“Well, Marty, I didn’t think we meet like this.” A buff, gruff, and harry detective named Bigsby said with a cigar in one hand while he extended the other toward Marty.  

“Given that you’re my leash, we would have to meet eventually,” Marty cryptically replied as he returned the handshake with a sigh as smoke escaped his lips.

“Am surprised to see you also smoke cigars.”

“I don’t really; I just got riled up. Every once in awhile, I have to… Let off some smoke, as it were.”

“I see. Well, just about everything is in order. I understand that the young ladies who were accompanying you were already sent home.”

“Yes, they haven’t been here very long. I imagine this was a little traumatic for them.”

“For the robbers, you mean,” He replied with a chuckle. “I saw the footage. It is both commendable and terrifying that they were able to neutralize all the robbers without killing them.”

“That said, they are Lower Tier, Ranked B.”

“And that makes them all the more terrifying to a normal person. By the way, you also pacified one of them on your own, Mr. F Rank.”

“I did.”

“You could barely see on the corner of the security feed when he got yanked into the restroom. I’m not surprised he ended up with whiplash. What surprised me is that no one heard you.”

“I have a few methods for reducing sound.”

“I see. Then I suppose even the F Rankers are outside of my comprehension, much less the Strongest F.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“It’s nothing,” Bigsby replied with a chuckle. “I only saw it around 30 minutes before the robbery, so it’s not surprising you don’t know yet. I’m sure you’ll find out soon enough.”

“That worries me. Is there anything else?”

“Not particularly. Aside from the girls intervening, you handled it within the scope. Given that you were in communication with them, no innocents were harmed, and all of the robbers, including the SUPERs, were pacified, I don’t even have to give you a warning. I only have to give you advice; be careful in that situation. If their intervention harmed people, it would’ve affected the SUPER community very negatively as it is already on shaky ground.”

“Understandable. Fear drives people to lose sight of themselves.”

“That being said, a bunch of pretty young ladies stopping a bank robbery, I say it’s good publicity.”

“Which is why I immediately asked for a gag order regarding their identities.”

“We can only do so much, but we will try to keep it from spreading.”

“Anything else? I have an appointment with Mr. Smith soon.”

“Nothing, thank you for your assistance.”

“No problem,” Marty said as he walked off. A couple of seconds later, he rounded the corner.

“Oh, by the way,” Bigsby began as he turned around the corner to stop him, but Marty was not to be found. “Well, I’ll be,” He said to himself silently. “I wanted to know what brand of cigar he smokes.”

…

Marty sat alone in his room lit only by the screen of his computer. He stared at a photo of Freyja even though no photographs were taken of her. He closed it as he looked over the only folder on his desktop labeled ‘Freyja.’

Do you wish to delete the folder labeled ‘Freyja’? Yes… No… Yes… No… Yes...

[Michel de Montaigne once said: “Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it.” As the mind is not a computer, one cannot delete a memory. The more we wish to forget, the more the memory plagues us.]

The mouse cursor danced on the screen, even though neither the mouse or Marty moved.

No… Yes… No *Click*... The folder labeled ‘Freyja’ was not deleted.

Marty rose from his seat and made his way over to my bed as a small sense of relief came over him. He finally made a conscious decision that set him on the path to recovery.

[“Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of overcoming it.” - Helen Keller]

The folder labeled ‘Freyja’ has been saved.

Around the same time, a brunette with short and curly hair was getting prepared for bed. The next thing she comprehended was a light that began to fill her room. In the next instant, her door opened to reveal her mother, who was just in time to see her disappear.

End of day -127

mrmitch246

Fun Fact: the 'Marty at a Computer' bit was actually a deleted scene from way earlier in the novel. I only added it yesterday as I realized it fit much better here.

Thanks again to raters, commenters, reviewers, and 'not genre haters'...