"Before we talk," started the young boy as he gestured towards a table with chairs further inside the library. "How about taking a seat first?"
"Thanks for the offer," Chris replied as they both went to take their seats which were face-to-face towards another.
The library was dimly lit with the sunlight breaking through the windows as few lamps were still functional. The atmosphere was heavy with the tension created by them.
"For starters, who are you?" Chris broke the silence with a question.
"Who am I, huh?" the young boy pondered before answering. "If I had to say then I don't know."
"What?!" Chris exclaimed surprised by the young boy's words.
"Ah! Don't get me wrong. I said I don't know but it's not like I don't know everything," the young boy reassured, trying to explain himself.
"Then..." Chris's voice trailed off, inquiring the boy to answer.
"My name is Ace," the boy answered while presenting himself. "That's about the only thing I'm really sure about myself."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I know that my name is Ace and that I'm around 12 or 13 years old. But anything more than that I don't really know."
"Then where do you come from? Are there others like you? Do you-" Chris successively questioned Ace who interrupted him.
"Wow, wow. Hold your horses soldier." Ace gestured to Chris to slow down as became overwhelmed with questions without having time to answer.
"I know that I was in a place crawling with monsters. When I beat all of them, a portal appeared and when I passed through it, I ended up here," Ace explained.
"For your second question, I doubt there are others like me. Even if there are, I've got no way of knowing who they are anyway,"
"I-I see," said Chris, his voice tinged with disappointment as he held his face while Ace seemed to observe him attentively.
Regaining his composure, "I know it's a little late to ask but you seem awfully cooperative considering how those who came before me ended up. Why is that?" Chris inquired, finding Ace's behaviour unexpected.
Though it went unnoticed to Chris, Ace seemed hesitant to answer for a short moment. What was going on inside his head was completely unknown.
And then, "I told ya, didn't I? They didn't want to talk so I beat them up. As simple as that."
"I see."
"I'm really having a hard time reading this boy," thought Chris as he couldn't comprehend the actions and behaviour of the boy.
"Guess he's sharper than I thought," Ace thought, his expression still the same but his mind much darker and colder.
"Trust my instincts. Whether it'd be then with him or now with me, I should always trust my instincts even when my mind doesn't know what's happening. It the number of sacrifices doesn't matter as long as I survive."
As soon as Ace and Chris made eye contact once more, Chris broke the silence. "I'm Chris, Chris Blakelord. I'm also the Deputy Chief of the Jaegers Association."
"I see," frantically reacted Ace. "So?"
"We are an organization that handles matters related to Vanishing Points and monsters. Whether it'd monster raiding or Realizer training, we handle it all," responded Chris.
"If I understood well, Vanishing Points are the things similar to the portal i came out from while Realizers are the guys that I beat up earlier, right?"
"Correct."
"That's good info to get a hold of," Ace thought, absorbing the information he was given. "Next..."
"What's going to happen to me now?" asked Ace. "No. Let me reformulate. What do you intend to do to me?"
Ace's question was followed with a dark and menacing expression. Chris who noticed it, was even more convinced that his answer would decide the next turn of events──a deal and agreement or a heated blood battle.
"That... I don't know," honestly answered Chris.
"Your case is different if not much unique at this point. You came out of a Vanishing Point but unlike monsters, you're not hostile and we can communicate," continued Chris as he explained how complicated this particular situation is.
"You say I'm not hostile, but you couldn't be farther from the truth. I only care about one thing and that's my survival. It doesn't matter if they're human or monster. If I strike my enemy, it's to kill," Ace's dark thoughts developed as he hid them away behind an expressionless facade. "Not that I'd ever say this out loud of course."
"A deal it is then, right?" said Ace, a relaxed smile on his face.
"That seems like the most viable option," Chris said, a tinge of worry and anxiousness etched on his face and voice.
"Jackpot! For now, the plan seems to be going smoothly. It was quite the headache to know how I would get myself out of this," thought Ace, rethinking of how he had reached this point.
---
---
---
[Initiating System Reboot]
[…]
[System Reboot complete.]
[Retrieving Backup Data from System Memory]
[…]
[Backup retrieval complete]
[Designation of Avatar: Ace as new subject initiated]
[…]
[Designation complete.]
[Character Synchronization of new subject with Backup Data Model: $#%&!@# initiated.]
[…]
[Character Synchronization complete.]
[Initiating Main Scenario.]
A portal opened up inside a giant building. A building that held collections of multitudes of books about different subjects which went from humanities and sciences to fine arts and languages.
It was a library. And from the depths of the portal, a figure came out of it. A young boy with messy jet-black hair wearing ragged clothes.
Screen windows appeared out of thin air
[Transmission into Main Scenario has been successful.]
[Activating System Standby until next scenario phase.]
After seeing those messages, the young boy, Ace, thought of opening his Status Window.
It didn't respond.
"Standby, huh? Basically, I'm on my own from now on? But more importantly... who am I?" he looked down at himself, clenching his fists repeatedly before unknown memories started flowing into his mind.
The memories that flooded him seemed familiar to him yet at the same time completely alien.
It was Asaru Takayoshi's memories. Memories of being attacked by monsters and attacking them. Memories of feeling the despair of death and the hope of seeing another day. Memories of fearing what lurks beyond the darkness.
Countless of those memories became resonated in his mind more and more until only a single one echoed strongly.
"An alias, right?"
"Ace."
Ace walked towards a window, and seeing his reflection on a window, a younger face stared back at him with wide, inquisitive eyes.
"This... is... me?" he thought, a realization coming to him like a bullet through the heart.
Two different entities with one having the memories of the other, the fact that those two seemed to blend together so seamlessly yet distinguish themselves fiercely, the confusion about who he really was creeping in his heart even more.
"So that's it. That's who I am. No... who I was."