt's mansion, the country's dump and amusement park, and climbed the frigid mountain in the north. He wanted to feel proud. Even if the country was one of the smallest in the world, it was still a feat for a kid like him to have gone through it all... and yet, he couldn't feel proud.

(I still have something to do.)

Such accomplishments mean nothing. Whether he somehow became the greatest fighter in the world or fought the entire world itself and won, he didn't care. His family was in need of help. He may only be a small boy, but being a child is no excuse for facing your problems.

"Come everyone, let's keep an eye out." Rosaline stepped in front and placed her hand over her eyes. "He can't really hide in a fairly flat place like this."

(Crencie! Wait, no! I need-! But!)

Despite his entire heart's intent on helping his family, he realized he had gone on a tangent. No more was this about his family. It was for the guard and his son.

(Maybe we should've let Werner beat him after all... no. That wouldn't be right. Then again, this is wasting time and-arrgh!)

What did he want to do and why did he want to? He couldn't he was having trouble limiting what he wanted to do and why he wanted to do any of these things were beyond him. He couldn't handle.

"Hey!" Werner yelled. "He's over there! He's standing next to the lake!"

"Oh, thank you!" gasped Vig. Finding a distraction, his mind launched his uncomfortable thoughts. He saw Crencie and ran to him.

Although it was a different haircut, it was definitely Crencie. Crencie saw Vig running towards them. He thought the others were also running behind him, but they were just standing so Vig was going alone.

Vig ran faster and faster. (I have to finish this side quest as fas as possible!) He kept repeating this to himself and he ran a little faster each time. This helped him greatly.. In no time at all, he was only a few meters away from Crencie.

The blonde sweated. He wanted to run, but he had a secret escape route he was sure only he could pass through.

"Gotcha!" Vig, a meter away, leaped from the ground and hurled himself to capture the smaller boy like a cat pouncing on a rat.

"Can't let you do that." Crencie jumped to his right side and splashed into the lake.

"Heh?" He saw that he missed and he saw the grass speeding towards his faced. "Ooohf!"

His chest heart and when he picked himself up, he saw he had grass stains from his groin to his collar. He was absolutely not a person who obsessed over cleanliness, but seeing his awful looking stains annoyed him a bit.

"Hey, you meanie! If you stayed still and let me talk to you, I wouldn't have to chase you... meanie? Where are you? Meanie?"

He looked around him and saw no sight of Crencie. He then remembered hearing a splash and a cold feeling came to him.

"Meanie?" He bent over the lake's edge and his heart's beating accelerated to the same pace as a woodpecker's pecking.

(I want to help my family,) he told himself. (I also want to help him.) Still conflicted about his feeling, he ignored these and did something fitting for him and made a stupid decision: he jumped in also. He did not know how to swim. He splashed into the lake and like Crencie, he did not come up. After some time, the ripples stopped and the water stayed still. Rosaline, Werner and Him all saw this.

Him was not as emotionally involved as the other two, but thankfully this did not stop him from exploding. "Oh! Oh! Oh Shhhhhnitzel!" After repressing his urge to swear, he made a dash for the lake. Unfortunately, he never made it.

"Mu-mu-uh..." He sighed and clicked his mouth a bit as if he had just woken up. Unlike waking (unless he had overslept on a school day) he jolted up, remembering he had just fallen in a lake. "Ahh! Oh heck, oh hart, oh haggis! Am I dead?!"

"Hugh art nut deed."

"...what?"

Confused, he was now at a slightly calmer state. It didn't last long. When he looked behing to see who had spoken to him strangely, he saw a toe.

It was some bizarre creature with a body of a toe. It was single limbed also and had no fingers or recursional toes. It had a simple face of long narrow black eyes, a two-lined nose, and a curved lined smile. It was like a child's drawing had come to life.

"El low," the toe creature said.

"Hello?" said Vig out of habit.

(Where the hell am I?)

He looked around him to solve this not-riddle. Around him, he saw an endless field of sand, rocks, seaweed.

(I want to say "under the sea".)

Vig always was bad at riddles.

(Can I get out of here?)

He pulled out his hand in front, expecting to contact the edges of Lake Suil. Miracuosly, his hand curled up like they had something.

(Is this... an invisible wall?)

Vig flipped back to the nebulous creature and said, "Hey, you. Do you know where I am?"

The creature said nothing, smiling and staring at him.

Vig stared back, wondering if he should say something or not.

The creature said something. "Fall low meme!"

Vig continued to stare, wondering if he should go for the dramatic speech of insanity like in the plays or to just kick the creepy smiling toe to see what would happen.

The toe frowned and ran with away yelling, "Nyaaaaah!"

"Wait! I have to kick you!"

For the next quarter of an hour, Vig tenaciously chased that toe. It was more of an excuse to avoid thinking about where he could possibly be. The end of this chase was imminent, however. He had just reached another startling site.

"What the-?"