Duvil

i was expecting this portion of the year to be more reasonable, so that i would be able to really bang out chapters.

i was wrong. so, so wrong

“Alright, Jill. Lay it on me. What do you know about Bobby over there?” I asked. Jill Yemonto was standing in the middle of a street in the mercenary district of Yiwi, surrounded by four mercenaries. One of those mercenaries was Toh. The group stood amongst a thin stream of mercenaries walking around, most of which were Linked. And across from them, they watched a run-down building topped by a homemade metallic sign imprinted with an image. It looked like a sword crossed against an eight. Was it supposed to be a ‘B’? Weird. I hadn’t observed any sort of written language at all, and certainly nothing resembling my world’s letters.

Although, by straining Toh’s vision, I could see that the 8 shape was imprinted with fairly detailed dots. So the sign was a scroll?

“Simple. He is a suspicious individual who came into the city several days ago. Without my knowing, he purchased this building and set up a mercenary company. He has no employees, I don’t think he’s taken on a single job, and I have never of him in my life. Where did he get the funds to create a mercenary company? The knowledge? No, this is far too suspicious and I want to drive him out,” Jill said. When she finished speaking, she stood quietly for a moment before walking towards Bob’s Mercenary Corporation.

And I didn’t stop her. Honestly, I agreed with her completely.

“I’ve got it! Why not experiment using Bobby? Er, I meant to say Bob,” Queen said out of nowhere.

Experimenting using Bobby, hm? I see. You want to use him as a guinea pig to try to get a human to ReLinkuish themselves willingly. You’ve been thinking of this for a while, then. Did you influence our decision to create a sort of voluntary Link for the sake of your own conscious?

“I wish I could do something as amazing as that. If I could, you’d already be tossed to the sidelines, I think.”

Oh yeah, I’m sure. Actually, I kinda am sure. Dang. But whatever! I’m not entirely opposed, but unfortunately, we don’t have an easy way of doing that. We’d have to Link Bob first, send him a B-mail, and somehow force him to ReLinkuish himself when he becomes un-Linked. This wasn’t like with the bees, where they had very little comparable brain-power and could be easily influenced. A human has too much will.

Without knocking, Jill thrust the door open. Toh strained, but he held the other mercs back. There, behind the counter, a man jumped to his feet and raised his arms, as if he were ready to fight at any moment.

Not that he was particularly impressive. Small of frame yet a bit pudgy, and boy was he disheveled. His hair was thin, standing all over the place like tiny black lightning bolts. His leather jerkin was nice, but wrinkled and worn. The rest of his clothes were similar, and it was immediately clear that he had no idea what the fuck he was doing.

“Can I help you fine people?” he said. Despite his incompetent outward appearance, something about him exuded confidence. Maybe it was the way his eye followed Jill rather than the large, threatening-looking Toh. I couldn’t put my claw on it. But he was kinda a scary guy.

“Are you Bob, then?” Jill asked as the mercs fanned out into the building. I whispered my plans into their ears, so they knew not to rough him up too badly. Thankfully, they shouldn’t have too much of an issue. It was five against one, assuming this guy really was Bobby himself.

“Who’s asking?” the man replied. Which told me all I needed to know. I gave the word, and the mercs tensed, ready to apprehend Bob so I could begin my little experiments.

A moment later, three mercs were lying on the floor, wheezing and groaning. Before Toh had even moved, and before I even realized it, Bobby had somehow incapacitated the three random mercenaries without as much as a twitch.

“This guy is definitely not normal.”

Toh dashed forward, unperturbed by his fallen comrades. A knife was pulled into his hand from the conspicuous knife sheathe on his side, and Bob seemed to focus on it. I didn’t want to switch perspectives too much, but Toh’s must have been interesting. Because through Jill’s eyes, I saw the second knife he slipped out of a hidden sheathe, which he immediately threw at Bob’s leg. More of a distraction than anything, and one that worked. Bob immediately flicked his wrist, knocking the flying knife away, which only gave Toh more time to close the gap. Another knife appeared in his second hand from who-knows where, and Toh began to stab and slash-

Toh’s right arm spasmed before it came close to Bob’s body. His other knife wasn’t close enough, and Bob was reaching towards Toh, so Jill finally sprang into action. And by springing, I mean that she thrust her arm forward like a knife. Bob ducked behind the counter just as she did, letting Toh off the hook.

“Whoa! I don’t know what your problem is, woman. Is it so hard to open a business in this city?” Bob’s voice rang out from behind the counter.

“The fact that you just ducked behind the counter tells me everything I need to know, ‘Bob’. I didn’t use my Ability, meaning you know about me, my Ability, and the visual indication that it has been activated. You were also about to counter Toh, an experienced mercenary, without significant difficulty. You are not an ordinary mercenary, and you certainly are not an average businessman,” Jill said. Good thing I had her as a mouthpiece in this situation. I wanted to sound all smug about the information I definitely knew too!

“Yeah, of course I would know fucking Jill Yemonto. I’m trying to open a business in the home of Yemonto itself! I’m not stupid or anything. Give me a bit of credit, at least.”

As Toh leaped over the counter to drive Bob out, Jill continued to drawl. “Unfortunately, your attempt to open a mercenary company in Yiwi, of all places, already made clear exactly how much credit I should give you.”

“Ouch.” Bob rolled out of the way of Toh’s assault, reappearing in Jill’s point of view. I felt nervous seeing Jill thrust her hand forward again, considering I needed Bob in one piece for the experiment. It wasn’t that I needed Bob specifically; it was just for convenience’s sake. So when she started rapid-firing her Ability, I did get a bit nervous.

Thankfully, it seemed more like a strategic maneuver. I felt the waves of Mind that sliced through the air right where Bob was moments before, though they didn’t do any damage to the surroundings. As a result, Bob got corralled to the corner of the building. Honestly, I was impressed that a man who seemed as unfit as he could flip around like an Olympic gymnast on steroids. Mind can do some crazy stuff.

Toh was just as interesting. His body was simply massive, yet he was dashing after Bob like he weighed as much as a feather. Plus, he kept pulling knives out of nowhere and throwing them at his target with laser-precision. With each throw and slash, the knives moved faster. He was clearly using his Mind to enhance his physical capabilities, which meant he didn’t have the resources to use his Ability to the fullest. Which was a bit disappointing. I wanted to see some creative usage of a stealth Ability in a frontal confrontation like this.

And that was when one of Toh’s knives caught Bob in the leg after a sudden burst of Mind. It seemed that he did end up using his Ability, [Unseeable Self]. I didn’t know what Bob was seeing, but based on my knowledge of Toh’s Ability, he probably saw a blurry blob suddenly wave around and not much else. Worse, he couldn’t even react properly. Toh’s Ability also played on speed, and the way it makes things look strange. As a result, it actually did speed him up. So that knife must’ve really caught Bob off guard. Adding in the fact that he was in a corner, and Bob hardly stood a chance.

With a howl of pain, Bob started flailing his arms like a screeching baby. Toh moved in for the final, incapacitating blow, but Bob must have been using his Ability, judging by both the waves of Mind rolling off him and Toh’s sudden collapse. The fallen Toh tried to growl in frustration, but all that came out was a weak moan.

One versus one.

“So, now what? I can already tell you guys don’t wanna kill me, so how about let’s leave it at that? I’ll take down the company, I’ll move away. Honestly, it’s not worth losing my life over,” Bob said between deep gulps of breath.

“You think I will let you off so easily?” Jill said as she approached him slowly. With one arm behind her back and the other raised to her side in her signature knife-hand pose, she certainly cut a threatening enough figure.

“Well. No. But can you blame me for hoping?”

Jill ignored him. “All of you, get up already. Fight through the effects of his Ability, you weak-willed idiots.”

Toh was in no state to be a non-idiot, but the three others were trying their best to get up. But Bob didn’t want to wait. I watched as the knife previously stuck in his leg flew towards Jill, but she was having none of it. The arm behind her back grabbed the knife in the same moment that she thrust her arm forward, severing Bob’s good leg by the knee.

Oof, brutal. Ah, well. I wanted him to be in one piece, but ultimately, whatever got the job done was best. And Jill needed to take action, considering the state of her team. Though I wished she had a less horrific way of incapacitating people that didn’t include slicing their limbs off. Seriously, her Ability was scary, like watching a surgeon meticulously remove parts of a person in the middle of a death battle. The amount of blood Bob was losing was astounding, like seriously nothing I’ve ever seen. Jill started squeezing his leg with her Mind as a temporary solution, but he was definitely in for a rough night.

Finally, the three mercenaries were getting off their asses, though their legs were a bit wobbly. And they were just dumb muscle at this point anyway, only good for picking Bob up and tying him up; Jill ended up being the lynchpin, not surprisingly at all. With the threatening hand of Jill Yemonto hovering above him, along with the small matter of his missing leg, Bob became far more compliant. He didn’t resist very much when the three brutes finally lifted him into a chair and used some chains to tie him down. I didn’t know how effective that would be, but if it was good enough for them, I’d be fine with it. As long as they guarded him while I tried stuff out, it should end up being alright.

Now, looking at the bloodied and groaning form of Bob, I wondered how exactly to proceed. I wanted to use this fresh, new human to figure how to ReLinkuish humans as a whole, but I didn’t even know where to begin. I hadn’t planned for this at all. In theory, the easiest way would simply be to Link Bob with a Linker, and somehow finagle a way for the ReLinkuish command to work despite the humans’ strong will. This situation was about as perfect as any, since Bob was in no position to run away if things went wrong.

“Jill, toss a Linker to Bob. I want to try something.”

“Hm…”

You got an idea, Queen? I know that you’ve been thinking about the possibilities of ReLinkuish. Might wanna be quick. Jill seems all-too-eager to throw this competitor of hers under the bus.

“Gah! It’s just impossible. Ever since the moment that ReLinkuish worked, I’ve been trying to figure that exact thing out. The humans are much more likely to willingly ReLinkuish if one: they weren’t Linked beforehand and two: they had a good enough reason to do so. But even if we can figure out number two, number one just seems insurmountable. It’s required, since they have such an aversion to invasions of the Mind. How can we possibly inform people of the extremely precise way to ReLinkuish without B-mail?”

“Jill, belay that,” I said immediately. It was technically too late, since she already had the Linker bee held out on her palm towards Bob, who was doing his best to look confused. But it was a bee of mine, so it just sat patiently.

Queen, I know exactly how we’re going to do it. I have the incentive, I have plans brewing, and best of all, I know how to communicate. B-mail, or rather, e-mail, replaced something back in my world. Before the digital age, there was only really one way of passing knowledge onto others when you couldn’t tell them face-to-face.

“Jill, I’m going to need your help in writing an important scroll.”