Chapter 19: Erbys Nath

January 7th, 1317 - Three days until the appointment at the Aven Veritas cinema.

The field agents had arrived early to deliver their report. The office they entered was filled with papers and the occasional stuffed animal.

It was difficult to walk around, but that's what they had to endure with a boss who hadn't left the last century behind. A man as old as he was young, dressed in brown with a white shirt and suspenders, looked adorable. However, anyone who dared treat Captain Erbys Nath, director of the defense department, like a child would likely end up unconscious for at least a day.

“Captain Nath! We're back!” a man with brown hair as disheveled as his personality entered, knocking down the towers of papers in the office. “We have a report!”

“Damn it, Albert! It's not that hard to dodge them, you know! You'll have to orga…!” the captain, who was hugging his stuffed rabbit, nearly spilled his coffee cup from the shock. “But you animal, stop!”

Albert Ravenfield, member of the defense department and the anti-terrorist division, was a 1.80-meter tall man with great physical strength and a personality that made him act like an idiot despite being almost 30 years old.

“Sorry, Cap! But time is money and money is what the ladies charge me!” Albert scratched his head, knocking everything down in his path. “We have a report about…! Aaaah! Ow, owwww… It hurrrts!”

From behind and without warning, he received a sneak attack… directly to his genitals.

A woman with dark hair and delicate but clearly foreign features delivered a kick to Albert's crotch, causing him to fall to the ground with a scream of pain.

“Captain Nath, we have a report about the agents who were watching the Reed sisters,” said the woman without even looking at the man on the floor.

“Kuroha… I'd like to tell you 'well done,' but as captain I can't allow my agents to behave that way… Although it was a good hit,” the captain gave the woman a thumbs up, which she returned.

“Thank you, captain. I'm… at your service.”

“Ow, ow, ow! It hurts!”

The screams of pain were ignored, one could even say they were enjoyed by Captain Nath.

“Well, Kuroha, what do we have?”

As if it were the preamble to important news, the woman approached the captain's desk and placed a holographic projection card. With a gesture of her hand, the card lit up and projected an impeccable room.

“What is this supposed to be?” asked Captain Nath, whose face turned serious almost instantly. “Don't tell me it's…?”

Kuroha nodded.

“I'm afraid so, captain. It's the surveillance post. When we arrived at the location, we found it like this, spotless… The cameras, computers, and servers had disappeared. No trace of the assigned agents.”

Setting his stuffed animal aside on his desk, the captain crossed his hands behind his head and leaned back in his chair, looking at the ceiling.

His subordinate remained silent, thinking quietly…

“The captain is so adorable…” Kuroha thought silently.

“Aaaah… I'm recovering now…” Albert got up from the floor with one hand on his crotch. “Cap, I should mention that we checked the entire building, even with our contacts inside, and there's nothing.”

“The delivery guy said that in the morning he went up to deliver food as usual, and the response was exactly as the contact protocol indicates. We sent the security tapes to the technical team.”

“We reviewed them right there, and you can clearly see how the agent receives the food and withdraws. Nothing suspicious, captain,” said Albert, approaching the captain's desk.

“We didn't see anything strange in the following hours either… Anyway, they're already reviewing the street recordings, and members of the criminal investigation division are checking the apartment block from top to bottom.”

“No body, no crime…” Captain Nath sighed. “We knew they were going to make a move now that the awakening of a temporal stone is approaching… What do you know about the Reed sisters?”

“The older one, as you know, was taken to the hospital for a stab wound to the abdomen, but it's not serious. The hospital report says it was a domestic accident… The younger one declares the same thing.”

“We have missing agents and the target is in the hospital…” the captain got up from his chair and approached the window. “Thea Reed isn't challenging us. She eliminated the watchers and most likely hurt the older sister.”

“For now, they're just assumptions… I wouldn't venture that far,” Kuroha continued looking at the captain like someone watching a kitten playing with a ball of yarn. “I know it's not my place, but if you'll allow me…”

“Of course, Kuroha, what do you have in mind?”

“We should have gone yesterday to arrest Thea Reed. If we knew her mother was home, why didn't we act sooner?” Kuroha approached the captain and put a hand on his shoulder. “We can't let her escape.”

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“Didn't you tell her, Albert? About the bearer…”

“Eeeh… no, captain. I didn't,” Albert scratched his head. “What bearer?”

Kuroha shot Albert a look that could kill a bear.

“The space was separated; the entire apartment was separated from the rest of the world. It was there, but inside it was completely empty. There was nothing and no one.”

“That's right, I forgot to mention it. I don't know anything about spatial separation, but suddenly the girls weren't there. There was nothing, no trace of them. And suddenly, as if nothing happened, they appeared again… in the adjacent apartment.”

“At that point had we already lost contact with the agents watching them?” asked Kuroha.

“It was because we weren't receiving responses that we decided to enter,” Albert replied. “Literally, the sisters were entering the building's courtyard when we lost contact with the agents.”

“Sadly, I'd consider them dead,” said Captain Nath. “Truly, this time they have the upper hand. We can't let Thea Reed escape; it took us too long to discover her existence and now that we have her… If I have to get my hands dirty, I will.”

“Tuesday… only three days left. What will we do, captain?” asked Kuroha.

Captain Erbys hesitated whether he should tell them… There was something that had been on his mind since morning, but he still hadn't decided whom to trust. But, even though he doubted the capabilities of those two (especially Albert), they were his best bet.

“I received a call this morning from the younger Reed sister,” the surprised expressions on Kuroha and Albert's faces were evident. “That girl…”

“What did she say?” asked Albert. “This just got interesting.”

“Captain, please don't tell me that…” Kuroha paused, “you like little girls?”

“OF COURSE NOT! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU, KUROHA?! I'd expect that from Albert, but from you…!”

“Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!” Albert was cracking up with laughter, so much that he hit the floor again. “Oh captain, a Don Juan with the ladies! Ha, ha, ha… ha, ha… ha… cough, cough!”

Albert's survival instinct activated just in time to prevent the man-child Erbys Nath from stuffing him like the rest of the plushies he had in his office.

“She called to tell me that her sister insisted they go to the movies on Tuesday… Right after the older one called to say she had to cancel the date. She even told me to buy the tickets and act as a matchmaker and introduce her to someone…”

“That girl is quick, huh?” Albert got up from the floor and dusted himself off. “A good future awaits her with that boldness.”

“It's not advisable for you to accept, captain. It's not good to play with a girl's heart,” Kuroha approached the captain and put a hand on his shoulder. “The older one is clearly interested in your alter ego, Roger…”

For the past year, the anti-terrorist division had been engrossed in finding the identity of a group of antisocials who had been committing barbaric acts… people who had gained access to temporal stones…

To achieve that objective, a farce carried out by the captain had been necessary. A farce generated by a coincidence that occurred more than a year ago.

“There are sacrifices to be made to stop those bastards. So far, the predictions from the research and development division have been accurate. The pattern that determines when temporal stones activate… The only explanation is that someone else must possess them besides us.”

“In the end, it's an adolescent's feelings against the city's welfare. I'm sorry to say this, Kurohita, but we can't—” “Gyaaaaaaa! It's burrrning!”

“Captain. What we're doing isn't good. I don't agree with the idea of making a girl who has already suffered so much suffer more. If that's what we must do… I…”

“Eh… mmm… poor Albert, was it necessary to throw coffee in his eyes?” asked the captain.

“Ow, ow, ow! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYY!”

“Extremely necessary, captain.”

“Cough, cough. Kuroha, it's not that I don't care about the girl, but it's the unique opportunity we have to get close to Thea Reed.”

“But, captain! How long do you plan to make that girl suffer?! The entire team has read her report… it's a tragic story. Continuing like this won't make us better than those we're pursuing.”

“Being better than them or stopping them so no one else suffers. Which is the better option? Who will take responsibility for all the dead that will continue if we don't put a stop to Thea Reed? It's a difficult dilemma, but I'm clear that we can't let her escape.”

“That's only if we succeed… If we fail, what will we have achieved? Could you answer me that?” Kuroha set aside her little animal behavior toward Erbys to give way to a doubt that was tormenting her inside.

“We will have done, as you said, made a girl who has already suffered too much suffer more. That's why it's important that we don't fail,” answered Albert with red eyes and several tears falling. “It's not just an ethical issue, there are many things we must protect. I wish we could do things differently, and you're welcome to provide a beautiful solution… one that none of us, from the entire defense department, has been able to find.”

Albert's words were sincere. Unlike his usual shamelessness, now they carried reason. They made Kuroha look away to the floor… she looked helpless and somewhat ashamed.

“I don't want to hear that from a perverted and degenerate brothel lover… go and die in the deepest hole that a worm like you can dig.”

Albert froze to such a degree that he looked like a statue.

“Anyway, Kuroha. I would never feel proud of that. If it's any consolation, I was considering sending the Reed sisters to the witness protection program. But only once we've caught Thea Reed… or she escapes from us.”

Kuroha didn't look very convinced; however, she understood the situation perfectly. Living under the fear that group represented for almost a decade had made normal people question whether it was worth continuing to live in Anesse.

“Alright, captain. Even though I don't like it, I understand why we're doing it,” Kuroha grabbed her left elbow with her right hand. “I hope that when this is over, we can still be the same people.”

“It's going to be ten years since the first attack… and we haven't been able to find them. We've done terrible things… Wishing that we remain the same is…” perhaps as a glimmer of hope, Captain Erbys Nath smiled. “A beautiful wish.”

Kuroha stood next to the ice statue that was Albert and bowed to her captain.

“Tell me, have you decided how to act?” asked Kuroha, having regained her military composure.

“I've been mulling over the matter… and I can say I have a plan…” Captain Erbys crossed his arms, smiling mischievously. “A plan so complicated it might work. I'm going to need both of you… also Amélie, Erion, and the boy from Hanna and Oliver's crazy experiment.”

“Speaking of them...” Kuroha looked at the captain with curiosity. “Have you been in contact with Sergeant Erion? He normally writes to me every morning... strangely, he didn't today.”

“I-I didn't know you two were so close...” Erbys scratched his head.

“Everything within my bed is of a professional nature,” said Kuroha, completely serious.

“We'll talk about that later. In any case, I haven't heard from Sergeant Erion. He should be at the surveillance station. Is something wrong?”

“No, nothing.”

The preparations had begun for the operation that would give a new direction to the city of Anesse. A plan that, unfortunately, swept away two young women like a wave.