Chapter 15 - History and Mockery

"Eh Ha ha ha ha ha!"

Lemon was sounding a nasally laugh after hearing Dahlia's day over dinner and she couldn't help but mock her further for it. 

"Who accepts such a ridiculous bet, what the hell were you thinking humoring that?!"

Dahlia was red as she curled inwards at the jabs by Lemon. She couldn't eat anything nor did she have the appetite for it. She was beaten. She had thought she could easily fight against anyone as long as it wasn't something like Panoi's power or the difficulty that Tansol's power would create trying to sell the illusion. She thought she could brute force it but instead she was beaten without even touching her opponent thanks to the rules of the spar.

But it wasn't just the rules of the spar. In a real fight, Rolo would've stabbed her, killed her and she would've been helpless but now she's been given the chance to wallow in her humiliation, something worse than death for the girl who viewed herself better than that.

"It's fine Dahlia, both of us would've been caught off guard by a power like that." Tsumi says, laying a hand on her shoulder to comfort her.

"At least I wouldn't be forced to date some kid afterward." Lemon sniggered.

Dahlia would shrink deeper into the sofa but her upbringing wouldn't allow her to slouch. Instead she settles for staring into the air, not daring to look anywhere else but the surely interesting curtains drawn in front of the window.

"...I thought," Dahlia murmured, "I could have someone who knows a lot of people help me…"

Lemon chuckled, "Sure, it was definitely that and not that her royal highness wanted a chance at a night with a guy."

Dahlia shouted out, flushed and upset, "It wasn't! I don't care for him!"

"So you admit you got your ass handed to you?" she smiled though the girl would not dare look to see.

"I-I-" she stumbled through her words, trying to come up with a dignified response to that.

The two quarrelled away whilst Tsumi was enjoying his meal, checking the laptop Rika had prepared for them. The scans of the hill were complete and he was going over the results.

"Hmm. Seems my hunch was right." he stated loudly, intending for the two others in the room to overhear.

"Oh?" said Lemon inquisitively, "Find something?"

"Yes. The hill is hollow. Some large complex is underneath it that's got some electrical signals."

"What if it's just a generator for the school?" asked Lemon, now standing besides the man to look over his shoulder.

"Unlikely, their plants hooked up. Whatever is under there is only for something down there, something big by the looks of it."

As he goes over the details Dahlia notices that the laptop also shows the details from the keycard Tsumi lifted from the doctor.

"What if this is what gets you down there?" the girl pointed out.

"Good chance." Tsumi agreed, "Question is why does it involve a doctor."

Lemon began to pick up the dishes they used for dinner and chucked them into the sink and started the tap. She began to rinse the loose bits of food off the dishes as she talked away.

"Do you want me to have something burrow in there?" she suggested.

"Not yet, but it has some roots around it." 

Dahlia looked between the two before asking what she was curious about.

"Excuse me Ms. Gordana but are you a druid by any chance?" the girl asked, slightly excited at the idea.

Druids are masters of nature, at least in Dahlia's world. The girl has heard of them as being powerful magic users capable of healing the earth, repairing damage done by demons and monsters. The girl has never seen a druid but always loved the idea of them as she once read an epic about one.

"If by druid you mean someone who works with plants? Technically yes." Lemon replied, finished with rinsing the dishes and now just leaving them in the sink as it slowly fills up.

"How, 'technically'?" Dahlia asked with a slight head tilt.

"Based on what Alice has chatted at me about you, the closest thing you can compare me within your world are dryads, but even then I'm better than them." she boasted.

A dryad, a nature spirit that has the sole mission of protecting its territory and the flora and fauna around it. They are known to be beautiful but very dangerous due to them always being found in their element and their ability to charm most mortals.

"As far as I know, dryads are typically more green."

"It's because I'm a poisoned dryad, a pollyad to be precise. I thrive where nature doesn't." she states with a curl of her fingers.

The very concept sounded contradictory to Dahlia, a creature of nature that thrives only where nature doesn't. How precisely does such a thing work?

"Then those plants you are growing are those under your control?" Dahlia recalls the purple woman talking about starting a garden the second they arrived at the house.

"Yes, one is a radioactive species, the others are a kind of potato that only grows in poisonous soil." 

Lemon turns around to turn the tap off. She then pours some soap in and washes the dishes of anything lingering scraps on them before loading them to the dish rack. She doesn't stop chatting though, speaking to Tsumi instead who was still looking at the laptop, going over as many details as possible from the scan.

"So you said something about this Zanis guy? And the card belongs to a doctor of the parents? Seems I know my chores for next while."

"I was going to handle Zanis," said Tsumi, "but if you want to take both I can try and find out more about what's under the school."

"In that case i'm sleeping early." Lemon starts drying the dishes, finishing quickly before setting them all back and removing the plug from the sink. The swirling dirty bubbly water vanished down the drain.

Lemon walked upstairs and straight to bed as Dahlia and Tsumi were left to themselves. Dahlia looked up at Tsumi who was still working away but noting that she hasn't left yet.

"What if I can't make it?" she mumbled out. She didn't mean to say it, wanting to keep it inside but felt like she could trust the man to hear her worries.

Tsumi stopped looking at the laptop and shut it, turning to the girl immediately.

"Make what? What's it you're after?" he asked but it was clear from his tone that he knows where this conversation is going.

"Strength. No, proficiency. How am I meant to fight these monstrous creatures you say you've already fought when I can't beat peers my age?" she said with slight distress.

Tsumi got up from the dining chair he was sitting at and went to grab himself a glass of water. He then guided the girl over to the living room to sit down with him on the sofa.

"Dahlia, how long has it been since you left your homeworld?" he questioned.

"Over a week."

"Do you actually expect to get stronger in just a week?"

"No but.."

Dahlia's words trailed off before Tsumi finished them. "You thought you had a handle on it back home and now that you have been beaten twice, you feel hopeless."

Dahlia was silent, Tsumi sighed before he talked once more.

"Look, when I had just come onto the Hencacount, I thought I too was a big deal. That, 'hey, I survived the worst so everything must be easy?'. My first mission? It was me and Gregortz. We were tasked to find a serial killer who accidentally jumped the dream and offed the emperor of a different world. 

You think your bet was embarrassing? How about publicly accusing the only son and prince of the late emperor as being a killer and ending up strapped to a pillory for a week, pelted with stale potatoes."

"Oh my." said Dahlia bringing her hand up to her face in shock, "How did you get out?"

"I didn't, Gregortz had to pretend he was the devil dragging me down to hell to get me out. After that, Gregortz had already tracked the guy down and dealt with him so all I had to do was go home in shame back to the Deadbolt. Lemon didn't let it go for a month."

"I see."

"Look Dahlia, my point is that you will find yourself out of your depth. A lot. Even I get twisted by the crazy things happening around me. What I never do is, I never second guess what I can do. Remember that prince I accused?"

Dahlia nodded.

"He was the killer. He happened to look a lot like the prince and took his place. Problem was I didn't have the evidence to prove it so I just said it out loud and stupidly thought everyone would realise the same.

My point is, you will stumble. No matter what experience or skills you have, once you are out of your comfort zone you will find yourself making mistakes. What's important is not letting them doubt that you can do something, that you are not just useful, but incredible at what you do."

Dahlia looked down at the floor, taking in Tsumi's words. She has always thought that maybe she wasn't as good as she seems and that the only thing special about her is that she has these tentacles but…

"Thank you Mr- ahem. Thank you Tsumi."

"You're welcome Dahlia." he replied back with a smile.

- - -

Dahlia went upstairs, leaving the man on his own to reopen the laptop. He stares at the screen for a few moments, not sure what he's doing before he decides to call it a night too and pack up the device. He heads upstairs, intending to hide it in his room to keep it safe but not before passing Lemon's room, her door open and the sounds of rustling happening inside.

Tsumi walks in. He and Lemon are staying in different rooms but he wanted to talk to her about Dahlia. He wasn't sure what to make of the girl yet but could tell from the conversation that she's definitely the type to see herself as above most other people, even if she doesn't mean to. Sheltered is a word that comes to his mind but it's one he's tussling with.

Not sure how that kid will do when we go on a more physical mission. I know she's been working out with Gregortz but nothing can prepare you for having to climb out of a sewer or crashing through a wall.

Inside the bedroom, Lemon had changed into a simple shirt. The shirt was long enough to reach her knees but Tsumi can guess there probably weren't any shorts underneath it. Lemon has very rarely cared about appearing decent, with her worst moments being when she walks out for breakfast at the Deadbolt without a top, earning a lecture and a knock on the head by Samuel about public decency.

He makes sure to knock, causing the woman to turn to his direction.

"I said I was going to sleep." she says with a slight tone of annoyance.

Tsumi ignores her, closing the bedroom door and keeping an ear open to make sure that they aren't being listened to. "I wanted to talk about Dahlia."

The woman sits on the bed, her legs off the edge, "Ok, what?"

"I wanted your thoughts on her." he says like he's interviewing a suspect in a major case.

"Why? Getting a hunch?" Lemon cocks her head to the side slightly at the word 'hunch'.

"No," Tsumi started, "but I just find something about her off."

"Like a hunch?"

"I just said no." he replied with a sigh, "It's something else. A different feeling I can't quite get the source of."

"What's it telling you?" 

"To stay away from the girl."

Lemon lays her hands behind her as she rests back on them, "I thought I was going crazy."

"You got it too?"

"Mmm. Felt like some kind of bloodlust, but more… subtle." she described.

"Should we be concerned?" he asked, Lemon being the one with more experience than him having been in Hencacount far longer.

"No. It's likely something used to push away the weak. At least from my experience." she recounts as she reminiscences briefly on a past mission.

"What about those who are weak?"

"They'll avoid her."

"Won't that affect the mission? Or…" he trails off, unsure if what he was about to say is relevant.

Lemon notices that and finishes his sentence for him, "Leave her feeling lonely? Probably. But there's people here who won't be disturbed by it, especially those super kids in her class, maybe." 

Tsumi takes a short, exaggerated breath, "So what do you think she is? I'm thinking a vessel."

"Same but Alice hasn't said anything so it's probably more complicated than being the host of some eldritch god." the woman closed her eyes, fighting the growing need for sleep, "I think we just let it go for now and see what happens."

"You think Alice knows what she is?"

"Definitely." Lemon responded succinctly.

"And she won't tell us." 

"Meaning it's either worse than it looks or it's too interesting to risk scaring away." 

The woman crawls up backwards into bed and shifts under the covers, having not opened her eyes once. Tsumi could already tell she was done talking and was going to pass out any moment.

"I'll leave you be then. Goodnight." Tsumi said, departing from the room.

"Night." the woman groans as she quietly starts to snore the second the word left her mouth.

- - -

Dahlia headed to her room, being motivated she burned through what study she had and went to bed early to meet the day with the same feeling. As she gazed out her open window with the night sea breeze filling the room she thought of all the ways she could help. How she could improve what she could do. How she can take advantage of the time she has. And with her eyes heavy she fell asleep and resigned herself to her dreams.

But what was met was not dreams, but a nightmare. It was the void again. Seeping into the cracks of Dahlia's mind she felt static. No more falling. Before the darkness was still but now it was swirling like a black amoeba under the light. It slithers over her body and digs into her mind as she feels it pool behind her eyes.

Chunks of, black, ooze from her ears and nose and tears well up in her eyes as cold voices lick her brain and reveal a truth.

You learned its name today. You know its face. Find it in the school. Find it and take what it is its.

When Dahlia thought the dream would end, instead the dark in her body and seeping from her orifices were dragged out as dust, burning her orifices and cleaning out what was within her. 

She felt light, and soon she floated upwards and on high, the dark figure from every nightmare looked down, moving its mouth.

Show me something interesting.

- - - 

In the dark, a figure walks up the driveway at the dead of night. The moon hung overhead, waning as the figure made their way to the front door. They wore a black hoodie and baggy bottoms that made their form harder to pin along with a plastic bag over their face to hide their features. 

Despite the obviously dangerous face wear, the figure seemed to not breath, at least from their face as they reached the doorknob and tried it. A quiet rattle is what the action is responded with so the figure moves their hand towards the lock and shoves their hand into the keyhole.

Cracks of bones are heard as flesh bends and twists to fit inside the tiny opening and fidget inside until each of the pins for this lock are pushed up. The figure pulls out their hand once and tries the door again, opening and letting the figure take a step inside.

They immediately went upstairs, not turning on any lights and despite the speed they were moving, made not a peep. They open the door to a bedroom where an old woman blinks wearily awake at the figure before twisting to horror at the intruder in her home.

She doesn't get the chance to scream as all that's heard are the twisting and crunching of bones and desperate whimpers. The figure eventually leaves the home, the black of their hoodie masking the blood it would clearly be stained with in daylight as they vanish into the night.