Chapter 9: Alicia Young
Guys, sorry for the lack of chapters these past days, but I wasn't really feeling the groove and thought it would be better to give you a better written chapter rather than just release things because of a 'schedule' which I don't really have. Also, technically, I_love_Rice was the first to tell me who 'The Fog's Enemy' was, so he will decide which world the first mission from the MDCG will take place in.
D*i*s*c*o*r*d link in comments and synopsys.
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After getting too close to dying, Cyril decided to take Sunday to rest his mind. Even if 'Gamer's Mind' did most of the work and stopped him from feeling actually tired, that didn't mean that his state of mind didn't get worse the more he pushed himself. So after fighting non-stop for eight hours, he decided to rest for twenty-four. He talked for a bit with the members of the MDCG, particularly listening to Kougouryuu complain about there not being someone strong enough to actually challenge her –her gender having been confirmed after Touya called her 'mate'–, Touya explain how excited he was about getting his starter Pokemon; an Oshawott... whatever that was, Mirajane talking about her work in her Guild, Fairy Tail and The Fog's Enemy talking about his friend unlocking his Persona –whatever that was, once again.
Waking up on a Monday morning, Cyril felt like a new person. After preparing a quick yet healthy breakfast, he got dressed. Leaving his house now in a pair of black timbs, slim fit torn jeans, a plain white tee and a grey leather jacket on top, unzipped. Even though he had never been sloppy with his appearance, Cyril began actively trying to wear better fits since he began doing socials more seriously. In just the past week, he had gone from his original 2k followes on Pictagram to a whopping 10k. And that was in just a week!
[Mirajane: Good morning, everyone. How are you doing today?]
[The Gamer: I am doing just fine, how about you? Are the others here?]
[Mirajane: No, it is only us for now, though I have to get doing my job already.]
[The Gamer: I have classes to attend too, so good luck with that, Mirajane.]
[Mirajane has left the chat group.]
[The Gamer has left the chat group.]
Mirajane had decided to take out her surname from her nickname since it was a bother to read it every single time she sent a message, and she and Cyril had gotten to talk a lot the previous day, mostly about the chat group and how it worked and the functions it had. Cyril explained how the Quests and Shop worked and how you needed points earned from the Quests in order to use the shop, it being currently locked and everything.
After closing the MDCG, Cyril got on his way towards college. Meeting Stan and Lam on the way, the three friend arrived at the Manhattan College campus with twenty minutes of leisure before classes began. At the door, Cyril found himself in a weird situation.
"Hey guys, can I borrow Cyril for a bit?" Alicia asked as she approached the group, which she had been waiting for at the entrance of the main building.
"Oh please, suit yourself Alicia." Stanley said with a knowing grin plastered on his face. "We had something to do anyway, right Lam?"
"'Tis the case, so it would seem we have to get going." Lamonte answered without much care, knowing full well that is was just a plan to leave Cyril alone with Alicia. As they walked away, he threw a glance towards Cyril and Alicia. "'Aight, that gonna do it, right?"
"*sigh* These guys..." Cyril said with a sigh as he watched his friends quickly make their way towards the cafeteria. "So, how can I help you, Alicia? And how have you been since last Monday?"
"It is exactly about the past Monday that I want to talk with you about." Alicia said while bringing me to a relatively hidden spot behind the main building.
"Hey, I don't want to say you are that kind of girl, but I'm not really in..." Cyril tried to say before Alicia completely disregarded his joke and jumped over any and every formality, adressing the elephant in the room.
"What were those skeletons and how did you kill them?" Alicia interrogated him with utmost seriousness in her eyes. Unfortunately, Cyril had already thought of what to do if that ever happened, so he just went ahead and put his plan into action.
"What skeletons are you talking about, Alicia? It was just a couple of thugs." Cyril answered while looking at Alicia with some worry in his eyes. "Are you sure you are okay?"
"I-I am sure I am ok! And I know what I saw!" Alicia said, raising her voice a bit without realizing she was doing so. "You were there too and I know you saw it and you fought them!"
"I really don't know what you are talking about." Cyril insisted, feeling slightly guilty inside for what he was doing. "Maybe you hit your head when you faint..."
"I DIDN'T HIT MY HEAD!" Alicia yelled in frustration and a mix of sadness and... fear? "Cyril please... that day I was walking back home when everyone on the street suddenly disappeared, then I heard those weird clacking noises and had to run from the skeletons... and you-I... I'm scared... *sob*."
'Just great Cyril, you made a girl cry...' Cyril thought as he went over every option he had. He knew that denying Alicia the truth would do more harm than good in the long run, but he also knew the dangers knowing about The Abyss implied. Alas, he had to make a choice at that same moment. "*sigh* I'm going to regret this..."
"There is a lot more to this world than what meets the eye, Alicia." Cyril began saying before sighing once again and giving her the final choice. "But if I tell you more than this, your life will no longer be the same and you will not have the option to choose by then so, Alicia, please think about it carefully."
Alicia allowed his words to sink in as she calmed down from her sudden outburst of emotions. It wasn't easy to amke such a choice, but she had already thought about it for the past week. She couldn't continue living her regular life and just forget about what had happened. Not when she relived that moment in her mind hundreds of times and only found a small modicum of safety when she was near Cyril, who had saved her that day. She didn't want to live scared or feel so dependent on him, and thus, her choice was made.
"I... I want to know." Alicia said with a little doubt in her voice before taking a deep breath and reassuring herself. "I need to know what happened, what is going on and just how much more I don't know about the world I live in."
'Nope, I'm not going to sigh again.' Cyril thought when he caught himself about to sigh for the nth time that day. "Ok then, you'll get your answers. Can you come over to my place after classes?"
"Yeah... I can do that." Alicia said before hurriedly leaving, not really wanting to be there now that she had calmed down and realizing what she had just done. Her thoughts were just as chaotic. 'Oh my god, I feel so embarrassed, how could I lose my cool like that?! And I agreed to go to his place after classes without even thinking, why?! Will he think I-I'm... easy?'
Oblivious to her thoughts but understanding of how she must be feeling currently, Cyril just smiled wryly before heading over to his classroom where he would have to deal with Stan and Lam asking questions. And thinking about them, he felt slightly guilty for hiding this from his best friends but telling Alicia about it when they weren't really that close. He really wanted to avoid getting people who were totally unrelated to The Abyss involved, but was he truly a good friend when he was hiding something like that from them? And besides, he hadn't bothered checking the 'Social' tab of 'The Gamer' but... if there were a Party and Friends option... wouldn't he be able to make them level up too?
There were too many things to think about, and he had quite a few hours to think about it... but he was sure of one thing. He would protect them as best as he could.
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The only IRL reference people caught was Carlos Manson who appeared in the first chapter being Charles Manson. I will now explain the rest:
"Be water my friend." is a famous quote by Bruce Lee.
"Calmly, feel myself evolving..." is a reference to Clouds, a song by the rapper NF.
And last but not least, the biggest reference possible in my opinion, Stanley Horland. Thomas Stanley Holland, also known simply as Tom Holland, is a 1.73 meters tall actor who we know mostly as Spider-man and the young Nathan Drake in the upcoming Uncharted movie (plus many other roles).
On another note, I made a D*i*s*c*o*r*d Server for this novel, and the link will be in the comments and added to the synopsys.
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AmateurTrainer
AmateurTrainer I need reviews, comments, power stones and any form of feedback that I can get from you guys. I really want to make this the best story I can possibly write for us both to enjoy, writing and reading respectively. It has been very fun until now, and I want to keep it that way.
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