"That's a big heckin' pupper." Hussain said to me.
"No doubt who this is," I texted.
Hussain and I were standing in the middle of a dog park located atop one of the Academy's skyscrapers. The stretch of grass dotted the occasional tree or bench was inundated with dogs and their owners.
One pet-owner pair stood out amongst the rest.
The dog was a Tibetan Mastiff with thick ginger fur that looked so soft that I imagined hugging it and having my whole body sucked into the fluff. Of all the dog's features, the most notable one was that it was huge, over five feet tall at the shoulder. It was like a bear or a lion, bounding around the park and scaring away all the other dogs.
Laughing atop the giant canine's back as if she were riding a horse was a girl a year older than myself. Her most stand out trait was her pale skin. Everyone native to Alf-Laylah wa-Laylah had dark skin, so it was obvious that the girl was a foreigner. She had black beauty marks next to the outer side of her left eye, below the left side of her mouth, and right above the space between her eyebrows. Her eyes were amber while her yellow hair was styled into a pair of loops behind her head held in place with several pins. The blue of her shirt revealed her to be a Mercury student, and she wore her jacket properly buttoned up.
The girl's name was Badroulbadour, and the dog was Pan Hu. They were characters from the anime, and they appeared to be identical to their counterparts from the show.
Badroulbadour, whose true name was Li Ji, was a foreign exchange student from Soushen Ji, a country based on China that Alf-Laylah wa-Laylah had a tense relationship with. The two nations were basically in a cold war, and the exchange student program was an attempt to keep up an image of positive relations between nations while they secretly tried to destroy each other. It was a platitude from both countries that neither bought in to.
Being a part of the protagonist's harem, Badroulbadour took the role of the busty, airheaded, and sexually forward big sister type slash upperclassman. In the anime, it was revealed that her airheaded demeanor was an act to make people drop their guard, and she showed she was knowledgeable about many secrets characters had and the machinations of different groups, though it was never revealed what her true intentions were in the material the show covered. I never read the light novels, so I had no clue what Badroulbadour's deal was.
Pan Hu was Badroulbadour's dog. He loved Badroulbadour, and got jealous when men tried to get close to her, which was used for many attempts at comedy. That was all I knew. It was clear there was more to him than that, but that also wasn't covered in the anime.
After managing to get Morgiana to start spending time with us, Hussain and I had been gradually befriending her. Given this slow success, we decided to try and get close to other characters from the show.
Hussain heard some rumors about a foreign girl with a giant dog who hung around the dog park, so we decided to investigate.
That led us to Badroulbadour and Pan Hu.
We tried to watch her discreetly so as to not draw Badroulbadour's attention. To try and be stealthy, we were dressed in casual clothes that obscured our appearances as much as possible without making it obvious we were trying to be discreet. I wore a djellaba with the hood up, and Hussain was in a hoodie, also with the hood up, jeans, and sunglasses.
To be allowed at the park, we needed a dog, so Hussain brought his Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Drei. It had a mix of white, brown, and black fur, and it was as energetic as its owner, so it was running and jumping around, much like Pan Hu was. Only the leash in Hussain's hand kept the doggo from rocketing away.
After our initial meeting with Morgiana went so poorly due to us not really knowing her personality, we decided to prepare before we tried to talk to Badroulbadour. First we would observe Badroulbadour and get a read on what she was like in this timeline, then we would confront her.
The rub was that this Badroulbadour really seemed like she was no different from her anime self. This was despite the fact that this was a different timeline of events from the anime, and the fact Badroulbadour was many years younger here than she was at the point the show started at.
If she really was the same as her animated self, then we could make a game plan based on the personality we knew from the show. But if we were wrong and her inner depths differed from the anime, then we could screw things up royally.
Putz around too long and we risked Badroulbadour leaving, or Hussain and I being noticed for who we were. Also, Hussain was getting impatient, as was exemplified by how he had to let out his building energy by running around just as madly as his dog and Pan Hu were.
My ahoge shaped into a question mark as I wondered if Hussain was a dog in a past life. He and I were living proof that reincarnation was real in some sense, so it was entirely possible.
Pan Hu finally stopped his rampage, sitting down. Badroulbdour slid down her dog's back and began to pet his face, mushing it around.
"Now's our chance. Let's talk to her," I texted.
"Let's!" Hussain made a hard ninety degree turn and ran towards Badroulbadour, Drei following behind. I choked on the cloud of dust they left in their wake as I jogged behind them. Badroulbadour turned to face us once we reached her. While I was still wheezing and my ahoge drooped, Hussain swapped between several poses from anime he liked. "Hey, how's it going? Your dog is huge! I love him!"
"Thanks." A sweat drop appeared on Badroulbadour's head, though she still smiled. Pan Hu began to emit a low growl and stared at Hussain. "His name is Pan Hu. Sorry for the growling. He won't do anything, he's just being protective."
"No worries, I get it! This little guy is Drei!" Hussain pointed at the corgi getting tangled in its leash as it ran in circles.
"He's a funny little goober." The blonde girl dragged out her words, and had an airy, stereotypical 'valley girl' tone. Badroulbadour crouched down. "Can I pet him?"
"Sure!"
Badroulbadour started mushing Drei's face between her hands as she spoke baby talk to him. She giggled as she lifted the corgi off the ground, his paws trying to run on the air. With precise movements, she untangled Drei.
A low rumble came from the back of Pan Hu's throat. He lightly headbutted Badroulbadour, though it was only light by the giant hound's standards. It was still a strong enough impact to knock his owner over and make her drop Drei.
"Pan Hu! Let me pet other dogs!" Badroulbadour whined and began to hit Pan Hu repeatedly with cartoonish spinning arms that did no damage. The mastiff, unfazed, turned his head and huffed. "Don't ignore me!"
"I guess it's hard to keep him in check when he's three times your size." Hussain pinched his chin. I extended a hand to the downed girl.
"He's a brat." Badroulbadour took my hand and pulled herself up. "Thank you."
"What do you feed him?"
"A lot of duck. He's got a particular palette. Thankfully, I get a pretty nice allowance every month from my family back in Soushen Ji."
"I've never had duck, I've heard it's good."
"It's a staple where I'm from. When you roast it, the skin gets crispy and it's so amazing."
"Now you've got me hungry! Are there any restaurants that serve it on campus?" Hussain raised an eyebrow.
"A couple. There's one on the corner of Umayl Street and al-Razi Street. The place specializes in all kinds of food from my country. It's as close to authentic as I've seen in Alf-Laylah wa-Laylah."
"What would you recommend besides the duck? We love trying new things!"
Hussain's positivity and passion made it easy to keep the small talk going. He slowly pulled Badroulbadour in. Her posture gradually became more relaxed and she made no moves to try to end the conversation.
Unlike Morgiana, who was antisocial and misanthropic, Badroulbadour was extroverted, making it easier to win her over. It actually seemed like we were going to befriend her after just one conversation, but then came the biggest hurdle of all.
"This was fun! We should hang out sometime!" Hussain leaned forward and pumped his fists.
"Totally! My name's Badroulbadour by the way. Well, it's Li Ji, but I'm trying to fit in here so I go by Badroulbadour. What're your names?"
I swallowed some spit.
"My name's Hussain. This gal here is Scheherazade." Hussain said it casually, as if he had said nothing noteworthy.
As soon as 'Scheherazade' hit her ears, Badroulbadour stopped moving, as if she was a mannequin. She scanned my face. Her smile vanished.
A sinking feeling so intense I thought I was falling into a pit hit me.
"I see." Badroulbadour hopped on Pan Hu's back. "Sorry, but I gotta go."
"Wait! I know what you're thinking, but Scheherazade's actually cool! She hated her parents and the nobility! Right?" Hussain looked at me and I nodded as rapidly as I could, to the point that my head was covered in anime speed lines.
"Maybe she is, but, and I know this will sound shallow, I can't ruin my reputation to find out whether that's true or not."
Pan Hu turned around and crouched, ready to move.
"We can introduce you to Morgiana!" Hussain went for a Hail Mary.
Badroulbadour put a hand on Pan Hu's back, and he stopped crouching, though he didn't turn around.
"Who's Morgiana?" An extra degree of airiness was added to Badroulbadour's tone.
Though we didn't know Badroulbadour's goals, it was clear from the anime that she wanted to get close to powerful and influential people in the school and Laylan government. Morgiana was the headmaster's granddaughter, so that made her someone Badroulbadour would obviously want to schmooze.
But Morgiana wasn't famous in this timeline. If Badroulbadour admitted to being interested right off the bat, it would give away that she was looking into the family members of influential school staff. Since she was obviously hiding her true agenda, she wouldn't want people to know she was doing anything remotely suspicious.
"Morgiana's the granddaughter of the headmaster!"
"Why do you think I'd want to meet her?" A good point from Badroulbadour. We had no reason to assume she'd be interested unless we knew more about her than we were letting on.
"Well she's related to one of the strongest guys in the whole country! It'd be like meeting a celebrity!"
"That does sound kinda fun, but I gotta pass." Badroulbadour patted Pan Hu on the back.
"Hold on, I know-" Hussain was interrupted by the mastiff leaping off the roof the dog park was on. The hound leapt from rooftop to rooftop and into the distance.
"I knew this would happen," I texted Hussain as I plopped onto my butt. Drei jumped on me and began licking my face.
"Man, that dog can jump! It must be super fun to ride! I wanna ride it!" Hussain jumped and stretched out his limbs so his body formed a big x. "You think she'll let us ride him when we win her over?"
"She might be okay with it, but Pan Hu won't. What do we do now? Badroulbadour's definitely suspicious of us since we offered to introduce her to Morgiana without an obvious reason. It's just like how things turned out after our first talk with Morgiana. The only reason we got closer to Morgiana was because we united against a common enemy."
"Well, who's Badroulbadour's enemy?"
"Who knows. Her backstory was never told to us in the anime. We don't even know if she's secretly working for someone, maybe a villain like with Zumurrud, or if she's a solo agent, or if she actually has a specific goal at all." I ran my fingers through my hair.
"We'll think of something eventually! It's not like we've got a time limit!" Hussain lifted me onto my feet. "Anyway, wanna go find Morgiana and get something to eat? I'm craving doner kebab."
"Sure."
And so Hussain and I met up with Morgiana and we ate dinner together. We talked about a documentary on the history of android development that Morgiana had recommended to us previously.
Afterward, we all went our separate ways. I headed to my nearly empty bedroom, which had graffiti all over the door. Deciding to clean the door another time, I spent the rest of the day studying while I was curled up in a blanket ball until I passed out from exhaustion.
That night I had nightmares of a blood smeared Dunyazade saying she hated me for causing her to get attacked by the mob. A dismembered Tawaddud said I should have lost an eye like she had. Hussain, skin burned black and red, told me he only hung out with me out of pity and that he had grown to despise me. None of these things had ever happened, they were the product of fears and assumptions. I worried and honestly believed that everyone close to me in my second life secretly hated me like my loved ones in my first life did.
A touch on my shoulder freed me from my anguish.
I flinched from being awakened so suddenly. Even though the light was on when I went to sleep, all I could see was darkness as I laid on my side.
"Don't move or I'll kill you. Don't make a noise or I'll kill you." A distorted voice came from behind me. "While you slept, I filled your body with small amounts of a radioactive element. I have altered it to not be radioactive, but one thought from me and you'll be overflowing with so much radiation you'll die instantly. Do anything other than what I tell you to, and I'll kill you. Don't think you can hide anything from me because it's dark and you're wrapped in your blanket. My element is all throughout your body, and so when you shift, you shift the element which I can track the position of. I know your every movement. Don't resist me. If you understand, click your teeth together two times."
Instead of panicking, I was surprisingly calm. I was in a life or death situation. My survival instincts were sharpening my mind and cooling my emotions. Every breath I took was soundless, and my body was still as a stone. All sensory information afforded to me was being analyzed as I tried to find a way out of my predicament.
I knocked my upper and lower teeth into each other twice.
"I'm going to ask you some questions. Answer honestly if you want to live. I'll give you a number you can text your answers to."
Given my captor didn't want to give away their identity, I doubted that the number they gave me was the number for their brain implant. They were probably using an external device like a more traditional phone that was unregistered. Once they were done interrogating me, they could destroy it.
Also, my captor had set up an electromagnetic field that, though it allowed for calls and texts within my bedroom, made it so no messages could be sent to anyone outside.
"Test," I texted to the number I was given.
"Text received. First question: What do you know about Badroulbadour?"
This was happening because I had approached Badroulbadour with Hussain. Badroulbadour could control polonium, a radioactive element like the one that my interrogator said they had filled me with. The person behind me was Badroulbadour, and she was doing this because she was suspicious of why Scheherazade, one of the most hated people alive, had approached her. It didn't help that Hussain accidentally implied, by offering to introduce Badroulbadour to Morgiana, that we knew about Badroulbadour's goals.
Throughout the anime, Badroulbadour was depicted as being perceptive and having skills related to stealth and subterfuge. She was basically a super spy type character. It was likely that she was aware Hussain and I had been watching her before we even approached her. That, followed by our suspicious attempt to get close to her, must have led her to think we figured out her true intentions, whatever those were, and now she was interrogating me. Badroulbadour planned to get whatever info she could out of me and then kill me while making it look like I disappeared without leaving a trace.
"She's a foreign exchange student from Soushen Ji. Her real name is Li Ji. She has a pet dog named Pan Hu. She knows some good Jian restaurants on campus." I listed innocuous facts I knew about Badroulbadour, specifically ones mentioned in my and Hussain's conversation with her. It's not like I knew what Badroulbadour's real goal was anyway, and I needed to drag this interrogation out so I had as much time as possible to figure out how to avoid getting killed.
"What do you know about Pan Hu?"
"He's a giant mastiff owned by Badroulbadour. He's intelligent and doesn't like when his owner spends time with other dogs. Also, he's strong enough to leap across rooftops."
"Why were you and Hussain watching Badroulbadour and Pan Hu before you approached her?"
"Pan Hu is hard not to find interesting to watch given how big he is and with how much he was running around."
"Why did you approach Badroulbadour and Pan Hu with Hussain?"
"They're a foreigner in a country with a rather homogenous population, and a giant dog. We wanted to learn more about them, and hopefully become friends with them."
I took more time answering each question than I needed in order to drag things out, but only a little bit as I didn't want to tip Badroulbadour off. This precedent I was setting for how long I needed to answer was helpful once Badroulbadour hit me with a question I actually needed more time to think of a response to.
"Why did you offer to introduce Badroulbadour to Morgiana?"
The truth was because Hussain and I had a vague understanding that Badroulbadour wanted to get close to influential people in Alf-Laylah wa-Laylah, but we didn't know why. That would sound super suspicious, and when Badorulbadour would inevitably ask why we knew that about her, I couldn't answer, 'because we watched an anime that you were a character in from another universe'.
I needed a believable lie. The one Hussain used initially, that anyone might be interested in meeting Ali Baba's granddaughter, had self-evidently failed.
The most believable lies are the ones that have a kernel of truth to them.
"Hussain and I heard a rumor going around campus that a foreign girl with a giant dog seemed to be talking to influential people in the school. The giant dog part was the thing that got us curious and that was why we went to the dog park that day. We only wanted to be Badroulbadour's friend, but when she was going to leave, Hussain grew desperate. Since part of the rumor was about her talking to influential people in the Academy, Hussain thought she might know about who Morgiana is related to, and would be interested in talking to her."
My lie was banking on Badroulbadour having already made moves to form connections with notable people in the Academy.
The clarity of mind the stress of the situation had previously granted me was fading. I could feel my heart and veins pulsing so rapidly they hurt. If Badroulbadour's polonium was disseminated throughout my blood, then she could tell I was more anxious than before.
Polygraph tests weren't an accurate science, as a person's level of anxiety when answering a question doesn't directly correlate with whether they're lying or not.
I hoped Badroulbadour knew that.
Badroulbadour didn't continue her questioning. She was quiet. I was drenched in sweat as I awaited an instant death by radiation.
The wait continued, and my fear started to drop, though I was still perspiring like crazy. I was confused at why Badroulbadour wasn't doing anything. Was she doing something else? Did she leave?
I was tempted to turn over and see if my captor was gone.
Then the silence shattered.
"If you refuse to tell the truth, then I'll torture you until you do."
I bit the inside of my cheek.
"I am telling the truth," I texted.
"No, you're not. Tell me what you know about Badroulbadour and Pan Hu, and what your goals are involving them."
"I already told you."
"I will proceed to torture you now." The distorted voice hitched in the middle of that sentence. "Don't scream, or I'll have to kill you."
My fingers dug into my blanket as I braced myself.
Despite the fact that I was motionless on a static surface, I felt like I was swaying. My brain was pulsing and swimming. The very act of existing became painful as my gray matter, the center of my being, was in agony.
My abdomen felt like it was being palmed by a giant hand that had begun to squeeze. Something rushed up my body and out my mouth. I began to vomit uncontrollably. Any pauses between bouts of throwing up were short, and they were my only chance to breathe, but that was only if I wasn't hit with a coughing fit from choking on vomitus that had failed to leave my throat.
Every inch of my body was covered in sweat. I was becoming severely dehydrated, and it was hard to form coherent thoughts. Both my mind and body were weak. Breathing became a struggle. My body wouldn't stop shaking. A burning pain was assailing the entirety of my insides. When my head moved from my writhing in pain, my hair would fall out in clumps. It became impossible for me to gauge the passage of time. The torture could have been going on for minutes or hours.
I had radiation sickness. The polonium in my body was emitting alpha particles that were damaging my cells.
There was no way I could come up with a plan of escape when I could barely form coherent thoughts.
All I could do was squirm on my side and quietly groan. I tried to focus on any sensations I was experiencing that weren't the various forms of pain I was being hit with. My mind clung to the pressure of my side against the futon below me, and on the movement of the skin on my face as I oscillated between expressions of suffering.
I feared that my writhing would be considered a breach of Badroulbadour's order not to move, but no retaliation came.
In fact, the pain was lessening, and I wasn't throwing up anymore.
My thoughts became more solid. I noticed an odd sound coming from behind me. It was a low warbling that would flicker in and out of audibility.
The noise was distorted in the same way Badroulbadour's voice was.
I realized what the sound was. It was Badroulbadour whimpering.
She had been hesitant to start torturing me, and now she was dialing back the radiation while whimpering.
Badroulbadour wasn't comfortable with what she was doing.
Like with Zumurrud being unable to kill the hostages, Badroulbadour, despite whatever her true goals were and who she may have been working with or for, was a child. There were limits to what she could stomach, and torturing another girl her age was pushing up against that limit.
Perhaps it was because she was an inexperienced child that Badroulbadour had opted to interrogate me. Instead, she could have spied of Hussain and I, and she eventually could have learned about what we knew from our private conversations. She panicked when she realized Hussain and I might have known her true intentions, and so she chose to respond with extreme measures.
Finally, I came up with a plan.
I kept on squirming and groaning in pain, exaggerating my reactions as much as I reasonably could. The goal was to make Badroulbadour feel as guilty as possible so she'd stop torturing me.
My limbs flailed, my throat produced a sequence of moans, and my breaths were quick and high pitched.
Badroulbadour's whimpering became louder, harsher.
As my performance went on and on, I eventually heard the sound of someone retching in a non-distorted voice, followed by the sound of liquid hitting the floor. Badroulbadour had taken off whatever she was wearing that was distorting her voice before throwing up.
Now Badroulbadour was crying outright, her voice no longer disguised.
There was a light tapping sound as something bounced across the floor before stopping in a pool of my vomitus and hair that was in front of me.
A regeneration pill.
Badroulbadour had tossed me a regeneration pill.
I cautiously sat up and turned around to look at the sobbing child. Her reddened face was coated in tears, mucus, and vomit. She wore a black catsuit covered in metal armor plates, the front of which was dirtied with what she had regurgitated. In the girl's hands was a featureless black helmet that could obscure a person's whole head. Around Badroulbadour's left thumb was a ring that projected a hologram screen which displayed my texts, and a jade bracelet encircled her left wrist.
Given she didn't do anything in response to me sitting up, I picked up the capsule, wiped the vomit off using my blanket, and popped it into my mouth.
My pain gradually faded as my insides healed. The hair I had lost was replaced with new strands. There was a euphoria to being freed from the all-encompassing suffering of radiation poisoning. I sat in place, bathing in the sense of peace I felt while Badroulbadour kept crying.
I nearly let my heavy eyelids persuade me to fall asleep, but I had to stay conscious. Badroulbadour was still present. Even if she wasn't willing to kill me, I couldn't just ignore her as she broke down.
"Are you okay?" I texted Badroulbadour. The girl was so wrapped up in her crying that she didn't notice.
To try and get her attention, I reached towards her while making a quiet noise with my voice.
A jade blur filled my vision. Before I could touch Badroulbadour, the weeping girl's bracelet flew off her wrist and morphed.
I hit a wall. A pair of ginger furred paws pinned me in place.
Hot breath hit my face as jaws wrapped around my head.
All I could see was the throat of a beast.
"Pan Hu! Don't hurt her!" Badroulbadour shouted loud enough that it was possible that the students in the neighboring rooms might have heard.
The fangs of the hound lightly pressed into my head.
Then they pulled away.
Pan Hu stood in front of Badroulbadour and growled at me. He thought I was trying to attack his owner when I reached for her.
I was panting heavily and shakily. That was the second time that night that I survived having death's blade held to my throat.
Badroulbadour and I locked eyes. The blonde's pupils were quaking. Her palms were on the floor, and they were gradually sliding backward as the girl recoiled like a snail into a nonexistent shell.
Our stares only broke their connection when Badroulbadour flicked her gaze over to screen displaying my texts for a second.
The silence and stillness persisted, to the point that it was hard for my ADHD brain to focus on what was happening and not on random things like scratches on the floor.
My toes began to curl and uncurl as I grew anxious from the elongating gap in action.
Badroulbadour's mouth occasionally opened, as if she were about to speak, only to close again.
Pan Hu's even growl had not stopped for even an instant.
Finally, after an hour of anticipation, Badroulbadour spoke.
"Why did you ask me if I was okay?" Badroulbadour's tone was especially childlike when she asked that question. It wasn't her performative airheadedness, but a genuine desire to understand.
I texted my answer on impulse.
"You were crying, so I was worried for you."
"I-" Badroulbadour's throat bulged, as if she were about to throw up again. "I just tortured you."
"You also stopped and gave me a regeneration pill. You aren't heartless. You're doing this because you feel you have to."
"That doesn't change that I stuffed you with deadly radiation to the point that your hair was falling out."
"I'm not happy that happened, but I'm still worried about you. I can't help it. You were crying and you're just a kid."
"So are you."
"Right. I wasn't lying before, by the way. We really only approached you because we were curious about you. Hussain and I don't have any malicious intentions related to…whatever secret is motivating you to go to these lengths. You're an interesting person, and now I'm confident you're also a good person, and that's why I wanted-no, want to know if you're okay."
Badroulbadour's eyes became glassy and she lowered her head. She began to cry again. Her arms wrapped around Pan Hu, who, though still glaring at me, curved his body around his owner as if to embrace her.
"What's wrong?" I texted.
"You're so kind. After what I did, you're still worried about me. It's crazy." Badroulbadour sniffled. Her fingers ran back and forth through Pan Hu's fur. "You're so kind, and yet I hurt you all because I was paranoid that you found out about my mission."
Mission. Badroulbadour did have some kind of specific goal she wanted to achieve. The fact that she phrased it as a mission implied to me that she was probably working for someone, though I wasn't one hundred percent sure.
"I'm not that kind. Or maybe it's that I'm kind, but I'm also stupid." I leaned forward and pulled my legs in, my arms wrapping around them. "I've done a lot of things I regret. There are so many people who've been hurt because of me, because of choices I've made. I'm a parasite that uses the people around me. If you want to not feel guilty about hurting me, just imagine me as a mosquito, because that's what I am. I'm the world's biggest mosquito."
"If you're a mosquito, I'm a termite, following the orders of my colony, even if it means I consume other people's things. I'll hurt other people if it means I'll be fine." Badroulbadour spoke so harshly that she spit a bit.
"Do termites get punished if they don't follow orders?"
"I don't know, and that's not the point."
"Then what is the point?"
"My point is that I've been ordered to hurt a lot of people, and I'm actually considering doing it, all because I don't want to die." Badroulbadour squeezed Pan Hu tight.
Badroulbadour, thanks to her emotionally distraught state along with my carefully chosen comments and questions, as well as her naivete as a child, had given away a lot. She was working for someone, her goal was something that would negatively affect many people, and her masters would try to end her life as punishment if she didn't follow their commands.
All I needed were a few more details.
"If you just don't want to die, then you at least have an understandable reason for doing what you're doing. It's normal to want to protect yourself, and you don't have any way to escape punishment if you refuse your orders, do you?"
"No." Badroulbadour's fingers twiddled with a few of Pan Hu's hairs.
"You can't run away, right?"
"I managed to negotiate with them not to put any trackers inside me, but they'd find me eventually."
"How? You seem really good at stealth and stuff."
"I mean, they've got a lot of resources and manpower."
"Enough to get you?" My head tilted to the side.
"Enough to get anyone."
"How could anybody be that influential?"
"Your father was the Sultan, how could you not know how powerful governments can be?"
There. Badroulbadour was working for a government. Given it was unlikely that Alf-Laylah wa-Laylah would employ a foreigner from their biggest enemy, she was probably working for her homeland, Soushen Ji.
"Wait, what am I doing?" Badorulbadour's breath hitched. "I'm telling you…"
As Badroulbadour's words trailed off, I was prepared for the girl to attack me for goading her secrets out of her.
Instead, her crying intensified once again. She was truly bawling like a little kid now.
"Why'd I start saying stuff! Now you're gonna figure out who I'm working for and tell people and I'm gonna be killed!" Badroulbadour was barely able to breathe as she cried intensely. She coughed and made numerous incomprehensible noises.
Apparently, Badroulbadour didn't realize I had been purposely prodding her for info, but she did assume I was smart enough to extrapolate from what she said that she was some kind of agent of the Soushen Ji government. Now she thought I was going to rat her out to the authorities.
I didn't have any evidence, and even if I could prove Badroulbadour worked for Soushen Ji, that wasn't necessarily a crime. Also, I was hated by everyone and thus was likely to be distrusted. All that said, the Laylan government still despised Soushen Ji and was suspicious of anyone from the country, so they would definitely try to capture and interrogate Badroulbadour.
Since Badroulbadour was probably a spy, which would be why she wanted to get close to influential people in the school, she would be executed by the Laylan government once they got all the info on Soushen Ji they could torture out of her.
Pan Hu took a step towards me, his jaws parting.
"No! Don't hurt her!" Badroulbadour tried to pull Pan Hu away from me. The hound wanted to kill me now that I yet again appeared to be a threat to his owner's wellbeing. "Stop! Stop! Stop!"
"I won't tell anyone," I texted.
"What?"
"I won't tell anyone about any of this. Nobody would believe me anyway since everyone hates me."
"But you know who I work for, don't you?"
"I do, I figured it out, but I won't tell anybody. This isn't just to protect myself from you, but because I don't want to tell anyone." I wasn't lying. I wasn't afraid of Pan Hu at that moment. Instead, I was calm, though not like I was when I was hyper focused earlier. This calm was serene in nature. It was warm.
"You don't want to?"
"That's right, because you're clearly a good person. I can tell. You don't want to hurt anyone. You're a kid who is being used by their homeland. You're a victim in this too. You don't deserve to suffer."
"But I'm going to hurt so many people!"
"No, you won't."
"What?"
"You won't do it, whatever 'it' is. You'll find a way to avoid it."
"I don't understand!" Badroulbadour squinted at me.
"I have faith in you, because you're a good person, and a smart person. You'll find a way to avoid whatever big sin Soushen Ji wants you to commit and achieve your freedom. I believe in you." To be honest, my belief in Badroulbadour's capabilities was illogical. There was no real reason for me to believe that she could deftly avoid whatever it was she didn't want to do. But I wanted to believe in her. Her tears over my pain were so pure. She was good, even if her circumstances were not.
"You just met me! You don't know me!" Badroulbadour shook her head.
"I still believe in you, because I want to."
"You just don't want to die! You're scared of Pan Hu!"
"If you don't believe me, then you can kill me. I deserve to die anyway. I've hurt too many." My head bowed as I waited for whatever came next. I didn't want to die, but I was helpless before Pan Hu and Badroulbadour. My fighting spirit was burning under my melancholy shell nonetheless. If and when the guillotine came for my head, I knew my instincts would force me to fight. That's what I promised to do right before I was reborn into Underworld. I promised to never give up.
There was another extended pause in events. My head wasn't being crushed under Pan Hu's paw, nor was my body being melted into protoplasm by alpha particles.
I peeked up to see that Badroulbadour was showing Pan Hu my texts. Apparently the dog could read.
Badroulbadour whispered into Pan Hu's ear and looked him in the eye. The hound growled in a way that resembled a person grumbling in annoyance.
My gaze returned to my knees, awaiting whatever Badroulbadour and Pan Hu chose to do.
After another long wait.
Badroulbadour spoke.
"I believe you." I looked up to see Badroulbadour sitting on her knees as she pet Pan Hu. The dog was giving me the stink eye, while the blonde sat with loose posture. "I trust you like you trust me. You won't tell anyone about this, so I won't harm you."
"Thank you for trusting me." I smiled. Even if it was due to Badroulbadour's naivete, she believed me.
"Just know that if you betray my trust, even if I can't get revenge on you, Pan Hu will. Nobody can stop him."
"How strong is he, and why is he so strong?"
Badroulbadour frowned briefly before shrugging.
"Since you aren't going to tell anyone, I guess it would be okay. Would you mind if I…told you our story? Ever since I came to this country, I've had to hide my past and pretend to be somebody I'm not. Even in Soushen Ji, I have to suppress my…dissatisfaction. It'd be nice to talk honestly with somebody."
"Tell me whatever you want. I'll take whatever you say with me to the grave."
With that, Badroulbadour took a breath.
"Soushen Ji is a lot like Alf-Laylah wa-Laylah. There's a lot of slaves, a lot of poor people, and a lot of rich assholes. I was a homeless orphan. Growing up on the streets was a nightmare. I'd go days, even weeks without eating. No one tried to help me, because everyone in Soushen Ji is rotten. The only times anyone extended a helping hand towards me, it was only so they could take advantage of me. Other kids would pretend to be my friend, only to use me as a scapegoat they could pin the blame on when they stole from a store or jacked air cars. Adults would pretend to want to give me a home, only to try and sell me into slavery, or to harvest my organs. I don't have a womb or a left lung now."
I squeezed my legs. It was a miracle Badroulbadour had survived after everything she had been through. She was strong.
"One day, Soushen Ji was attacked by a dragon. The government had attacked the dragon first, as they wanted to get something special inside of it. When the dragon retaliated, the entire army of Soushen Ji and every combat Alchemist working together couldn't defeat the dragon, they could only keep it in check. Eventually the fighting made its way to the city I lived in. Skyscrapers flew in the air, and cracks that went all the way to the Kuyutha stretched for kilometers. Nothing was still. Everything was moving so fast that the world around me was a blur."
Despite the intensity of what she was describing, Badroulbadour didn't show the slightest hint of lingering trauma about the dragon's attack. She shivered more when she spoke of growing up on the streets than she did recounting the miniature apocalypse she went through.
"In the middle of it all, I noticed something, a weakness of the dragon. It was thanks to luck, but I noticed it through the hurricane of chaos while none of the Alchemists or soldiers did. My fight or flight response kicked in, and I attacked the dragon. I instinctually unlocked my ability to use Alchemy. There was no technique to it, just me artlessly creating some of my element and hurling it at the dragon. I hit the weak point dead on. Once again, I got lucky. The dragon fell to the ground, defeated."
Considering Badroulbadour seemed identical to the Badroulbadour from the anime, I assumed the history she was telling me also mirrored her backstory from the original light novels. But that seemed absurd given how much her surviving this encounter with the dragon involved luck. The butterfly effect created from Hussain and I not acting the same as our light novel counterparts should have at least changed things enough that Badorulbadour wouldn't have achieved such an unlikely shot against the dragon still. Was I overestimating the butterfly effect? Did I assume wrong and Badroulbadour's backstory from the light novels was different from what happened in this world? Could there have been a factor I didn't know about influencing events to make it more likely that it reasonably should have been for Badroulbadour to defeat the dragon?
"When the dragon was lying on the ground, and the Alchemists were preparing to kill it, I was right there by its face, and I looked it in the eye. It was so sad." Badroulbadour sniffled. "I pet the dragon's head. I kept looking it in the eye. The dragon simply wanted to be left alone, but Soushen Ji wanted what it had. The greed of Soushen Ji ruined the dragon, like how it ruined me. The dragon cried. So did I. We understood each other at that moment. We formed a bond, and the dragon shrunk. It became a dog."
Pan Hu nuzzled into Badroulbadour's side.
"The dog listened to me, like a real trained dog would. The government realized that if they could control me, they could control the dragon. A rich family of Alchemists adopted me. Things got better for me, but they weren't good. They raised me to be the government's secret weapon, the leash for the dragon. I'm a soldier, not a child. My parents and officials from the government abuse me if I ever step out of line, or if I don't meet their expectations perfectly. Pan Hu and I want to run away, but since they saw me defeat him, the government knows Pan Hu's weakness now. They can kill him now if we try to rebel."
My whole body trembled with anger. I remembered the abuse Dunyazade experienced from Shahryar, and that Zumurrud experienced from Shahzaman.
"Now I'm on my first real mission. While acting as an exchange student, I'm supposed to suss out as many of Alf-Laylah wa-Laylah's secrets that I can so they can be used one day to destroy the nation. Also, I'm supposed to get my hands on Falak, the Djinn King's sword. It's rumored that the Laylan government secretly has it. And that's it. That's my story. That's the first time I've properly talked to anyone about any of that." Badroulbadour scratched her head. "That felt good."
"You've had a rough life. Sorry for starting the obvious. I'm not sure what to say right now." I felt like a moron as I looked at what I was texting in response to Badroulbadour's story.
"You don't need to say anything. You listened, and that's what I needed."
"…"
"…"
"…"
"…"
"Badroulbadour?"
"Yes?"
"Would you like to hang out sometime? I know it might make your mission harder since everyone hates people who associate with me, but we-"
"I'd love to hang out with you." Badroulbadour smiled.
"You're sure? Your family in Soushen Ji won't get mad at you for making a choice so detrimental to your mission?"
"I can frame it as me using you for information on the old Sultanate and its secrets, and to disguise my goals. It'll be hard for people in Alf-Laylah wa-Laylah to accuse me of trying to get close to influential people as a spy when I'm buddying up with the country's biggest pariah."
"Alright then." I smiled. "We can hang out right now if you want. I'm not gonna be able to fall asleep at this point."
"Let's do it. What should we do?"
"Well, first thing's first." I stood up. "There's a lot of vomit and hair to clean up."
"Oh…sorry about that."
And so, despite a rough start to put it as lightly as possible, Badroulbadour and I had become fast friends.