When they returned home that night, Iris had called Kate and asked for help finding Harman, based on his appearance & name alone. Paranoia lessened the bitterness such show of weakness usually brought Iris, and Olivia verified through Naomi that the information had been transmitted correctly.
Kate had praised Iris, however, and she latched her sense of self to such a compliment for now. She admired Kate, and thought that if she were able to refine her nature, she could perhaps be a president like she.
In the morning she went out by herself to search for Harman. She had not spoken with Amelie since she left last night, save for sharing her findings with the others, and had not seen Claire.
(Kate) "Found his practice. He's an ophthalmologist, as you theorized. Mon-Fri; he won't be in until tomorrow."
She sent it.
(Kate) "As you requested -- this isn't sourced from any local source. These are national records."
(Iris) "Thank you."
Furthermore, Kate sent a picture, a video, and an audioclip of her saying each, all which held under Kairos' scrutiny. Iris called Amelie and asked her to come meet with her; Amelie seemed frustrated over the phone about something, but by now Iris did not really give a shit about Claire (who she figured it was regarding).
She picked Amelie up quick in her truck, and drove to the address to find no vehicle there.
"You know, a Timeline would bring him back, no?" said Amelie. "If he's in his car."
"I've never tried that and I don't want to risk it." she laughed.
She drove around town for 30 minutes or so more at Kairos' accelerated speed, then eventually stopped at a local diner for some breakfast. As they sat down and began to eat, they saw him enter, though seemingly unaware to their presence.
She was still uncertain it was him, though she trusted her notes that he was. He seemed well-dressed and well-regarded in his community, which did not match the stereotype of criminals Iris had. A white-collar criminal, yes, but a serial murderer… it seemed implausible.
"Be careful." whispered Amelie.
Iris nodded and stood up, then went over to his table. He looked up at her. "Can I help you?"
"Hi, I'm a Urasaria student involved in a local investigation. Mind if I ask you a few questions?"
"Regarding what?"
"Leonard Hoffman."
He seemed disappointed. "…ah. Well, I'm afraid I do not know what relevant information I may-"
- Iris's fist slammed into his skull and a wind in the same instant launched her back to Amelie -
- and a geyser of wind carried away the cloud of poison that spewed from the wound on his head. He grunted and staggered up, his head already bleeding. "I m-must only ask you how you knew for certain."
"I didn't until you attacked me just now." said Iris.
'That's not true, but it'll rile him up something ugly inside.' she mentally added.
Harman laughed, for he thought he had been bested in this small instance. "Fight to kill, student. Violence is how one in your profession makes their living." An enormous, black & white checkerboard serpent appeared around his neck and hung thickly. Iris looked between the head and the tail, but already she could not tell which was which. "Loki!"
Amelie summoned Delinquent's morphing metal over themselves as every patron in the restaurant began to melt into gray goo, and several strands of gray matter leaked from the ceiling, transforming into lines of fire that shot towards the two -
- but Delinquent's right arm morphed into a pipe and Iris blessed the rains that spewed out from it -
- but the fire refused to die; a gust of wind yanked Iris & Amelie back and dodged a guillotine of fire dropping where they had just stood. Kairos' legs eternally weaved upon Iris's back, and as its strands appeared on the ceiling above Harman, a rain of rubble accelerated upon him -
- but reverted back to its former home; Iris had paused it as she saw Harman notice it but make no visible counter. Beside her, Delinquent's pipe thinned and its pressurized stream grew; inch-by-inch it pushed the eternal flames back, the goo forming its base unable to advance as the air accelerated and Iris added her own pressure into the strike.
More patrons had melted into gray puddles, and all around them swirled this vague & amorphous liquid; Iris launched themselves to the left side of the restaurant as they kept Harman constant within their vision ahead, only 30ft ahead, the serpent Loki again threateningly swaying from his neck.
Iris swept her hand out, but Loki's third head appeared ahead of her; images danced afore her eyes. A starving man with blackened eyes; mold fell upon a drowned man's face; he looked back from his run in this forest and saw a tree of leaves out of which scattered crows.
A bolt of red lightning flashed across her eyes, until she forced herself to grab it and no harm passed her in its disappearance. Beside her, she felt Amelie recover from her own visions.
Her right arm was a chainsaw and her left arm a pole, and she rushed forward towards Harman; clouds of poisonous gas spewed from Loki's pores in her path, yet she vaulted over them and impaled her pole into the ceiling, using it as leverage to -
- but her movement paused as she shrieked in pain, and as strands of goo rose to meet her from below -
- the next scene was instant.
Her right chainsaw fell off and Kairos' strand accelerated it as it hit the ground; it churned and shot through Harman's leg like a saw through a tree, sending him to the ground with a horrific scream & gush of blood as the amorphous goo paused, the chainsaw narrowly missing Loki's second tail as it slithered over his chest.
No time to waste, Iris rushed forward and the ceiling above Amelie decayed; she fell safely but a wall of goo sprouted up between them, a chattering wall of slashing weapons & of many medieval histories; Iris swept under the first three strikes and her wind curled her around the fourth, knowing it to be a distraction as she saw Harman's figure limping out of the restaurant -
" - Kairos!" she shouted, and a geyser of lava shot towards him -
- but a hotter wind curled her geyser right and melted away the wall at her right, through which the actual Harman had escaped; as she rushed towards it Amelie caught up by her side, ensuring that Harman was kept in their vision even while he was through to the next store.
Five feet away from the corroded wall, amorphous hands grew from the floor and attempted to stop them, but for the next instant scene.
"Delinquent!" "Kairos!"
Delinquent's arms hollowed out and shot over the hands like a series of expanding glass domes; a blender blade shot down each and Iris accelerated their churn -
- but the goo morphed into acid and particles spewed out from their enclosures -
- yet the two were already gone and to the gun store beyond; Amelie's pole-leg swept behind and swept her arms back to her stumps, reattaching with a slight morph & *clank*.
At the end of this store there browsed a man with a scar down his right shoulder; Iris turned left and saw the exit to the street beyond, then launched herself & Amelie there to keep their pursuit of Harman, rushing up the sidewalk as they kept their pace. There was a crowd ahead, yet no serpent of Loki to be found.
"Red shirt." said Iris.
Amelie spotted a red shirt within the crowd, about 50ft away. "Are you sure?"
"Yes."
(Iris would not reveal it here, but she had tested something recently: hosts typically do not retreat host aura from their clothing, thus those with manipulatable clothing are civilians.)
"Are you sure it isn't the scarred man?"
The crowd was a few seconds away, and the two lurched into the midst of them to seek the red shirt at the end -
- but many bladed weapons & poisonous clouds spewed from the lips of the civilians, and only now did they see the diseased & screaming faces of their gray facades -- a single wind launched four of them up & over the building and into another street, and by Iris's side there was Amelie, hacking & smiting with dual chainsaws morphed, the churning of metallic teeth into pale flesh, an electrified tornado surrounding them both and carrying limbs off in random directions.
At the end of the crowd there now fled that shade of a soul, his former appearance returned; Loki curled around the tip of his skull and was rather minute in size. At Iris's glance it leaped towards her, but an amorphous gray hand grabbed her wrist and lit it aflame -
" - FUCK!" shouted Iris, the veins bulging on her arms like a lesbian's dream as she grabbed the unlucky sap by his torso & leg, pushing his torso as she tugged horrifically at his leg -
- and snapped his spine into the back of his knees as she backstepped 10ft with her wind, gasping & grunting with exertion. Her left hand was still aflame, and as a ball of snow covered her hand -
- it completely fell off.
She staggered in pain into the middle of the road, still seeing Amelie on the sidewalk slashing through the last few interlopers; one last changeling charged at Iris and her gust of wind fizzled against the holes yawning open in its body, and she heard Amelie shout to her: "Railgun! Accelerate!"
Two bolts of lightning magnetized Amelie's right arm, and Iris thought she meant to aim it as Harman; but instead the bullet shot into the concrete beside the foot of her changeling and Iris understood why. Steam emitted from the bullet hole, and Iris accelerated it until a curtain of mist draped over the changelings -
- and they were gone.
Iris rushed back to Amelie, ensuring that they did not overlap each other in Harman's vision, who still stood 50ft ahead. Amelie gasped in pain, and Delinquent's mask & chest armor lowered to reveal her normal appearance.
She winced to Iris. "I-I felt it infecting my brain and heart."
"Perception is reality." muttered Iris.
She remembered how Loki had leaped at her earlier, and memory alone impaled its fangs through her flesh -
- yet Kairos' internal webs caught it and prevented any internal damage, a modification of memory she had performed to embed a non-harmful reminiscence of the event within her.
Loki swayed upon Harman's shoulder; its eight eyes blinked and then made no movement, its singular tail frozen in perspective. Harman made to turn, but Loki slithered to his leg and squeezed; he gasped in pain, then winced as he placed his finger over Loki's two eyes, halving its vision -
They saw Harman raise a finger in front of Loki's eyes, cutting its vision into two halves, and in the next instant -
- two minor gashes opened in Amelie & Iris's midsection, deepening slowly but by the moment advancing; Iris tried not to stagger, yet even in that momentary hunch over she felt her own height begin to shrink; her ear brimmed with Amelie's whisper as a plan was muttered to her, and she nodded for the next instant scene.
A plate of Delinquent extended from Amelie's back and mirrored, containing fully her back image; a spear impaled through the mirror and appeared to stab the viewer within the glass, and as she swept the mirror beside & ahead of her, Iris reverted the back image into the glass -
- and perception shot a realer spear clear through Harman's hand and a pained gasp escaped him; his fingers lowered in paralysis and before he could raise the other hand, a second spear had done the same to him as well.
Cautiously Iris & Amelie advanced, forced to ensure neither overlaid the other in the vision of Loki, yet they were slow and Harman was recovering ahead, gasping out: "T-The method of halving its vision does not matter; Loki, direct your vision to the sun behind them and use its glare -"
" - Kairos." said Iris simply and an enormous cloud of rain swept behind the two, rejecting the current sunny weather and substituting its own; she smirked as she saw the rain mirror itself over Harman as well, and he begged to Loki: " - recede your manip-"
- a bolt of white lightning shot down from the cloud over Harman -
- but the next change in perspective was instant. Loki slithered down from Harman and detached completely from him; it swept back and viewed the scene as if Iris appeared to be struck by the bolt, and that selfsame pain shot down Iris's torso; she tried to resist hunching over, cursing, as Amelie shouted for Delinquent beside her -
- a rain of shards spewed outward from Delinquent and the pink & black metal grew reflective; she shouted for Iris to revert the past imagery of each shard, and within it there was a singular image of a spear arrayed within the dozens of shards -
- and a horrific scream came out of Harman as holes riddled his flesh; blood spewed from every orifice natal & created, dozens & dozens & dozens & dozens & dozens of holes opening up in him -
- until his form went entirely invisible; Amelie cursed but knew it was not her fault, and that regardless of this trickery they had heavily damaged him. Loki had disappeared, as well. "Iris: replace your hand with Flickendecke."
Iris grabbed a Flickendecke patch and overlaid her cauterized stump. Nothing happened but the patch shrivelling; perception was no longer reality. That was alright; she hadn't wanted a Cronenberg hand.
Amelie extended a flat plate of Delinquent outward, and Kairos skimmed through the past images within it; Harman was not in them. Kairos' strand appeared over store door Iris saw on this street and closed each, but they were running out of time, until Amelie shoved a Delinquent spear into the ground and shouted to Iris: "Magnetize it!"
Iris laughed, and a bolt of white lightning magnetized the spear -
- a scream of mortal agony erupted from Harman, 30ft behind them, as every spear chunk embedded within him flew out from his wounds and ripped through his flesh again as they returned to their rightful mother.
Iris & Amelie turned to pursue him again, but changeling corpses from earlier rose in their path to slow them; their hands grew acidic as they grabbed at them & Harman still fled, and as Kairos' strand tightened around the liquid acid -
" - can't evaporate!" groaned Iris; knowing it to be stubborn she ripped their grips off from her, wincing as she felt the acid still scalding at her skin. Her wind launched, launched, launched herself after Harman as he turned the corner left and ran into another street, and as she turned the corner with Amelie -
- an odd scene met their stare; Loki had appeared again and now wrapped tightly around his legs, squeezing with such force that Harman could barely run, 30ft away.
Deeper & deeper the acid burned Iris's skin, and as she tried to keep her rush going -
" - God damnit Iris, just give me -"
- Amelie groaned as her scalpel scraped off the relevant bits of Iris skin and she deposited them elsewhere for now with no known cure.
Ahead Iris saw something upon Harman she had seen only a few times before from a host: genuine fear. Loki now stared at them, and as it leapt towards them -
- a railgun bullet shot through it with such force it went slamming into the wall at their left, and there it simply laid as Amelie rushed up to it with dual chainsaws drawn; both penetrated through its checkerboard flesh and it made no attempt to resist. The rushing blades ripped & tore, and Iris saw the same wounds repeating upon Harman as he staggered with the last of his strength away; Iris ran in pursuit, and Harman stammered out (to himself or to her): "P-P-Per- reality-"
- a geyser of lava covered Harman's right arm and his entire arm disappeared, and as she made for a second -
- he hit the ground and curled himself tightly, growing smaller & more distant in her vision; he was suddenly another twenty feet away, then again, then again; Amelie shouted that Loki had disappeared as Harman hit the next street corner, and in the next instant -
- Iris decayed away the corner building to ensure Harman would not leave her sight, and she saw Loki wring tightly around his own neck and squeezing tight -
- a blue laser shot through his body and froze him solid, and with one punch Claire shattered him into pieces, smiling to them as she shook out some excess water from her soaked hand.
Iris glanced back at Amelie, who looked up and noticed such: Claire's appearance had angered her. Iris sighed, then let Claire scan the Revenant for them as they came over.
[Loki: Corrosive breath; perception is reality; creation of changelings anchored to our dimension.
{PASSIVE ABILITY}
Mass Actualization: Loki is permanently protected by a veil of perception manipulation.]
Iris was relieved, though bemused, for she could smell where Claire had been, but by now could summon no anger over it.
Amelie was pissed, however. She looked to Iris, expecting her to act on her behalf and make known her emotions, but was further frustrated when she did not. Iris was not her girlfriend anymore and she knew that, yet she still felt responsible for Iris and felt Iris should feel responsible for her.
Claire looked over at them. "Hey, you probably had it handled, but I just wanted to help. Was that the host we were investigating? Hunter Geist or whoever?"
"It was." said Iris.
"Jeez, that was a freaky one, wasn't it?"
"Mmhm."
Iris looked down to the still-beating heart, and she was distracted as she stared to where Loki's colony must lie. Would it not be a useful ability to have beating within another student? Again that amorphous serpent was at the lip of moment, the precipice of possibility, whispering as all unexplainable phenomena do to the curious, until with one green bolt of lightning she destroyed it. None involved seemed to notice, however.
"Iris, please leave." said Amelie. "Claire and I need to talk back at the hotel."
Iris nodded and wagged her right stump. "Might need Serena for this one." She left.
Amelie turned and gave Claire not a word as she made her way back to their hotel.
Her mentor's usual method of existence asserted itself; denial and blame, her inability to admit that she was indeed dependent on Amelie and her subtle jokes that Amelie should just leave her. But Amelie realized that as long as there was Claire in her life there would always be denial, secretive shit like the previous night. Claire was growing more frustrated as they made their way back to the hotel, saying to Amelie as they entered their room: "So I went out to get a drink. So what? That doesn't mean I'm drinking again."
Amelie started packing her things.
"God damnit, what are you doing?" said Claire. "Amelie. Amelie! Are you mad? Look, I feel like if I just can get my view across to you, then-"
Amelie picked up her bag with Delinquent's pole and was about to leave. "I know how you view yourself, Claire, but here's what I think of you: you're a burden. You're a dependency. You're a parasite. Do you understand? You just fucking drag me down; you make empty promises to me and renege on them, and then you have the audacity to try to sweep that under the rug. I tried to understand you: I tried to understand you so that I wouldn't despise you for all of those months where you made me suffer and put me at risk with your goddamn god-given right to drink, to go out and get into fights, to say you were improving with one half of your face and destroy yourself with the other. And because of that, everything that I've ever done at Urasaria has been in spite of you. But I'm thankful every day that Kate saw that, and she allowed me to do solo work, so I *can* become a great student, someone who's useful, someone with honor, and dignity, and courage, instead of a drunken fuck-up like you. I just wish I hadn't been so goddamn stupid to let you try your way back into my life."
Amelie slammed the door shut, and Claire suspected this would be the final time Amelie was in her eyes. But she was not sad nor fearful: she thought that now she would not be made to hate herself more, that no longer there would be this sympathy acting as an image into which all her self-loathing was poured. She did not have to worry. No more would she fear what could come next in life, for she had ensured there would be no progression.
It was indicative of that sort of truth that acts as a parasite upon reality. Truth and reality were not the same to Claire; truth was a commentary on the real, her life a slit through which she could angle a camera. And while there was shame to her addiction, worse was the shame of facing reality. But she knew that most people would not be happy without their own truth upon reality; the history of her own life had shown that reality was irrelevant to happiness.
She went out to the local gas station and bought a few bottles of wine, along with some frozen taquitos. Back in her hotel room, she set the taquitos into the microwave and closed it, and did not like how her lips turned slightly downward in the reflection of the lit-from-within door. She thought over things, mainly of the sort just recounted, and tried to make a faint, wry smile. She heard the ding of the microwave as it was done.
===
Amelie asked Iris & Olivia if they would be alright staying behind to verify Loki was gone; the traditional 1-week suffix students append to contracts. Iris agreed, and asked that Amelie message her once she was back on campus safely. But Iris had predicted this all with Claire, even as Amelie could tell her own correctness frustrated her. Perhaps she had really thought Claire might improve, or that if she could not, then that meant her uncle could; an orderly logic to a universe that had been essentially random to her.
So Amelie drove. There was a park near where she had once lived. A wooden tower oversaw the bayou, and she remembered that she would climb up it and view her mother & younger host sister below using binoculars. She liked that if she flipped the binoculars and looked through the large lens, what was close would grow smaller.
*"What happened happened. I don't…well. But of course, I have thought about what else may have happened. I have thought about it."*
She drove.
*"When you came to talk to me, I thought perhaps there was something I could construct out of what had once been there."*
She drove.
*"I thought perhaps that by touching your cheek or holding you, I could do some sort of transformation to you -- a little bit like Superman to Clark Kent, if that makes sense."*
She drove.
*"And I feel you've lived that out in a rough way for most of your life. It was why I loved you. And I still do. But that I can't do anything about it anymore makes me feel almost impersonal towards it."*
She drove.
*"Why I hadn't done so... Even if I shaved each excuse from my mind, what it is would still hold me. I'm not sure... I think again of our relationship, and perhaps I still haven't figured whether it was something that should have been deep and lasting, or what was simply the overlap of a moment's wink. But I forgive myself with the reality that: who has?"*
[END OF ARC: LIVE IN IGNORANCE]