My detention consisted of sitting alone in a featureless white cell with a bench for hours. I couldn't use my brain implant, so I was bored. This was far from my first time in detention, so you'd think I'd have gotten better at entertaining myself to pass the time, but my ADHD made it hard to focus on anything for more than a couple minutes.
A smudge on the floor.
Daud similarities and differences to his anime self.
Morgiana.
Badroulbadour's suspicion about what Hussain said earlier.
A smudge on the floor.
The entrance ceremony.
Abriza.
Daud.
A smudge on the floor.
An anime I had recently watched.
A smudge on the floor.
My attention wandered as I was constantly sitting down on the bench, standing back up, pacing around, and then going back to sitting so I could repeat the cycle.
After enough hours passed, I was finally allowed to leave. Two Disciplinary Committee members escorted me to the entrance area of the building where my friends were waiting, all of them done with their detention. Pan Hu was also there, having been kept at the Disciplinary Committee's animal control detention area.
"Sche-Sche!" Badroulbadour hopped off of Pan Hu's back and onto me. As we hit the floor, I was reminded of how Dunayzade used to do the same thing back before her energetic side was snuffed out by that mob all those years ago. Remembering that hurt far more than the impact of hitting the ground.
"She did the same thing to me when she saw me. Apparently she managed to get some of the Committee guys watching her to bring her some booze in exchange for letting them fuck her," Morgiana said.
Morgiana had grown to have a preternatural beauty like myself and Badroulbadour. Her cyan hair was into six rows of braided jumbo cornrows that went straight down her back all the way to her hips. Said hips were quite wide, though they would have been outdone by her chest if this were the original anime. In Al-Kimiya, Morgiana's breasts were one hundred and twenty four centimeters. They bounced like balloons at the slightest jostle and were really distracting. When this timeline's Morgiana grew in those monstrous mammaries, she hated them because of how they got in the way and drew people's attention, so she got a breast reduction. Now she had A-cups. As for her uniform, Morgiana wore it relatively normally, but without the tie and with the first couple buttons on the shirt undone.
"Hi, Morgiana," I texted. "How was your break?"
"Pretty good. I finally moved out of my family's place."
"Really? I'm surprised you could afford it without your family's money."
"I moved into one of the former slums we managed to revitalize. They offered me a discount on an apartment as thanks for having helped them."
"That was nice of them." I tried to push Badroulbadour off me, but she clung to me like she would a can of beer. "Badroulbadour, you can get off me."
"No," the blonde squeaked as she hugged me tighter.
"You are an alcoholic. And a drug addict. And a sex addict. Seriously, you gotta get your life together."
"Don't tell her what to do." Morgiana tore Badroulbadour off me. "She can do what she wants with her life."
"I don't want to wake up one day to find out she died of an overdose at some rave." I stood up.
"Neither do I, but if that's what happens, it'll be the result of her own choices." My cornrow-toting friend placed Badroulbadour on her feet, but the intoxicated maiden immediately began to fall over, so Morgiana caught her and placed on Pan Hu's back.
"Let's not have this argument again." I put my hand on my hip.
"Now that we're all together again, let's celebrate!" Hussain leaned back and flexed his arms.
"My first class tomorrow is early in the day, so I want to go to bed early." Morgiana yawned. "Plus, I'm tired."
"But we just reunited!"
"We can hang out some other time when we're all free."
"But I can't wait! I've got all this energy I built up while waiting in my cell that I need to let out!" Hussain pumped his fists. "I wanna tell you about what I did over break, and this super cool guy we saw earlier today, and this cute girl I went on a date with, and other stuff!"
The mention of the 'super cool guy' reminded me of Daud and the fact that Morgiana was Daud's childhood friend in the anime timeline. She and Daud met as little kids and, despite their different life circumstances, became close after Daud saved Morgiana from some bullies. I wanted to know if Morgiana met Daud in this timeline or not.
"The cool guy was pretty interesting," I texted. "There were this group of assholes who were bullying this girl, and the guy stepped in and stopped them."
"He was strong! He made a giant chainsaw, and destroyed stuff by flexing!" Hussain said while flexing his every muscle.
"And he was hot. I was gonna ask him out, but we got hauled off by the Disciplinary Committee before I got the chance. That bitch Abriza started flirting with him, and she's probably gonna tell him that we're bad and stuff. There's no way he'll fuck me now." Badroulbadour pursed her lips.
"At least this guy is nice enough not to stand by when people are being dicks." Morgiana crossed her arms. "What's his name?"
"Daud."
Morgiana froze and her eyes opened wide, yet they also squinted somehow. Her teeth clenched and her breathing became shaky.
"Are you okay?"
"What elements could he control?" Morgiana's words were hurried and her arms hugged herself tightly.
"Silver and platinum. How'd you know he could control more than one element?" Badroulbadour lifted her head.
Morgiana's throat bulged for a second, then she swallowed. The quaking of her body intensified as she began to tilt back and forth.
"I think you need to sit down." Hussain reached over to grab onto and prevent Morgiana from potentially falling over, but Morgiana responded by knocking Hussain's hands away with a swing of her arm. She had used her full strength, so she shattered the bones in Hussain's hands, leaving them deformed and swollen.
Over the years, despite refusing to use her family's Carbon Arts, Morgiana's combat skill had grown exponentially as she developed her unique fighting style and physical abilities. The only thing keeping Morgiana out of Sulfur was the fact that she kept breaking school rules. Thus, she had the raw power to break Hussain's bones with a backhand.
Instead of wincing at the pain, Hussain stared at the hyperventilating Morgiana.
"I'm sorry, but don't touch me." Morgiana's brow pinched downward. "I'm sorry."
"What's wrong?" I put a hand to my chest. Seeing Morgiana in such a disturbed state was hard to process given how unlike her usual self it was. "You know who Daud is, don't you?"
"I do." Morgiana spoke through harsh breaths. "He's a…person I knew when I was a kid. We have to avoid him no matter what."
"Why?"
"Because he's a monster, a wretched…I don't even know what to call him. Everything I can think of feels like I'd be putting it too lightly." The growl in Morgiana's voice gave me goosebumps.
"What did Daud do when you were kids?" Badroulbadour said.
"None of your business. All you need to know is that we gotta stay away from him. He seems nice, but it's all an act so he can use people."
"I don't mean to come off like I don't believe you, but you were only kids when whatever happened between you two happened, and I assume you haven't spoken since. A lot of kids are shitty. He might not be like that anymore."
"He wasn't being shitty the way kids normally can be. Daud didn't even act like a kid. He knew what he was doing." Morgiana's shaking intensified further. "Just don't be around him! Alright?"
"Fine!" Badroulbadour held up her hands. "I trust you. You're my friend after all."
"I still want to give him a chance," Hussain said.
"Are you serious?" Morgiana barked.
"I believe everyone deserves a second chance, and I don't even know what he actually did to you since you won't explain. I trust you as much as Badroulbadour does, but I don't want to make a judgment call on someone I've never spoken to and who, when it comes to what I've seen, acts like a good person."
"So you're gonna try to be friends with Daud?"
"I will."
"Then stay away from me. I'm not hanging out with someone who spends time with Daud and doesn't believe what I tell them." Morgiana began stomping away.
"I do believe you, but he might have changed!" Hussain began to run after Morgiana, but I grabbed him by the arm.
Morgiana broke into a sprint and left the building.
"Let's leave her alone. Talking is making her more agitated."
Hussain's eyes and mouth shut tightly, his head turning up and down, left and right, until finally he sighed.
"You're right. We'll talk to her later when she's calm."
I was confused about what could have happened between Morgiana and Daud in this timeline. It was hard to believe my or Hussain's actions could have changed Daud's personality much from the anime's version of him given he already had an entire previous lifetime to solidify who he was as a person. Also, Daud acted identical to his anime self when he saved that Salt girl.
If only Morgiana wasn't so guarded about her past, though given how she reacted to learning Daud was at the Academy, she probably didn't want to get into what were certainly some traumatic experiences.
After going to a nurse to have Hussain's hands fixed up, he, Badroulbadour, Pan Hu and I hung out around campus, though it was hard to have fun given what happened with Morgiana. Eventually we decided to head to our respective dorms.
When we got back to our shared apartment, Badroulbadour, Pan Hu, and I found Morgiana in her bottom bunk, the blanket pulled over her head so she was completely covered. She didn't respond when we asked her how she was feeling, though she did let out a grunt when we wondered aloud if she was awake.
Badroulbadour and I turned in for the night.
The next few days consisted of getting accustomed to my new classes and dealing with the usual harassment. There was also a lot of talk about Daud. His saving the Salt girl and showing off his power was recorded and spread around, and everyone on campus heard and felt when his chainsaw revved up. Abriza showing up was enough to make the event become mainstream news.
The consensus was that he was the best thing since flatbread. It was hard not to like a guy who saves people from bullies without even needing to attack anybody, all while remaining humble. People were already predicting that he'd become one of the next great Alchemists. Also, there was gossip about if Daud and Abriza would start dating.
I arrived at a lecture hall for the first day of one of my new classes. Instead of the onslaught of death glares my presence normally elicited, everyone in the room was focused on someone else.
A smiling Daud was sitting surrounded by almost every student in the hall.
"How'd you get so strong?"
"I trained and studied hard. Anyone can become strong if they work hard enough."
"Have you spoken to Abriza again since you first met?"
"Yes, though I don't think it would be appropriate to give details without asking Abriza."
"What do you like in a partner?"
"I like a woman who is kind and passionate. Things like how someone looks don't matter when it comes to love."
Hearts appeared in the air and in the eyes of many maidens in the crowd.
For the first time in years, I was able to walk over to my seat and sit down without attracting attention, all thanks to Daud taking the spotlight. No glares. No thrown objects. I was able to relax. It was surreal.
If only it lasted.
Eventually, one person noticed me, and they alerted everyone else to my presence. They all began to talk bad about me without bothering to keep their voices down, because they wanted me to hear them.
While most everyone had something to say about me, Daud stayed quiet. He was looking at me, his lips slightly parted. He smiled when he noticed that I was looking back at him.
Class started when the professor arrived and it was unremarkable.
After class, I left the lecture hall and the building. As I was flying through a series of shadowy alleys in order to avoid drawing attention, someone called my name.
"Excuse me, Scheherazade! I'd like to talk!"
The fact that someone had called my name so politely was a rarity that I couldn't help but stop and turn around.
Daud was floating on a hoverboard, a soft smile on his face.
"Thanks for stopping." Daud raised a hand in greeting. "I'm Daud. It's nice to meet you."
I pointed to my throat before shaking my head 'no'.
"Yeah, I heard. It gets brought up a lot along with a bunch of other rumors about you." Daud rubbed the back of his head. "People make a lot of assumptions about you, but I don't like to condemn people without evidence. The only concrete, provable things people point to in order to say you're bad are either that time you made a star while defending yourself and destroyed a whole desert, which I think was okay as you were doing what you had to in order to survive, and the fact that your parents were the Sultan and Sultana Consort. Your parents, well, I don't know how you feel about your parents, so I won't say what my thoughts on them are, but I don't wanna assume you're exactly like them. I want to get to know you and make my own call. Everyone deserves a fair shot."
Daud appeared to have the same ideology as Hussain.
"Could we talk a bit? We can speak wherever you want. I know you probably want to stay out of the public eye, so we should probably go somewhere private."
Everything so far pointed to Daud being the same generically good guy that he was in the anime, but then why did Morgiana despise and fear him? I couldn't find an answer to that question other than that Daud's kindness was performative. The issue with that was that anime Daud's kindness was undeniably earnest.
Any changes to the timeline caused by Hussain and I's actions seemed unlikely to alter Daud's personality much given he already had a whole previous life to develop who he was. What could turn a guy whose defining personality trait was his kindness into a bad person?
Perhaps Morgiana misread whatever situation she and Daud went through as a child. She was only a kid, and kids can misunderstand things, but then why did Morgiana have clear trauma from the event. Could she misread the situation so harshly that she could be scarred by it?
My questions piled on as I hit roadblock after roadblock conjured from a lack of information. I wished Morgiana had explained what happened between her and Daud.
If Morgiana's claims were true, then it would be dangerous to get close to Daud considering how powerful he was. Also, if Morgiana found out I spent time with Daud, she would feel understandably betrayed.
But I really wanted to know what happened between him and Morgiana, and if Morgiana wouldn't open up, perhaps Daud would.
Plus, if it turned out Daud was nice, he could make a strong ally. It was even possible that I could act as a mediator between Morgiana and Daud so they could talk things out. Morgiana might achieve some sense of closure over what happened between the two of them.
Assuming I accepted Daud's offer to talk, then I had to decide where we would speak. I didn't want to be alone with him if he really was dangerous, but if I was seen in public with Daud, it was possible that Morgiana would find out. There was risk either way, which inclined me to reject Daud's request.
Inspiration struck me, and an answer to the problem of where to talk was found. I could speak with Daud in public where it'd be unlikely he'd do anything immediately dangerous, and while reducing the risk of Morgiana finding out Daud and I had spoken.
One conversation. Even if Morgiana's fears were entirely well founded, one conversation in public couldn't hurt.
Pulling out a notepad, I turned to a page with my brain implant's contact info on it which I showed to Daud. He input the info and proceeded to give me his own.
"I'm willing to talk, but I have some conditions," I texted.
"I understand. I'm sure you're hesitant to trust just anybody considering all the harassment you get thrown at you. What're your conditions?"
"There are two. First, I want to talk with you in a public space that has a lot of people around." Daud's hand grabbed and squeezed his thigh when I sent him that message. He had suggested that we talk alone before, so perhaps he was frustrated I wasn't doing as he wanted. Why would he prefer it if we talked in private? Did he not want to have his reputation damaged by getting seen with me, or did he want to do something to me that he wouldn't be able to get away with while around others, or was it something else entirely?
"Fair enough. I doubt you wanna be alone with someone you don't really know, but we're alone right now, so that ship probably sailed as soon as we entered this alley. What's the second condition?" Daud's smile persisted.
"We wear disguises." I normally didn't bother with disguises when on campus, even when outside of classes, because any time I tried to come up with a disguise, it would be seen through after a few uses and I'd have to come up with a new one. After enough failed disguises, I gave up, especially as I became more used to being harassed on the regular.
That said, I didn't want Morgiana to find out I had spoken to Daud, so I decided that using a new disguise just once for this occasion should work. It was doubtful that it'd be seen through during its first use.
"Wearing disguises might be fun." Daud stopped grasping his thigh. "Let's do it."
"Thank you."
I conjured hydrogen and oxygen that bonded into ice that then unspooled into threads. White strings weaved into a burqa that concealed my entire body.
"That's clever, and the veil's beautiful. Are you training to become a fashion designer?"
"No, though I do have a passion for modern fashion. Got any ideas for your disguise?"
"As a matter of fact…" Daud snapped his fingers, and a pair of solid silver sunglasses appeared on his face. More silver coated every single hair on his head, the follicles atop said head standing up in a spiky style. Faux piercings of yet more silver formed on Daud's eyebrows, nose, and ears. To finish the look, Daud unbuttoned his suit jacket. "Call me Abu."
"Call me Rajah."
"Well, Ms. Rajah, where shall we go?"
"There's a museum near here where a lot of students hang out. Follow me."
I led the way as we flew to the museum, which was built into a skyscraper sized acacia tree. A cylindrical tower topped with a dome sat where all the acacia's branches extended from the trunk, the leaves above covering the museum in shadow.
The interior of the building was a mix of man made rooms blended with naturally formed caverns of wood. Tendrils of the tree snaked throughout the building, some even serving as walls, ceilings, or support pillars. Artifacts from Alf-Laylah wa-Laylah's history were on display in the various spaces, from weathered scrolls and tablets, to fragments of pottery, to rusted weapons.
Daud and I stepped into a room full of artifacts from the war against the djinn, primarily clothing and weapons. Despite being full of items from the era of Daud's original life, he didn't appear to have any particular reaction to any of it.
"These swords are pretty cool. They probably aren't worth much in a fight without Alchemy though." Daud was presumably speaking from experience. I couldn't tell if Daud was keeping up a poker face, or if he genuinely lacked much emotional connection to his past life.
"You like swords?" I texted.
"What guy doesn't?" Daud's hands were in his pockets. "Anything here catching your eye?"
"The clothes are sorta interesting. The patterns and materials are simple, but still nice. People probably couldn't afford to make more opulent clothing, so they had to get creative. Art through adversity." I walked up to a robe with a pattern of vertical lines on it.
"That's a good point. I never would have thought about that. You're smart."
"I'm really not."
"All you had to do was look at some clothing in order to come to a thoughtful conclusion about how humans in another era lived their lives. That sounds smart to me."
"It was a basic observation."
"One I didn't make. Are you saying I'm stupid?"
"No." My stomach dropped as I feared I had offended Daud.
"Then I guess you're smart." Daud shrugged and grinned.
"Clever." I crossed my arms.
"So what are your hobbies?"
"Mostly studying. I also like dancing, especially belly dancing. Sometimes I go for walks, and I enjoy watching sports, video essays on the internet, and anime." I put a finger to my cheek as my head tilted to the side. "I read manga, swim, do yoga and martial arts. Exercising in general is a big hobby for me. People watching is nice. My biggest hobby is spending time with my friends, or my pet snake. Being in small, enclosed spaces is also up there."
"What was that last one?"
"Don't worry about it. Oh, I also use my Alchemy to revitalize poor communities. It's more of a passion than a hobby, something I do with my friends when we have the time."
"I've heard about that. Some news outlets have reported on it."
"A lot of them frame it like I'm doing it to try and clean up my image." My head leaned back. "I used to do it while disguised, so the logic that I'm doing it for clout doesn't really track but whatever. It has helped to get a tiny number of people to rethink their view of me, namely the people I've helped. I say 'I', but it's something I do with my friends. They deserve just as much credit."
"How does anyone hate you?"
"Easily."
"You literally help needy people on the regular. Anyone who assumes you're evil is wrong, that's plain to see after a one minute conversation with you."
"Guess that means you've already made your judgment on me."
"What more would I need to know about you? Unless you're secretly killing babies or something, I can't imagine how I could consider you anything other than a good person." Daud held out his hands in an exaggerated gesture of confusion.
"People who help others can still have skeletons in their closets. Being capable of doing genuine good doesn't preclude the capacity for evil." I had my own hidden sins that supported my point, even if many of my wrongs were unintentionally committed.
"I think a person who does good things is a good person. Until I see the person do something bad, I don't assume there's some hidden darkness. Innocent until proven guilty."
"Fair enough." Upon hearing Daud's philosophy, I remembered one of the reasons I wanted to talk to him. "Abu, tell me about yourself. It's only fair that you open up a bit too."
"Alright. What do you wanna know?"
"How about your childhood?"
"Welp, my family was really poor, borderline homeless. It wasn't fun, food was scarce. Both my parents worked their asses off to take care of me. Thankfully, it turned out I had a strong body and a talent for Alchemy, and I could even use two elements. I discovered this when I was really young, and I worked my ass off to master my powers." Daud generated some silver and platinum from his palm that formed into a perfect sculpture of my veiled form in miniature. "Then I used my strength and Alchemy to do tons of odd jobs to make money. I'd do work that normally required hiring a pro Alchemist, and I'd do it for way cheaper than the usual price. This, along with winning a bunch of junior Alchemist competitions and kids martial arts tournaments, let me make a lot of money quickly. I was able to make my family wealthy. Now my parents don't have to work at all, and I was able to afford enrolling in Khalid Al-Kimiya Academy."
"Impressive." Hearing how this timeline's Daud decisively solved his family's poverty issue before even enrolling in the Academy made the anime version of Daud seem like a dumbass.
"I'm not that special. There are plenty of students who could do what I did if they worked hard enough." Daud shrugged and returned his hands to his pockets.
"Did you have any friends as a kid?"
"Sure. A lot actually. Being able to use Alchemy will always make you popular, especially if you're born in a poor area." Daud's smile twitched. "But you want to know about a specific friend, right? Morgiana."
"How did you guess?"
"You're friends with Morgiana, and since you're all over the media, the fact that Morgiana's your friend is too." Daud was whispering.
"Makes sense."
"Mmm." Daud shifted the placement of his feet. "Morgiana probably told you some things about me."
"Only that you're so horrible that she couldn't even find the words to express her disgust for you. Also that you were friends as kids, but something happened where you knowingly did something really bad."
"It wasn't one thing." Daud sighed deeply. "Morgiana and I were little kids, real little, and we developed crushes on each other, and we decided to become boyfriend and girlfriend. Normally that wouldn't mean much for kids as young as we were. You see eight year olds deciding their a couple and then breaking up an hour later over the tiniest things. I took it seriously though, way too seriously. I became possessive of Morgiana and wouldn't let her talk to other boys for fear that she would 'cheat on me'. I was mean to her, because I had this idealized view of what our relationship should have been based on how well my parents got along, and how other parents I saw seemed to never fight. Of course, it's just that adults usually try to avoid having big arguments in front of children. If Morgiana ever disagreed with me, I'd get mad, but she'd never break up with me. She was too nice. We were only kids, but I think it's because she was still a kid that Morgiana was scarred from my, well, bullying. Eventually, I went too far and I hit her. That was the last straw. I was no longer welcome around her."
"That's it?"
"That's it. I swear that's all I did. I was just a shitty kid, but that doesn't excuse me. Morgiana has every right to hate me. She did nothing wrong." Daud removed his hand from his pocket. He looked at his palm before forming a fist. "After driving Morgiana away, I realized that I had to be a better man. I'm not who I was as a kid, I've matured, but it doesn't change that what I did was wrong. I don't want Morgiana to give me a second chance or anything. I just hope she's happy."
Daud's story sounded believable enough without full context, and he even appeared genuinely remorseful for his past mistakes. The problem was that Daud's story hinged on him having been immature as a child. I knew Daud was actually a reincarnation of the Djinn King. Even as a child, he was mentally an adult. Why would he enter a relationship with a child? How could he be mean to her due to immaturity if he had an entire lifetime of experience?
For some reason, Daud was lying. Which details were lies? What were his intentions for doing so? Given I could potentially get more of Morgiana's side of the story, it was doubtful he'd come up with lies that would too greatly contradict the events as Morgiana would tell them.
Assumedly, Daud really did mistreat Morgiana, but why would he? The mere fact that he was the boyfriend of a little girl was creepy.
No matter what the answers to my questions were, I knew now that I couldn't trust Daud. Despite acting like his anime incarnation, he was suspicious.
"I understand if you don't want to associate with me." Daud looked away from me. "I hurt your friend."
"While I'm certainly not happy about what you did, you claimed you've changed, and I want to give you the opportunity to prove it, like how you gave me the opportunity to demonstrate my own character." In truth, I wanted to investigate what was up with Daud more, so I didn't want to kill any chance for future interactions with him.
"Thanks." Daud scratched his cheek. "It'd be kinda awkward to keep talking about my childhood at this point, so how about we just enjoy the museum for a while?"
"Sounds like a plan."
Daud was an enigma, but it wasn't the first time I was confused upon meeting a character from the Al-Kimiya anime. I'd unravel this mystery, just like the others.