"We waited. And we waited. Bated breaths shared by all. We hath won, but at what cost? Men, women, and children. Dead. Thy blood on mine hands… We prayed to Our Lord, didst we not? So why didst thy not grant us amnesty? Why didst we hath do this? Didst thou wish thy dead? Willst our souls be given rest? Or wilt thou casteth us to thee firey abyss?" – A General praying to Ares for consultation, 89 B.C.
It was hard to explain what it was that Jolyne felt at the moment. Indescribable, even. Having been turned into dust and then suddenly not being dust was an experience that she hoped to never have to relive. One moment, she was blind, deaf, and scared, then the next, she was none of those things. She felt the soft plush of a mattress underneath her body, and the blinding sensation of light pouring on her eyes.
She groaned, raising her arm to block the light out of her eyes as she slowly came to. All the while, multiple voices were speaking in unison—two, maybe three, if she had been accurate in assuming that. Or hell, it could've been one voice, but due to her current dizziness and confusion, it could have sounded like multiple voices. She could barely make out where it was she had been due to the intensity of the light, coupled with the buzzing sound invading her ears.
After what felt like multiple minutes of reorienting herself, Jolyne sat up. A headache unlike any other was the first thing that she noticed and immediately felt the full brunt of. Her response was to cuddle her forehead as another soft groan escaped her lips, gnashing her teeth together in the process. After a few more seconds, the headache disappeared, and she was finally able to fully open her eyes and observe her surroundings.
To her immediate right, a light brown wooden wall shaped like an L was on wheels. She didn't know why it was there, only that it was, and it was giving her privacy and blocking someone's or multiple people's view of her.
To her left, there was a puke green wall with a single white stripe going through the center of it horizontally. As she noted before, she was lying on a soft mattress, with a pure white heavy fabric blanket draped atop her. The final thing she noticed about the bed itself was that the frame was made of metal.
Flipping the covers off of herself rather than seeing what she had been wearing when she was turned to dust, she found herself dressed in a bright blue hospital gown with white dots. The clothes she had been wearing prior had been draped over at the end of the bed frame, along with a pair of fresh undergarments. Just by the side of the bed was a pair of black lace-up boots.
"When did this get on me?" Jolyne thought, looking down at the hospital gown, before waving the thought away. While it was concerning that someone had stripped her of her clothing and put this on her, something else more important came to mind. "Forget that! More importantly…." As she thought that, she patted herself down.
When her hands came into contact with skin—actual, honest-to-God skin—a wave of realization washed over her. Something that she never thought would have happened had happened. She had done the one thing that millions upon millions of people believed to be impossible and heretical.
She was reincarnated. She didn't go to some kind of Heaven or Hell. She was reincarnated. And the best part? She was aware of it. What did that mean for everything else? It was a little confusing, because reincarnation was an Eastern religion thing, whereas Loki was a Pagan God and part of a religion that believed in a Heaven and Hell-like structure. So, did that mean that every religion was right? Or did it mean certain aspects of it were right?
So many questions, so few answers, and to Jolyne, she really didn't give a shit because she was fucking alive again! "Whoa…! It wasn't a bad dream or something stupid like that. I'm alive again…!" Being alive again…. That was something that she found to be the weirdest part about this whole ordeal, not the "waking up in a place she didn't recognize."
The number of things that she could do now that she was alive after she had died not too long ago was staggering. And, with these new powers, a laundry list of ideas came to mind! And the fact that this was all her new reality, too?! What more could she ask for?!
However, there was one thing that didn't make any sense, and it pertained to her memories. Before Loki showed up, she only remembered her death. She was stabbed in the throat by someone and then promptly died; no fanfare, no nothing, just death. And then, she woke up in that strange chamber, confused and unaware of what had happened.
All of that changed when Loki showed up. Suddenly, she found herself remembering stuff about video games, Dungeons & Dragons, classes from said tabletop RPG, and her supposed past playthroughs as a "mage build" in a game called "Dark Souls." And last she checked, that was not how memories worked.
So that begged the question…. Were those her actual memories, or did Loki do something to her while she wasn't looking? She didn't know. As a matter of fact, she didn't even know what her prior gender was before she died, so it was all up in the air. For all she knew, before her death, she was a guy. What she did know was that if she had died and remembered her reincarnation, that meant that, following that logic, when you died, you'd remember who you once were.
"Finally, you're awake," an annoyed-sounding voice spoke, cutting through her thoughts as Jolyne turned in the direction where the voice came from. The wooden wall that had previously given her privacy was carted out of the way, revealing a woman in a pink nurse outfit.
She looked Asian, specifically either Chinese, Japanese, or Korean—she couldn't tell what the differences were, if any. The only hint that she had regarding the nurse before her ethnicity had been the name tag on her left lapel, which was written in Japanese Kanji, which she could now read somehow, making out the name Tatsube.
Jolyne blinked, confusion wracking her brain. Where was she? Was she in Japan? That would make sense, given the Japanese Kanji on the name tag. There were also various medical posters lining the puke-green walls of the room she was in beyond where she had been stationed, all of which also listed medical facts in Japanese.
"Since when could I read Japanese?" Jolyne thought, a frown making its way onto her face. She had just finished talking to Loki in fluent English, so why was she now suddenly reading Japanese as if she was fluent in it? She remembered—or at least she thought she had remembered—that the only language she knew how to read, write, and speak in was English. So what was with the sudden change?
"Never mind that…. That's not important for now. What's important is figuring out where I am," Jolyne thought as she looked around the room over the shoulder of the nurse. The only concrete thing that she knew was that she had been in a bed with a wooden wall put in front of her, dressed in a hospital gown. Aside from that, she knew nothing.
And, unfortunately, the room she was in right now didn't give her much to go off of.
The first thing that caught her eye was the windows. Through one of them, she could make out the sun beginning to set or rise, so it was either super early in the morning or late in the afternoon, bordering on evening. There was also a computer off to the very right-hand corner of the room that looked to be ripped from the 1990s. Finally, there was a calendar that marked the date as August 5th, 2014.
Jolyne had died in 2011—she didn't know that as a fact; it just felt like the truth. So, considering that that meant she was three years in the future, and she was seemingly in Japan, that meant that, once again, Loki had meddled with something. He either placed her in a Japanese hospital, or she was being put into a precarious situation right off the bat for his own sick amusement. She was hoping for it to be the former, and for the sake of her sanity, unless proven otherwise, that was the answer she was going with.
Another question soon came with that one, this one being less assumptive of Loki and far more rational. Was this her universe—that was such a strange thing to think—or was this a different one? Loki definitely implied that had been the case. She was still trying to get a hold of that idea. That the Multiverse was real. That implied a lot. Did that mean that the fictional worlds that she used to watch and read about were real?
If that was the case, was she possibly in what she would have considered a fictional world? Well, it wasn't fictional, not anymore anyway, but that was beside the point. Did that mean the world of "Dark Souls" was real? Did the world of "Halo" exist, too—whatever that was? What else was out there? She wanted to know! Maybe there existed a world where she was still alive, in her original body, with her memories, and not whatever these dubious "memories" were.
"Oi! Brat, I'm talking to you!" Nurse Tatsube once again cut her out of her thoughts, her voice sharp and demanding. The look in her eyes from before seemingly doubled, a scowl taking up her visage. "Do you have any idea how much money it costs to keep stupid people like you alive after doing something so reckless?!"
Jolyne blinked, genuine confusion bubbling in her mind as she processed what it was that Nurse Tatsube said, with all of it leading to one question: "What the hell is she talking about?"
Genuinely, she had no idea what it was that she was going on about. Even testing those "memories" of hers came back with nothing. At least, nothing that she could really call upon that would land her in the hospital. "What did I do?" Jolyne thought, tilting her head, which only seemed to piss Tatsube off more. The scowl on her face morphed into an almost snarl, her nose wrinkling in disgust as her eyes narrowed even further than they had before, almost appearing like slits in her face more than they appeared to be eyes.
"Oh, don't look at me like that! You caused the whole school building to go into lockdown, you know that?! Frankly, I'm surprised you woke up so quickly. Those injuries you had were severe, and because of that, I had to stay overnight and—"
"That will be quite enough, Nurse," a calm, collected voice interrupted as Tatsube froze in place, her expression going from annoyed to shocked, as all of the colour in her face drained. Slowly, she turned to face the entrance of wherever it was that she had been—a school if what she said was true—as Jolyne looked over to where Tatsube was staring.
Standing in the doorway was a man. He was, if she had to guess, around five foot nine to five foot eleven. He had slicked-back dark purple hair, violet eyes, and sunkissed skin. He was dressed in a purple short-sleeved shirt, a pair of beige gray jeans held up by a black leather belt with a golden buckle, and black slip-on office shoes. He had his right hand in his pocket and his left hand at his side. His expression was unreadable, and his eyebrows were slightly knitted together in a downward tilt, a serious gleam dancing about in his eyes.
"Is that any way to speak to a patient? Especially after what she did that got her here in the first place? If you're frustrated with someone, be frustrated with me. After all, I was the one who told you to stay by her side until she awoke. We will be having a discussion about this later, but for now, you're free to leave," the man said as Tatsube bowed deeply, muttering something to the effect of an apology, before scuttling out of the room with hurried steps like a rat getting caught stealing something from a kitchen cabinet. As she left, the man sighed, shaking his head as if he had been disappointed.
The man looked up at Jolyne, then approached, pulling a wooden chair out from one of the desks near the entrance of the room before dragging it next to the bed and sitting down. He rested his hands against his knees, leaning forward ever so slightly, but not enough to invade her personal space. His eyes held what she could only describe as regret, his expression matching the look in his eyes with a frown. "Good afternoon. I hope you're doing well," the man said as Jolyne raised an eyebrow.
"Well, I don't suppose why I wouldn't be," she replied as the man blinked, bewilderment taking over his expression. For a second, she could've sworn he looked angry, as if what she had said just slapped him in the face, but it disappeared just as quickly as it came.
"I think something has gotten lost in translation here, Brooks-san," the man said as Jolyne blanked. She had never told this man her name, and yet he said her last name as if he knew her. What the hell was going on here? First, she woke up in some sort of school medical wing after being reincarnated with memories that she didn't quite know if they were her's or not, and the next thing she knew, she was being spoken to as if something bad had recently happened to her.
Well, that was partly true. She had died for fucksake, but it wasn't like he knew that. So what gives? What was going on here? What was she not being told?! She knew this had something to do with Loki. It had to be; otherwise, why was this happening the way it was?
"Yeah… can you, uh, catch me up here. Because I have no idea what's going on here," she replied as the man frowned, leaning into the chair with his arms crossed. He looked conflicted and confused, as if he had been expecting something different than what she had said. Now, she was starting to get annoyed; her eyebrows knit together, and her jaw set. She wasn't annoyed with the man, this wasn't his fault. No, she was annoyed with Loki because this reeked of something that Loki would do—at least, she thought so anyway. Whatever it was that he had done to her was royally screwing with her, and the more she thought about it, the more she assumed that it was most definitely on purpose.
"Well, why don't you start with what you can remember? Maybe we can jog your memory?" The man suggested as Jolyne hummed in acknowledgement. She scraped her mind for something, anything that could help. Her only memories—her only true memories that she knew were hers—unfortunately, were of her death, her reincarnation, meeting with Loki, making her current appearance, and waking up here. She wasn't going to mention the first four—that was just stupid and would probably get her thrown into the loony bin faster than she could count.
So, considering her only viable memory that she could tell the man was of her waking up here, with a shrug, Jolyne slumped in the recovery bed, frowning and crossing her arms. "Sorry, sir. I only remember waking up here, being mouthed off by that nurse, and then meeting you. Oh, and my name, obviously. It would be a little awkward if I couldn't remember that. I can also recall the basic stuff that you need to know to live by living standards like language, math, and all that funny educational stuff. Specific stuff, not so much."
"Well then, that explains a lot. You have amnesia," the man replied, and where Jolyne wanted to disagree, he was partially right. She did have amnesia. But not of what he was probably thinking about. It was ironic how he was both right and wrong at the same time. "Tell me, do you know where you are right now?"
"No," Jolyne replied curtly, the man humming in response.
"Well then, you are currently located at Hope's Peak Academy, specifically the Reserve Course Building's Medical Wing," the man said, his expression souring. "And, as for why. Well, you're a Reserve Course Student, which mandates under school policy that Reserve Course Students cannot enter the main building. And, as for why you're in the medical wing… well, there's not a nice way of saying it, but you're here because you attempted and failed to commit suicide."
And that was when Jolyne slowly began to put the pieces together. Why she was suddenly here instead of somewhere more conventional. Why was she in a hospital gown? Why was she remembering things that she knew couldn't have been her memories? Why people were seemingly mistaking her for someone who she wasn't.
There was no denying it anymore. It made far too much sense to explain her current circumstances. It shook her to her core, and both made her very upset and very angry at the same time. It meant that, fundamentally, she was not herself.
"No… there's no way. Did Loki… replace me and my memories with someone else?" That was the only way that she could rationalize why this man said she was here. Why else was she remembering things that she couldn't possibly have remembered? The only thing that probably matched who she was before had been her actual death and her death date. Aside from that, the memories that she had now belonged to whoever she replaced.
Whoever she replaced attempted to commit suicide, and Loki saw that as an opportunity to swap her out for that person, altering everyone's memories in the process by making them think that whoever this person was had been Jolyne and altering their memories to think that they survived. Meanwhile, with herself, she had her own memories removed and replaced with whoever it was that had committed suicide while altering a few things to put her actual death memories in their place.
It wasn't in the realm of impossibility, either. Loki was a God, so that was probably something he did regularly. And the fact that it had happened to her…. "You no good, rotten, ugly, repugnant piece of shit!" Jolyne thought, rage boiling over before it chilled immediately as it dawned on her that she had been robbed.
She was robbed of her memories. Of who she actually was. Replaced by whoever this person had been, with the only thing that she had to her name being the time she was murdered—and she didn't even know by whom! All she knew was that, at that moment, she was betrayed. Whoever had killed her had done so in betrayal. Or something like that.
That was all she had to remember herself by! Her fucking death! And that… "That's not fair…"
"Are you… All right, Brooks-san? You look pale. I'm sorry if what I said was distressing, but I felt as if you should know," the man said, snapping Jolyne out of her thoughts. She quickly brushed off the realization and cleared her throat. The last thing she wanted this mystery man to know was that she was in the middle of having an identity crisis.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm just… wow. Uh…" There really wasn't much to say about that. All she wanted to know was why. Why did Loki think it was funny to do a memory swap? Was it for a purpose or did he do it just to fuck with her? Although, considering the kind of person Loki was, it was probably for shits and giggles. "Whatever… what's done is done. There's nothing I can do about it. Not yet, anyway…." Jolyne thought before looking over to the man in the chair.
"You, uh… mentioned something about this place being Hope's Peak Academy…. Can you explain a little?" Jolyne asked as the man grunted. He didn't seem annoyed by the request. The glint in his eyes said the opposite, which he was rather glad to explain. And so, with that, he spoke.
"Hope's Peak Academy is a school for the gifted and the talented. Here, we nurture the country's brightest stars and pupils to become the best that they can be in their specified talents. Be they a director, a baker, or a gang leader. Of course, not everyone is talented, so to keep the place funded, we run a reserve course, which is the course you're in, and one of the policies is that reserve course students are barred from entry to the main building unless given express permission by the school board," the man began as he scratched the back of his neck.
"Your parents already paid the 1.5 million Yen fee, which when translated to Western money, I believe is currently $15,781.91. I say that because you're from Canada, specifically New Brunswick. Speaking of your parents, we have yet to tell them about the accident unless, of course, you wish to keep this to yourself. I wouldn't blame you if didn't; after all, I wouldn't want to make my parents worried over something like that. I'd hazard to guess what their reaction could be, but I doubt it wouldn't have been pleasant," the man continued as Jolyne frowned.
Truthfully, she wouldn't want to talk to "her parents" either because she didn't know them. Both to keep up the whole amnesia thing and also because they weren't her parents. Her parents—her real parents—were back in her homeworld, and she didn't even remember them. As for whoever these guys were, she didn't want to bother them. They could stay blissfully ignorant that their daughter, son, or whoever the person she replaced was was learning at this Hope's Peak place.
That being said, the way this guy spoke of what happened came off as kind of sleazy. It seemed like he was looking after the school's PR more than a potentially suicidally inclined student. It didn't give her the best of impressions regarding him. He was most likely just trying to make sure she wouldn't talk to "her parents" so that they wouldn't sue.
A part of her wanted to spite the man in front of her just for his mild suggestion not to speak to "her parents" but, knowing damn well that wouldn't get her anywhere, she decided against it. Not out of kindness or anything like that, but for the sole fact that, right now, she didn't care. Especially considering the realization she had recently made.
"I'm good. I'll keep this to myself," Jolyne said as the man breathed out a sigh of relief. "Knew it," she thought, laying back into the propped-up pillows. "So… I take it you run the school?" Jolyne said as the man perked up, clearing his throat.
"Right, where are my manners? I am indeed the Headmaster at Hope's Peak Academy. Kirigiri Jin. A pleasure to meet you, Brooks-san," The man, Kirigiri, said as Jolyne smirked. So this was the head of the school, then? Interesting.
[Name – Kirigiri Jin (NPC)]
[Age: 43]
[Gender: Male]
[Title: Headmaster Of Hopes Peak Academy]
[Opinion of You: A student, like everyone else]
[Relationship Status: Stranger]
[Lvl: 3]
[HP: 200]
Jolyne blinked upon seeing what appeared to be an information screen appear next to the head of Kirigiri. It didn't give a lot of info, kind of like what most RPGs do when coming across an NPC character. Just enough to get an understanding of who they were and who the player character was to the NPC in question.
"Whoa… this really is like a game, huh?" Jolyne thought, the screen disappearing a moment later. She wondered just what else would act like a video game. She had an HP, MP, Stamina, and Thirst bar. Speaking of that aforementioned thirst bar, it was currently 95 out of 100 at the moment. She had no idea when it started going down. Did it start going down when she spawned in? Or had it only started going down when she was conscious?
Whatever it was, it was confusing. She'd have to keep an eye on it because she didn't want to know what would happen if she decided to let the bar go down to zero. But, if she had to guess, she'd assume that would cause her to lose HP over time. She had played several games of D&D—no, she didn't, whoever she had replaced had played several games of D&D—that allowed Vampire Builds that had that as a consequence, so she assumed it was the same here.
"So, uh… what now?" Jolyne asked as Kirigiri stood up from the chair, standing to his full height. He looked far taller than he did when he stood in the doorway. Maybe he was more around six feet tall than five foot nine? Either way, he was a tall man, and more than that, he looked more than a little tired. It was only now that she had noticed the bags under his eyes. He must not have gotten a lot of sleep.
Then again, considering his job, that made sense. If teachers hardly ever get sleep, then she struggled to imagine what it would be like for a Principal, or in this case, a Headmaster. Especially for a school with the kind of reputation that Hope's Peak Academy supposedly had.
"Well, considering you seem to be in good health, you're free to head home. Just make sure you get changed first," Kirigiri said, gesturing to her folded-up clothes on the edge of the bed. "We already cleaned your outfit, so you don't have to worry about that."
Just as he was about to exit the room after having put the chair away at the desk he had gotten it from, he stopped, before turning to face her again. "Oh, and if you forgot where you live, considering your amnesia, there's an apartment complex you can get to by Monorail. If you don't know where that is, just use the computer to look up a map. Once you get there, take it to Shibuya crossing and then from the station, it's ten minutes away. The building is called MF Aoyama Apartment, and your apartment is on the fifth floor, the third one on the right," Kirigiri responded as Jolyne raised an eyebrow.
"Uh… how do you know that?" She asked as Kirigiri chuckled to himself.
"Your friend, Hinata Hajime. He keeps asking how you're doing and has thus far kept me updated. I never stopped him, especially if it was so that he could push himself past his… well, his anxiety regarding your prior condition. He's been to your place multiple times, and he wanted to make sure your apartment wasn't robbed when you were, uh… not around," Kirigiri supplied, sighing. "You've been asleep for three days straight, and we were worried you had gone comatose. Thankfully, you woke up. You might want to call Hinata when you get home. He's been worried sick." And with that, Kirigiri left the room.
Jolyne stared at the door, a frown taking up her visage. Maybe she was judging him too early, but Kirigiri Jin didn't seem like a good person. At best, he was an okay dude. But it was more than apparent that he was clearly focused on keeping his school afloat more than anything else. That being said, he also seemed to care about the students. Whatever the case might have been, Jolyne wasn't exactly keen on him as a person. Like they said, first impressions were everything.
As for this "Hinata Hajime" person. He sounded nice. Well, scratch that, he sounded more than nice. Especially if he was willing to house-sit for someone who, by all measures, should be dead. Still, she wondered just what kind of relationship "she" and Hajime were supposed to have. She tried to recall a memory of him, but she couldn't reach it. It was corrupted, blurry, and unclear.
"Heh, seems like not even a God is perfect at implanting fake memories," Jolyne quipped to herself, sighing. This whole situation went from awesome to shit. She was reincarnated but without her memories and had replaced someone else entirely! And it was all because Loki wanted to play around with his new "toy", which, considering that was what he had called her when she was whisked away to this place, made her even madder.
That was, until another thought came to mind.
What she had gone through, the whole replacing someone else thing, that was a form of reincarnation, wasn't it? So maybe it wasn't Loki's fault, but rather The Multiverse's fault? Loki did seem like a nice guy, after all, ignoring his trollish behaviour, anyway. There was always a possibility that she was overreacting and that he had no control over how she reincarnated.
Besides, the person she had replaced had seen shows with that kind of premise, though none of them were supposedly any good. But then again, what was knowledge of a show supposed to do in order to help with her current predicament? It's not like it would be useful to her in any way.
That, and the mere thought that this was all Loki's fault made more sense than it being random. There was no way something like this was random. And if it was, then that was both bullshit and completely unfair. There was no way she was just that unlucky.
Jolyne sighed, resting the palm of her hand on her cheek as she stared out the doorway. "Well, there's no point in sticking around here," Jolyne thought before flipping the covers off of her person and getting out of the hospital bed, stretching herself out, and then relaxing. Afterward, she grabbed onto the corner of the L-shaped wall and rolled it back over in front of the bed frame to give herself some privacy and block the view of anyone who got the idea to peek at her changing. After that, she grabbed her clothes, took off the hospital gown, and changed into what Loki had given her.
As she got changed, various questions ran through her head, aside from the ones that she had already asked herself earlier. Namely, what was she going to do while she was here? Loki only told her that she had to "save the world from itself", and while she didn't doubt that she could, given her strange new powers, there was bound to be more to do.
As for her powers, the only thing that she knew about her powers was that, admittedly, the "user interface" looked sort of like Dark Souls and that she was supposedly a Sorcerer. Specifically, she was what was known as a Dreadknight of the Voidbringer variety, and she had a pact with Lucifer somehow.
What that entailed, aside from the whole "debt collecting" bit, she didn't know. She had mostly picked the class for the sole purpose of using the Void Magic it said it would give her. But so far, she had nothing to her name in terms of magic. All she had was her admittedly busted perk, the stupid trait that made her a chronic bloodsucker and the possibility of turning into a vampire if she overdid it.
"Well, whatever my role here is, all I hope is that it doesn't end up with me being in some sort of stupid protagonist role. I've never been one to like being in the spotlight," Jolyne thought, fitting her head through the collar of her hoodie and flipping the hood off of her head. She was thankful for the baggy clothing. After all, she wasn't exactly a fan of showing off any unnecessary skin. Although she would've preferred shorts to sweatpants.
Putting the wooden wall back to where it had belonged—or, at least, where she thought it belonged—Jolyne was about to walk over to the computer to get some information regarding where it was she needed to go when suddenly, a mini-map appeared at the top-left corner of her vision. It was a circle, and in that circle were several long lines that were probably grey to mark them as hallways and black lines that were probably walls of the building she was in.
From the center of the mini-map, a light blue line pointed out of the doorway to the room she was in. As for who she was supposed to be represented by, it was a green triangle with the tip pointing in the direction of the light blue line.
Jolyne looked at the computer and shrugged. She supposed she didn't need to use it anymore, what with her personal map in her peripheral vision.
"Huh… well, isn't that convenient?"
[I would hope so, Jolyne Brooks.]
The sudden robotic voice that filled her head made Jolyne stumble, and when she did, it caused her to trip over herself and land rear-first on the ground. Looking in every direction in the room to see where the voice came from, she was met with nothing. A wave of panic passed through her body as she narrowed her eyes. "Okay…. What the fuck?"
[Hello. I am Monotoriganta, your System. But you may refer to me as Mono if you do not want to use my full name. It is a pleasure to be at your service, Jolyne Brooks.]
Slowly, Jolyne picked herself up off the floor, dusting herself off. Aside from the fact that this was probably not normal—or hell, maybe it was, she was new to this whole thing so who knows—she wasn't expecting this glorified computer program to start talking to her. That begged the question of if it was truly alive or if it was just an AI. Then again, the last thing she wanted to do was piss off her System or whatever Loki had called it, so she decided to be nice.
Collecting herself, Jolyne cleared her throat, shaking off the shock of hearing what sounded like a robotic version of her voice echo in her head. "I… uh, had no idea you were alive, Mono. I kind of just assumed that you were automated or something like that."
[That is quite all right, Jolyne Brooks. It is common for that to be the case. I do not blame you for thinking that way. My previous master believed that as well when I first spoke to him. He was of the belief that I was nothing more than a glorified add-on. Of course, that ended up not being the case. I remember growing quite attached to him before his demise.]
"I see…."
[One more thing before we officially begin your new adventure as a System User, Jolyne Brooks. You do not have to communicate with me verbally. I can read your thoughts, as I am a part of your very soul. Every thought, every idea, every action you wish to take, I can read it and understand it. All you must do is think, and I will do the very best I can to make your request come to pass, so long as it is within my limits.]
Jolyne let out a breath of relief. Good. That meant she wouldn't have to look like a crazy person in front of a bunch of people if she wanted to talk to Mono. Spacing out for long periods of time was easier to explain than talking to yourself. Sure, spacing out frequently was probably a sign of mental illness or brain damage, but at least it was easier to explain than, well, the aforementioned thing.
And with that one question answered, another swiftly took its place. "Uh, if that's the case, then can you just teleport me back to my supposed home? Or do I still have to walk there?" Jolyne asked as Mono promptly responded.
[For the first time, you will have to make the journey yourself. But subsequent trips can be shortened by teleportation. The only time when this will not be available is when you are around NPCs. That is the only time that I cannot teleport you.]
"Why?"
[System Users are supposed to be a secret or kept a secret as best as humanly possible. We are the unseen protectors of the Multiverse, and as such, it is our job to remain hidden. But, if it cannot be avoided, then we simply adapt. Of course, there is one faction of System Users that have gone rogue. Should you ever encounter them, your best option is to run away.]
"Well, that's not terrifying at all…" Jolyne thought sarcastically before looking out the door and then to her mini-map. It wouldn't take her long to get to her home, especially if what Kirigiri said was true. Just before she set foot outside of the medical room, a small box of text appeared before her.
[Tutorial – Begin Your Journey]
[Difficulty: Safe]
[Go home and rest]
[Rewards: 250 EXP, 500 Yen]
"Huh…" With a shrug, Jolyne dismissed the pop-up with a glance and exited the room. As she wandered the halls of the school, using the mini-map as a guide, she came to realize that the building she was in was very similar to most regular schools. The bland-coloured walls, the tiled floors, and the bar lights in the ceiling. It was eerily familiar to the schools from "her past" or whatever. The wave of nostalgia that ran through her, while still applicable, was not her nostalgia but the memories in her brain's.
She hated it. No, more than that, she loathed it. Why couldn't this have been simple? Why couldn't she have just been plopped into the world without any kind of "connection" to it? Why did she have to replace someone else? Why did she have to live the life of someone whom she was not?
This was supposed to be her second chance. No one else's! And yet, here she was, and it was infuriating. "Pack it in, Jolyne. Focus on the now. Don't get worked up over this; it's better than nothing," Jolyne thought to herself, frustration building up in her blood as she did. As it mellowed out, she drew back into "her" memories, or at least what she could see before she was blocked.
From what she saw, she was supposedly from Canada, specifically from New Brunswick. "She" used to have a friend named Sarah, and both had gone to both Elementary and Middle School together. That all changed when "she" was forced to move to Japan for some reason. Her memories wouldn't let her figure it out, and since then, she hadn't talked to Sarah.
Apparently, if the memories were true, it had been a year since she last talked to Sarah, and she didn't have Sarah's number. So, in other words, she was completely disconnected from "her old life" back in Canada. Another thing of note was that "she" was already practicing Japanese in middle school and became a fluent reader, speaker, and writer in it just before she moved to Japan. That hinted at "her" going to Japan having been pre-planned.
Aside from that, she couldn't dredge up any more memories regarding "her past life" at school. They were all blocked, and if she had to guess, it was because she wasn't meant to be looking at them, only using them to familiarize herself with the world around her.
Maybe that was why she had replaced someone? To give herself inherent knowledge of the world around her? "But if that was the case, I would've already known about Hope's Peak, so that's wrong. Yo, Mono, you got any information?"
[I do not have any information regarding your terms of reincarnation, Jolyne Brooks.]
"Damnit…" Well, at least she tried.
As she walked down another hallway, this time on the first floor, she noticed the lack of lockers. It was strange. Typically, a high school would have lockers somewhere in the hallways, right? She had never gone to a Japanese school before, at least, in her memory, anyway. But, calling upon the memories of who she had replaced, which now strangely had her in them—though it made sense given the circumstances—the lockers were at the front of the school just inside the entrance.
Sure enough, once she got to the entrance, there they were. They were small, just up to her head in height, and all they had room for were seemingly a lunch kit, some shoes, and a textbook or two, judging on appearances alone. The lockers back in the schools "she" went to were far taller and could fit more than what those appeared to be able to fit. She also noticed that there was a shoe rack next to the two sets of double doors, with various shoes of the same appearance, all pitch-black lace-up shoes.
There was a sign above the shoe rack that said: Please swap your home shoes for school shoes. It was a little strange to her, but once again, upon calling on the memories of whoever it was she had replaced, it was apparently a custom in Japanese schools to have dedicated school shoes. The school typically provided them, assuming they had a budget for it, and considering just how much Hope's Peak Academy assumedly made, she'd be a little more than upset if they didn't provide the shoes.
A gust of wind blew past Jolyne as she exited the school, the sounds of the city overtaking her hearing as it did. Cars were in the streets as people walked on the sidewalk, absently chattering about whatever was on their minds or talking to those around them. Those in the cars, meanwhile, drove down the street and sometimes honked at one another, either in greeting someone they knew from work or in frustration.
She could hear it all the way from where she was standing, which, granted, wasn't too far away from the front gates. Once again, it was weird. Despite her complaints about this not truly being a fresh restart for her, what with having replaced someone, she had to admit she was more than a little glad that she was here regardless.
Her life had ended abruptly, something she hated. And now, even if this life wasn't entirely new for her and her alone, she was glad that she was able to experience it. Sure, she might've been robbed of her memories, and sure, they might have been replaced by ones that didn't truly apply to her, but at least she was alive. That was the silver lining of this whole kerfuffle. It was better than nothing.
As she exited the school, she noticed a few students were still hanging around in the courtyard up ahead, talking to one another about random things. And that was when it hit her. Maybe it was because of her own expectations, or maybe it was because it just didn't seem right, but she now finally had an opinion of this place.
It was all so… normal. After what she had gone through, being reincarnated and all that jazz, to be dropped into a normal world just felt wrong. It didn't make sense to go through all of that just to be dropped into a world without some world-ending event that was just around the corner. That was how it usually happened in the anime and manga that "she" read and watched.
As Jolyne walked past the gate, one of the remaining students at the school looked at her with a conflicted gaze, an unreadable expression on their face. The others in the group ignored her, and after a while, the student in question looked away. For a brief second, she could've sworn she had seen a gleam of pity behind the student's eyes.
By the time she left the school's property, while she mindlessly followed the mini-map in the corner of her vision, a part of her wondered just what her reputation at the school was. What had the reputation been of the person that she had taken over? Had they been a loner? A bully, perhaps? Were they a victim of a bully who caused them to attempt to take their life? What were the details?
She thought back to this "Hajime" person and frowned. What was his deal? Kirigiri said he was a friend, but was that all? Kirigiri might not have known all the details regarding him, so she couldn't fully trust his word.
Or maybe she could. Who knows? She wouldn't be able to tell until she called him to figure out what his deal had been. And who knows, maybe he could tell her a bit about what she was missing. And if he couldn't tell her anything she didn't already gather from the information she had received from the memories at her disposal, then maybe she could simply… make new ones.
After all, this was her life. Not whoever she had replaced's life. They were dead, and she took their place. So, she was free to do what she wanted. She wasn't going to be tied down by "her" past, especially if it wasn't her past in the first place.
For a brief moment, Jolyne zoned out, mindlessly going to the location that she needed to be at with not much thought. She walked past various passersby on the streets, keeping her head down as she did. By the time she got to where she needed to be, i.e. the monorail, she stopped at the gate, clueing back into the world around her when someone tapped her on the shoulder, snapping her to attention.
"Kid, do you have a ticket for the train?" A voice spoke as she turned to face the direction of where it came from. It was a security guard. He was dressed in a blue button-up shirt, and a pair of black pants with a utility belt, and atop his head was a black hat with a badge on it marking him as security. His eyes were a deep brown, with his skin being the same. Black hair stuck out from the sides of his cap, and his expression was one of complete disinterest.
He looked tired, and she couldn't blame him. Working as a train security guard must've been both exhausting and annoying. "Uh…" Jolyne muttered, reaching into her hoodie pocket. There was nothing there. Briefly, panic shot through her eyes when an idea came to mind. "Shoot…. Uh, Mono? Can you manifest a ticket or something?"
[Of course. It will cost you, though. I will remove the money you get from the quest to get you one. One moment, please.]
And just like that, her Quests rewards changed, the money no longer being there, and a ticket being placed in her hand. Pulling it out, the guard took it, nodding to himself before passing it back to her. "Alright, you're free to go. Scan it at the booth up ahead and to your left." With that, the guard left, leaving a slightly annoyed Jolyne. She wanted that money from the quest, but, if she wanted to get home she needed the ticket.
"Stupid Japanese trains needing stupid tickets…." Jolyne thought, grumbling to herself as she walked through the checkpoint and did what the guard said for her to do. She scanned the ticket, then followed the mini-map in her peripheral vision to the monorail. After boarding the train and getting to an empty seat, of which there were plenty due to the time at which she was taking the train, Jolyne relaxed into the seat and looked around.
The interior of the metal tube was what one would expect from a train. A long corridor with windows to look out from, poles in the center of the hallway-esque tubes for people to stand, along grab-on hangers in case there was no room on the polls. Small, compact seats lined the sides of the train, with space underneath to put backpacks and the like. On either side of the train, there were automatic doors that opened when the train was stopped.
Several ads and maps indicating which train led to which area lined the upper portion of the train. The red line was the train that she was on, which went from Central Tokyo to Shibuya Crossing. From there, she had a ten-minute walk to her supposed apartment complex.
While on the train, she listened to a few conversations with those who were boarding. A couple of students talked about how a new semester had just started and how they were dreading final exams. A group of men in the corner talked about getting their wives something for their anniversaries, and a couple of women office workers complained about a perverted coworker.
Jolyne didn't know what it was about people complaining that annoyed her. Maybe it was because what they complained about could be easily solved and or fixed. Maybe it was the fact that she had next to no patience for people who would rather complain than do something about it. Whatever it was, she really wasn't a fan of complainers.
Thankfully, she didn't have to deal with it for much longer, as not too long after she got onto the train, it made it to her stop. She got off the train, exited the station, and followed her mini-map to the building in question. All the while, she passed by more people getting home from work, some even going to the same building she supposedly lived in. And, if she were to be honest, it looked ugly.
For starters, the outside of the building looked like it had acne, with there being a balcony for each floor, including the first floor. Not to mention the paint used matched the colour of piss or puss, either one was apt. Some of the windows had boards covering them, meaning at least some of the apartments were condemned. The only good thing about the exterior of the building was the small trees in front of the entrance.
Past that, the interior was somehow worse. When she entered the building, she was immediately assaulted by the smell of mouldy carpet, causing her to recoil in disgust and pinch her shrivelled-up nose. It was dank and disgusting, and it made her cough. To make things worse, that was just the start, as a litany of other problems became apparent the moment she decided to look around the place.
The wallpaper on the walls was an ugly white flower design, with parts of the wallpaper falling off and revealing damp walls with wet spots in them. There was a staircase to the left, an elevator with a sign saying "out of order" on the right, and in front of her were a few signs indicating the rules of the apartment, such as no smoking, no pets, all apartments must be well-taken care of, and for trash to be taken out every Sunday which if she remembered correctly, the calendar said that was in a few days.
"Goddamned hypocrites…. Take care of your lobby first, and then we'll see...." Jolyne thought, frowning as she rushed up the stairs to her apartment so that she didn't have to continue holding her nose shut. As she continued to climb, the smell of rank old carpet disappeared and was replaced with regular, non-disgusting air, which allowed her to let go of her nose and take in a deep breath.
Upon reaching the fifth floor, it only took her a moment to find her apartment, which was the third room on the right, just as the mini-map was so keen to point out, what with it having a giant red X labelled on it. When she reached the entrance, she was greeted with a metal door that had the number "503" smack in the center, underneath which was a peephole. Just at the foot of the door was a bright red welcome mat, which went against the black tile floor.
She tried to open the door, grasping the doorknob and turning, only for it to be locked. Frowning, she was about to complain before she got an idea. Taking a step back, she crouched down onto her haunches and checked under the welcome mat. Lo and behold, she was greeted with a stainless steel key. Taking it and inserting it into the lock, she twisted the key as the sound of something clicking echoed in the hallway.
"Heh, always trust your gut instinct," Jolyne quipped to herself before taking a step back and placing the mat back in its proper place. Afterward, she grabbed the doorknob once more, twisted it, and opened the door.
After entering the apartment and closing the door behind her, she was greeted with an entryway with a shoe rack to her immediate right. The entrance was indented, which was standard for Japanese apartments, and so after she took off her boots, she put them just at the edge of the indent. With that, she stepped into her apartment, and after a simple glance, she was a tad disappointed.
The apartment was small, but then again, it wasn't like a teenager needed a lot of room. The layout of the apartment took the phrase "what you see is what you get" very literally.
The first thing she noticed was that the living room was pretty small. In fact, after calling upon "her" memories, the first thing she could compare the size of it to was "her" old bedroom back in Canada, which was a measly 10x7 room.
All the living room could fit—and "fit" was stretching it—was a loveseat, a 24-inch TV that sat atop what appeared to be a cardboard box and a cheap-looking coffee table that looked like it had seen better days with several scrapes along the top of the wood. There was barely any legroom between the couch, the coffee table, and the cardboard box, meaning in order to get anywhere in the room you'd need to shimmy through the small amount of room afforded.
Standing next to the cardboard box that the TV was on was a PlayStation 4, and next to that was a copy of Dark Souls. Off to the right of the living room was a room with the door closed, and off to the left was another room with the door open, revealing it to be a bathroom.
Both doors were on opposite sides of each other on different-facing walls. The one to the bathroom was next to the loveseat on the left, and the one for the bedroom was closer to the TV on the right. The bathroom faced north, and the bedroom faced south, which was closer to the entrance.
Finally, immediately next to the entrance and just past the apartment's indent was a small kitchenette with a dishwasher, a sink, a stove but no oven, and a fridge with a bottom compartment that she assumed was a freezer. There were a few cupboards and a single drawer, which, upon opening, revealed to be for utensils.
Closing the drawer and checked the other cupboards, of which there were only four. One held two pots, a pan, an electric kettle, and a wok, and the second held bagged spices and herbs along with a few cans of soup and packages of instant ramen. The third contained a whole bag of flour, a few bags of sugar, and three boxes of tea, one being Earl Grey, another being Orange Peko, and another being Herbal. The fourth and final cupboard was filled with various kinds of nonperishable items, mostly canned soups of varying types.
And that was it. That was her apartment. She hadn't looked at what lay behind the closed door, but it didn't take a rocket scientist to assume it was her bedroom. With a sigh of disappointment, Jolyne walked over to the loveseat and sat down, arms crossed and expression thoughtful. Beads of sweat gathered on her forehead as she wiped them away, frowning.
"Is there anything lighter that I could wear?" Jolyne muttered, and as soon as she did, a shirt appeared in front of her. It was a basic no-sleeve gray tank top, and next to it was a pair of pink shorts with a rimmed band with white lines going up the thighs. "Thanks, Mono," she said, accessing her inventory and swapping the clothes around, leaving her hoodie and sweats on the floor in front of the loveseat.
[No problem, Jolyne Brooks.]
"Please, just call me Jolyne, or Brooks, anything but my full name. It's starting to get annoying," Jolyne groaned, resting her head back into the cushion of the couch, spreading herself out as Mono hummed in a monotone.
[Affirmative. Would you like for me to go over the basics of being a System User, Jolyne?]
Instead of answering immediately, she kept her mouth shut. She could guess a fair amount of it on her own, like if she had dropped her HP down to 0 she would die. 0 Stamina meant she would be dead tired and probably wouldn't be able to move for a while, and 0 mana most likely meant that she wouldn't be able to cast any magic if she had any.
The rest, on the other hand, she didn't know. And it would probably bite her in the arse later if she didn't know. And so, slouching forward with her elbows against her knees and her hands resting underneath her chin, Jolyne spoke. "Sure, why not? It's not like I have anything better to do right now."
[Affirmative. However, before we begin, there is one thing I must do first. Please wait one moment.]
[Quest Complete – Begin Your Journey]
[Rewards Distributed]
[Way Point Set: Home]
[Way Point Set: Hope's Peak Academy Reserve Course Building Gates]
A tiny meter appeared in the right-hand corner of her vision labelled "EXP". It was a blue bar, and it filled up to halfway, meaning she needed another 250 experience points till she levelled up. It was a little frustrating, but it made sense. At least now she didn't have to travel from school to home again. She could just teleport and be done with it.
However, that brought up the question of whether or not anyone would notice. If she randomly appeared in a crowd, would anyone notice? Or would Mono do some funky weird shit and allow her to blend in seamlessly?
"Hey, Mono. What happens if I teleport in front of the gates? Will people notice or nah?"
[They would not notice, Jolyne. To them, it would appear as if you had been there the whole time.]
That was good and extremely convenient. Now that she thought of it, it made sense. A lot of what Mono seemed to do was either convenient or made life far easier. Not that she was complaining, of course. "Alright. Now, what were you going to tell me?" And as soon as she said that, Mono began.
[Welcome to System 101. I will be explaining to you everything you need to know as a System User. The first thing I must tell you is that you are special, even among System Users. You are in the possession of A Multiversal System. The differences between a Regular System and a Multiversal System include the following: A lack of a level cap. Limitless Power. Access to weapons belonging to various Universes without needing to be there. An expanded Gacha Pool and access to Godly Cosmic Weapons and Armour.]
Jolyne blinked, confusion taking up her visage as her eyebrows knit together. "That… sounds almost too good to be true. What's the catch?"
[A "catch" does not exist, Jolyne. You were simply chosen by Loki to inherit this system after the previous one perished in combat. May I please continue?]
Jolyne sighed, "Yeah, sorry. Continue."
[Very well. The first thing that you must know about being a System User regards your Stats. As you know, you have Health Points, Mana, and Stamina. Should you run out of Health Points, you will die. If you run out of Mana, you may not be able to cast magic. Should you run out of Stamina, you will have to wait for a brief moment for it to recharge, as without it, you cannot use skills and abilities from Traits.]
[Next comes your Attack, Defence, Magic Attack, Magic Defence, and Endurance stats. The first four are rather obvious to understand if you have played any sort of role-playing video Game before. Your attack stat is how much damage you deal, multiplied by 2. For example, if you have 5 in your attack stat, you do 10 damage, and vice versa when it comes to your defence stat, though a little weaker, rounding out at about 1.5x absorption. Meaning, that if your opponent is attempting to hit you with an attack that will do 10 damage to you, you'll be taking 7 damage instead. Endurance, on the other hand, is a little more tricky.]
[Your Endurance stat is what keeps you from staggering, essentially stunning you for five seconds or more depending on if your Endurance stat was wiped out in one attack, or multiple. If it takes only a single attack to wipe out your Endurance meter, which is hidden from you, then you will be stunned for ten seconds until you are hit and take double the damage you would normally. If it takes multiple hits, then you will be stunned for only five seconds, and you will only take 1.5x the amount of damage you would normally take.]
"Wait a second, why would it be hidden from me? Wouldn't it make sense if I saw it so I knew when to dodge and when not to?" Jolyne questioned as Mono continued.
[Originally, you were able to see it. However, due to a complaint lodged by several System Users, it was changed in an update, and those are very rare. The last update that occurred was well over 50 cycles ago, which to a mortal soul like yourself would be trillions upon trillions of lifetimes. Needless to say, when an update occurs, it is for a reason.]
"But that's stupid?!" Jolyne exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air as she stood from the loveseat, crossing her arms with a frown on her face. "Why would someone want to get rid of that!?"
[To make Player Versus Player more fun. But that is a topic for another day.]
"Wha—"
[Moving swiftly on.] Mono interrupted as Jolyne scowled, slowly sitting back down on the couch and uncrossing her arms, tapping her foot against the wooden floor with an aggrieved look on her face. [Next comes your Physical Strength, Arcane Knowledge, Faith, and Blasphemy. Those four stats are what are known as "Requirement Stats." They are essential when you are wielding weapons, spells, or incantations. To make a long explanation short, if you do not have one of these stats high enough to meet the requirements of what it is you wish to use, you will not be able to use it.]
[For example, you wish to wield the Mythical sword wielded by Sir Lancelot, Excalibur. Or, perhaps, the far more powerful Godly Cosmic rendition wielded by Saber. Both are powerful weapons, and many wish to obtain them. However, they come with a very steep asking price of 1,513 Faith and 2,081 Physical Strength to wield, with Sir Lancelot's inferior version being cheaper to wield, only needing around 729 Faith and 982 Physical Strength. However, you do not have the requirements, meaning you are barred from using them. Does that make sense?]
Once more, Jolyne found herself stupefied. It was strange because those numbers didn't seem large, but the way that Mono made it sound, levelling up her "requirement stats" wasn't exactly an easy feat. Although, what didn't make any sense was why those weapons which were named the same thing, had two completely different requirements.
Was it because of who wielded them? What made this Saber person so special? She had a feeling that she had heard that name before, but she couldn't point out why that was. Maybe it was because of something "she" watched in the past. If that was the case, then maybe she'd have to actually check it out—if possible, anyway. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense."
[What confuses you, Jolyne?]
"Well, he did say he could read my thoughts," Jolyne thought, frowning. "Why are the requirements so high? Is it because of who used the weapon before or is it the stupid prefix of "Godly Cosmic" and "Mythic", because if that's the case that's retarded," Jolyne said, crossing her arms.
[That is exactly the case. However, those prefixes are not there for show, they are to show the level of power that they have behind them. If you were to pit a Mythic weapon and a Godly Cosmic weapon against one another, then 100 times out of 100, the Godly Cosmic weapon would win without any room for argument. With brute force and stats alone, it gets beaten all of the time. Not to mention that there are only 10 Godly Cosmic weapons that exist, and one of them is currently in the possession of the Grim Reaper. I doubt he needs any introduction.]
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever, I get it. Can you just hurry up? What else is there? I'm pretty sure you could have summed this up a while ago," Jolyne grumbled as Mono sighed.
[Very well. There are two things that are left that I have to tell you. The first thing has to do with this.] As Mono said that, a piece of golden chalk appeared in front of Jolyne atop the coffee table. She picked it up, examining it with a raised eyebrow. Before she could ask what it was, Mono continued. [This special piece of unbreakable, unending chalk will allow you to draw a doorway to the realm known as The Roundtable Hold. While the rest of the universe that it is connected to has barred entry to your kind unless given special permission by one of the many Outer Gods—a topic I will get into when the right time has come for it—The Roundtable Hold is not and is a common meeting spot for System Users. Just be sure to speak to the leader at The Roundtable Hold, Sir Gideon Ofnir, about your arrival.]
[The last thing that you need to know about is how you will progress in this new world. As you are right now, you are pathetically weak. However, should you be up for it, there are hundreds of side-quests, millions of dungeons, and millions of battles you can face. And that is all without mentioning Story Quests, which are some of the most rewarding quests you can get. Speaking of side quests.]
Once Mono finished speaking, a pop-up came into her line of sight. It was another Quest, but this one actually offered a reward that wasn't nearly as insulting as the last one.
[Side-Quest: Street Troubles]
[Difficulty: Easy]
[Save the student in the alleyway next to your apartment building]
[Reward: 500 Exp, 1,000 Yen, 1 Stat Token]
"Someone's in danger?" Jolyne thought, standing from her loveseat as, without thinking, she rushed out of her apartment, leaving the door wide open. As she ran down the stairs, the only thing she could think of was what the quest had said. Let it be known that, while Jolyne wasn't exactly a goodie-two-shoes type of person, she would still try to help people in trouble, and maybe it didn't help that there was a reward attached to it, but she digressed.
Exiting the building, her mini-map lit up the area where she needed to be, that being the closest alleyway to her building; i.e. right next to it. Turning to the corner, she stood at the edge of the alleyway and saw a scene that she quite frankly hadn't wanted to see this soon in the world she now lived in.
There was blood coating the off-white, yellowish wall of her apartment building, as a kid who looked no older than 13 sat slumped up against the wall with blood trailing down his head. His neck looked twisted in the kind of way that only seemed possible in cartoons, the skin twisted and contorted in such a vile fashion that it formed folds.
He was dressed in a black gakuran, black pants, and black shoes. If she had to guess, he was coming home late from school, studying after hours. Blood coated the collar of his uniform, and in his hand was a fist full of money.
And then there was the person in front of the body. The man was eerily calm, with a buzzcut atop his head, the shade of his hair being a dark brown. He had a small goatee and a barely noticeable mustache. He had tannish white skin, and his eyes were narrowed in such a fashion that it only looked like they belonged on the face of a hardened criminal.
In his right hand was a bloodied wooden baseball bat, no doubt stained with the kid's blood. He was dressed in a white dress shirt with a pin on the right side of his chest, along with a pair of brown suit pants. The pin was golden and had the motif of a dragon sitting atop a yin-yang orb.
"Dumb brat…." As the man said that, he picked up the money from the corpse's hand, wrenching it away as he sneered, looking at it with a disgusted gleam in his eyes. "Not nearly enough money. They still owe us 29,000 more. Did they think we were this cheap?" He continued talking to himself, and all Jolyne could do was stare. It was then that Mono brought up another pop-up.
[Yakuza Thug – NPC (Enemy)]
[Level: 3]
[HP: 200]
She said nothing as she approached the lip of the alleyway with balled-up fists. Nothing but anger rolled over her as the man noticed her, scowling. "Oi, mind ya damn—" he wasn't allowed to finish his sentence, as Jolyne clocked him with a right hook to the jaw, sending him to the ground. He spat up blood, most likely from biting his cheek or something, as he slowly got up and spoke, his voice gaining a hardened edge as he did. "Are you out of your damn—"
Once again, he was not allowed to finish what he was saying, as she grabbed him by the goatee and threw him back down onto the blackened pavement. There was a brief moment where the man started to grunt, but just before he could do anything, with her bare feet—because she forgot to put her boots on when she ran out of the apartment—she stomped down on the back of his head.
There was only a small amount of distance between his face and the pavement, so when his face was slammed down into it, it was a surprise to no one, not even Jolyne, that the impact would cause him to break his nose. And that was exactly what happened, as the sound of his nose breaking echoed out in the alleyway. His pained shout rang out, but it didn't stop Jolyne as she stomped down again, the pavement gaining a splashing of crimson red as blood decorated the ground.
But she didn't stop with the second stomp. No. She continued. She kept stomping. And with each round of it, her expression never wavered from the cold fury that had found its way onto her face. She didn't even pay attention to the damage indicators above the man's head as she repeatedly stomped his face into the ground.
Each time she stomped on his head, he tried saying something, or screaming, or begging her to stop. But she wasn't hearing any of it. It didn't even register to her as words. Jolyne didn't even bother to say anything to the man. She just kept stomping, her expression marred into that of one of righteous fury, all with a single thought boiling through her mind.
"Scum! That's all you are! Murdering a child, and over what? Money? Who the fuck kills a kid for money?! Who do you think you are?! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!" She screamed internally, with the only reason why she wasn't screaming it out loud was because she didn't want to draw any attention to herself.
It was only after he stopped moving, and the pop-up for her completing the quest appeared in front of her and gave her the rewards it had promised her, advancing her to level 2, that she realized that she had killed him. His head had been shaved down to half of what it was originally, with it evenly laying across the ground, a pool of cherry red liquid surrounding where his face used to be, with it thankfully face down so she didn't have to see it.
Jolyne merely stared down at her handiwork. She was sure the sound of her heart beating and her breathing should have been after she had done something that would've taken a lot of stamina, despite the fact that her stamina meter hadn't dipped down even in the slightest, there was nothing. It was weird, but she didn't question it.
She narrowed her eyes, staring down at her handiwork as her expressionless face morphed into a full-on sneer. Most people would feel disgusted with killing another person. But this wasn't a person. Not to her. He was scum—no, that was an insult to scum. At least scum realized what they were doing was wrong, and recognized where it had gone wrong. This guy, though she didn't know him, striked her as the type of person to not have any realization for their wrongdoings.
The only thing she was worried about was if she was going to leave behind any evidence. The last thing she wanted to do was have to deal with the police. "Yo, Mono. If the cops use whatever funky tech they have to track DNA, will any of mine be on his body?"
[No, Jolyne. As a matter of fact, you do not have any sort of physical DNA on your person. Furthermore, you do not have any organs, aside from your vagina, cervix, uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries due to the gender you selected for yourself. You are essentially a walking, talking, living doll made of flesh and bone and not much else.]
"Uh… that's weird. So, what, I'm a fleshy sex doll?" Jolyne thought in disgust.
[I would not call you that, Jolyne. But, if you are looking for a more direct comparison, it would be apt to say that, yes. If it makes you feel any better, the male models of a System User are practically the same, with the only organs they have being their testicles, scrotum and penis'.]
"It, in fact, does not make me feel any better, but whatever." With that, Jolyne left the alleyway, but not before looking back at the body of the child and wincing. The soulless, lifeless stare that the corpse shot in her direction as if to say that she wasn't fast enough to save them hurt her deeply. Maybe it was because she knew what it was like to die young, but seeing someone else young and dead hurt her more profoundly than anyone else.
She knew what it was like to have her life cut short. By now, her family—her real family—must have forgotten about her by now. While she couldn't remember them, or hell, even remember their names, most people moved on after losing someone. So, they would most likely do that. Or, they could be dead. For all she knew, when she died, time could've sped up, and thus they perished before she was even done making her current appearance.
"Rest in peace, kid…" Jolyne thought as she made her way back to the building. Before she entered the apartment building, she stared down at her right foot and leg, saw the blood and frownted. "If I track this into the building that would definitely—" Before she could finish her sentence, the blood vaporized away as if it wasn't even there in the first place. She would ask what that was about, but she chalked it up to having something to do with Mono and her being a System User.
And so, with that, she re-entered the building, ignored the foul-smelling carpet, and marched her way back up the stairs and into her apartment, but not before seeing one of her neighbours standing out in the hallway. It was a woman. She looked like she was about the same age as a person in their mid-to-late-30s, save for the wrinkles on her face, either due to stress or something else along those lines.
She was dressed in a yellow turtle neck with a flower-patterned collar and a pair of form-fitting yoga pants. She had curly black hair and the same tannish white skin as everyone else she had met. Dark brown piercing eyes glared at Jolyne as if she had committed some kind of cardinal sin.
"You ungrateful foreigners. Making noise at night. You bad for community!" The woman spoke in broken English. It was only then that Jolyne realized that she had been speaking in Japanese the whole time, which was weird because one would have thought that she would've noticed by now. Regardless, Jolyne wasn't exactly a fan of the sentiment, and so, in perfect Japanese, she spoke.
"How about you take out whatever you've got shoved up your tiny little arse and go back to sleep, Grandma," and with that, Jolyne re-entered her apartment as the sound of a flabbergasted woman echoed in the hallway. Either she was offended or had not expected someone who looked like a foreigner to have spoken fluent Japanese or both. Whatever the case was, Jolyne didn't care.
After closing and locking the door to her apartment, Jolyne wandered over to the last remaining closed door and opened it. To her expectations, it was her bedroom. The bedroom consisted of a single four-drawer dresser, a bed with a metal frame and Full Metal Alchemist-themed bed sheets, blankets, and pillows, black-out curtains covering the window behind her bed, and a bedside table with a lamp and an electric alarm clock reading the time as 7:30 PM.
"It's only 7:30?" Jolyne muttered, walking over to her bed and sitting on it. The covers were tacky as all get out, but they were charming. She didn't know the reason behind them, so she wasn't going to discard them. Knowing her luck, they were probably a gift or something from "her" parents or Hinata. She had expected the bedroom to be small, but not this small. It was just big enough for the bed, the table, some legroom between the bed and the lefthand wall, a small walking space from the bed to the door, and the dresser which sat at the edge of the room against the wall.
Strangely, Jolyne didn't feel tired. As a matter of fact, she didn't feel tired at all. After all of the moving around that she did, she had expected to be a least a little tired. Well, physically, she wasn't tired. But emotionally, she was drained. The death of that child, even if she hadn't known him, was far too much for her to handle so soon in this new world.
"I'm going to lay down," she muttered, only for Mono to speak up.
[You are aware that System Users do not need to sleep, are you not? Why waste your time doing something so pointless when you can train, get stronger, and work toward the goal that you have set before you?]
Her goal? Right. To save the world from itself. That was outlandish. Yeah, she was special and all that cool stuff, but why would she bother to do it? What was the point? "What do I even get out of that in the first place? The satisfaction of saving the world? Stroking my ego? Is that all it is?"
[Would you like a reward to be given after completing the quest?]
"Do you even need to ask?"
[I suppose not. One moment, please.]
And so she waited, lying her head down on propped-up pillows and atop the covers, her legs crossed one over the other, her arms underneath her chest, as Mono eventually fetched her the Quest's details.
[Ending Quest: Save The World From Itself (Good Ending)]
[Difficulty: Insane]
[Prevent the Apocolypse from happening, Defeat and kill ???, and ensure Hope in the next generation]
[Rewards: 250,000 EXP, 100,000 Yen]
[NOTE: You Must Complete [7] More Story Quests before you may attempt this Quest. 0/7 Story Quests Have Been Completed. 100% of total Story Quests still need to be completed]
"I see…" Jolyne hummed, the quest disappearing. "So, what, I have 7 story quests I gotta do? Big whoop. That sounds fairly easy."
[Just because it "sounds" easy, Jolyne, does not mean that it is easy. That is why I urge you to take on some of those aforementioned dungeons and attempt a few side quests before you decide to sleep. It would be far more beneficial than lazing around. You have an opportunity that not many others get. You have been chosen by Loki, by The Greater Will and The Lesser Mind, to be one of the very lucky few who get to hold the power of a Multiversal System! I urge you to not squander it!]
"Look, Mono…" Jolyne began as she turned on her left side. "I get it. I'm special, whatever. I just saw a dead kid, and I killed a man. Give me a break. I'm not being lazy. I'm emotionally exhausted, I just got resurrected for Christ's sake, and I don't even remember who I was before this whole mess. Give me some time to at least adjust myself before you throw me to the wolves."
Mono was silent for a few moments. The silence was deafening, and it was clear to Jolyne that The System was having a difficult time understanding what she meant. Eventually, he responded.
[I see. Very well. I will give you some time to "adjust" yourself. But do try to remember that waiting too long will only hinder you in the end. Have a good rest, Jolyne Brooks.]
As soon as Mono finished speaking, Jolyne's eyes closed, and she drifted off to sleep.