Chapter 12 – Return – Part 4.

[Next day]

"Akrema Kawakami?" – said the man that entered the relaxation room where Akrema was sitting on the sofa, playing games.

"…"

"Here." – said Akrema as she stopped the game and got up.

"Do you want something from me?"

"Yes. You had been called for the meeting." – said the man that appears to be the guard.

"…. Anything like handcuffs?" – asked Akrema.

"No ma'am. You only need to fallow me." – said the man.

"…Fine." – said Akrema before then leaving the room and then the building as an whole.

The man took Akrema through the base while Akrema herself looked around.

"…"

(Where the hell am I anyway?) – though Akrema while walking through the corridors.

(Honestly speaking, when they rushed me to the base, I didn't had time to take a look at the area nearby and figure things out, but what I did know that there was an sun.)

(But in here? The entire base is cut off from the outside world.)

(But where exactly am I? Maybe some sort of building that in reality is an cover up? Like abandoned building being instead an base of operation in secret?)

(…. Then again, how does these cracks works?)

(Do they can make these cracks on their own? Like they can set up base where ever they want and just build their base there?)

(…Nah. Forget asking questions. Lets just focus on getting the fuck out of here.)

 The man took Akrema through the base, before then finally arriving in front of pair of wooden yet metallic looking doors.

"I had brough the Akrema Kawakami, director." – said the man while pressing an button on the door.

"…"

Moments later, the two doors moved away to the sides, opening themselves.

"Please come it." – said the guard to Akrema.

"…" – Akrema nodded with her head before then walking into the room alone without the guard, before moments later the door behind her closed.

"Sup."- said Ayako who was sitting on the nearby sofa.

"…Hey…" – said Akrema while looking around, realizing that she was in some sort of big office room.

And right on the other side of it, she saw an man sitting across the room, right behind the desk.

"Pleasure to meet you, miss Akrema." – said the man with black and white hair got up.

"My name Minato Mori and I'm the director in charge of this factory."

"…."

"Akrema Kawakami." – Akrema introduced herself.

"…Please. Sit down." – said the man as he pointed to the sofa across the one that Ayako was sitting on, while he himself walked to the other sofa and sat down right beside the Ayako.

Akrema fallowed the man command and sat down on the sofa across him and Ayako.

"…"

"Well then, miss Akrema. I know a lot had happened and that you had only one day to recover, but still, we need to discuss somethings that are quiet important."

"Normally you would had been released from the get go after making sure you had recovered…. But as you may already know, your situation isn't like the average survivor of the crack we rescue."

"The Tale Bearer thing." – said Akrema.

"…Yes. That is the problem." – said Minato Mori.

"Honestly speaking, we don't know if you won't "blow up" with power at some random moments, and so we need to make sure you understand your power and would be able to control it."

"Yes, I went over the whole "gun" talk with her before and I get the story behind….. But, why did you said "understand your power"? Shouldn't you make sure that the power is sealed or something?" – said Akrema.

"Shouldn't you… I don't know. Use some sort of magic seal that would forcefully block me from using these powers?"

"And you think this is that simple? If it was then you would be already out of here." – said the man.

"…"

"Yea… Make sense." – said Akrema with annoyed expression.

"…"

"And another thing. About the whole recruitment."

"My answer haven't changed. It's still "NO"."

"I'm sorry, but I already told her everything."

"And even after resting and thinking about it, my answer is still the same being "NO"."

"…"

"Did she told you what we are dealing with?" – asked man.

"No. She didn't." -said Akrema.

"Then let me explain." – said the man.

"You may have it hard to believe in, but stuff like magic, monsters and other things that should had been straight out of fantasy…. Well, it's real."

"I figured out after seeing that bullshit." – said Akrema.

"…"

"The magic existed in this world for an long time and beings that were not humans as well." – said the man.

"Youkai, demons, spirits, angels, gods and all sort of beings from the myths. All of them were real."

"However, as the world progressed and the gods decided to leave this place, the age of man came, with resulted in the human race slowly dominating the world… But that isn't completely the case."

"Beings I mentioned before DO still exist."

"Some lives in the different realms. While some lives among the humans in secret, while some others may just hide and have their own settlements."

"From what I've been told, you had encountered Shuten, an Oni. Correct?"

"Yes."– said Akrema.

"However, if the magic DO exist and stuff, then why world doesn't know about it? Hell, it wouldn't be surprising if there was some magic used during world wars and stuff."

"Well, I know what you are talking about and so does everyone who deals with the magic."

"Simple put, the magic is strictly used."

"Or more exactly, the magic cannot be openly used."

"Each nation would want to use their own mages and creatures of the legends as an weapons, but then again, they don't want to other nations to use them."

"Simple put, if anybody was to do it, then it would bring too much chaos and so the magic was banned from being used publicly and made secretive to the most of the populace."

"So yea, if you are wondering why you are not seeing anything like flying people on the brooms or the ones that creates giant fire bombs."

"World Magic Control, Inspection, Organization And Incident World Wide Organization."

"Wmcioiwwo."

"This organization deals with anything magic related and otherworldly while also being an organization that focuses on research and proving your power as an mage."

"Simple put, an world where the mages can freely enjoy themselves and stuff, while also being an organization that deals with the criminal and accidents that revolves around the magic."

"By the way, if you are wondering if this is only Japan, then no. There are multiple organization that has an same purpose as us and share the name like us, but they are each one dealing with their own region and country."

"Wmcioiwwo Japan. Wmcioiwwo US. Wmcioiwwo Germany. Wmcioiwwo China and so on. You get the picture."

"…"

"So like what? Mages are criminals that cannot legally use any sort of magic? The same goes to the creatures from myths like oni? Do you fucking hunt them down or something?"

"No. We are organization to make sure that the general public is unaware of an magic and also making sure that they are safe."

"The non human beings and the mages are free. They can kill, murder, eat people and some other stuff as well as do their own private magic experiments and even use magic."

"HOWEVER! We keep watch and make sure nobody cross the lines that shouldn't be crossed kind of deal."

"So, you can think of us an police that deals with magic and unnatural things, while also being an institution for the mages and non-human beings to just let lose or something while also showing off."

"Put you mostly act as police officers, is that the case?" – asked Akrema.

"Well, yes. That is our main purpose if I were to say." – said the man.

"And that was the original reason for foundation. It wasn't an research but instead an peace keeping organization."

"However, overtime the entire organization changed and stuff, resulting in the organization now being also an research intuition as well as an place of gathering."

"However, even though the organization change a lot, their main purpose is still the same, keep the world safe from the magic and the beings related to the unnatural events."

"And now we are also making sure that the unnatural beings for example like oni or spirits that just wish to live in their own life will not be bothered, meaning that we are also giving them our support."

"Well, there is a lot of different stuff going on and some other bullshit to the point explaining the whole thing would way too long to explain."

"So I will just focus on the current organization and what we are doing."

"But first, how did we gotten here."

"About 10 years ago, in the year of the 2012, an weird creation was once detected by all of the Wmcioiwwo organization across the world."

"At first there was nothing nor we could do. Hell, nobody knew the origin where those of those pings at all or anything like that."

"Different dimensions, unknown magic and all sort of stuff were conducted, but then nothing."

"All of the Wmcioiwwo organization did not discovered anything."

"The pings continue for an whole 4 years…. And then they suddenly stopped."

"4 years of total silence."

"But even so, the research continue, trying to discover the origin of these weird pings across the world."

"However, then came the year 8 and it appeared."

"The first crack in reality."

"And that crack led us to the something unknown, the world that would be later be called Peran."

"With the first crack we had discovered this different world, with had caused an panic."

"This wasn't some realm or anything like that, it was straight up whole different world, an completely brand new planet that is here and isn't here at the same time."

"…. And then we found the danger and some secrets of that world."

"Tales, Autos, Shattered… Unknown and unexplored… However, this wasn't the main problem."

"The main problem was that there are monsters that wants to hunt down and murder people and these cracks can appear anywhere! That is the fucking problem."

"…"

"Stop." – said Akrema.

"?"

"Tale bearers. How did you discovered them, I want answer now." – said Akrema with serios expression.

"…"

"If you are thinking it was some sort of government project to harness the power of the Tales the same way they create Autos then you are wrong. It was just an accident."

"It was an project to capture Tale and study it, but then it died when it managed to break free…. And then there was weird reaction with one of the soldiers that were on the scenes."

"The remains of the tale reacted and then test and experiments started, with resulted in finding out what was the unknown reaction that wasn't seen before."

"The first Tale Bearer."

"It was an total accident and discovery, but obviously it did had an impact."

"…."

"Fine." – said Akrema.

"Anyway, in the nutshell. The unknown world had appeared and that world itself is still unknown but also dangerous as people could up getting sucked into called Twisted Crack if they are unlike, with me being the prime example."

"And you are something called…. What was it again?"

"Wmcioiwwo." – said the man.

"But more specify an special brand new branch organization had been created to deal with this sort of problem known as "Armor"."

"Analyze, research, military, rescue organization meant for dealing with the unknown world incidents and discoveries."

"Armor."

"…"

"Okay. "Armor"." – said Akrema.

"So this organization is an special organization that deals with this shit."

"In order worlds, you are "good guys", right?"

"Yeb. Pretty much." – said Ayako.

"But you are also working for the government." – said Akrema.

"And that makes things complicated."

"AND you said that it's not just Japan but instead many organization working together."

"You have people and resources!"

"And I'm just nobody."

"Hell, I'm not even an mage and I honestly still think I'm on some strung drugs and this is all just some stupid dream, that how unreal this is."

"Look, I know that the situation sounds scary and dire, but I'm not an soldier nor I'm good person. I'm coward and scumbag."

"So "No". The answer will be still "No".

"I promise not to use that ability in some illegal ways…. I just want to go home and fucking forget it all."

"…"

*Sigh*

"Sorry, but…. You will have to work with us." – said the man.

"…"

"Why is that?" – said Akrema who was both alarmed and angry at the man reply.

"Is it because of that I'm Tale Bearer?"

"Will you force me to work against my will for you?"

"No. Well, yes, but not in the way you expect." – said Ayako who took over.

"Calm down your hostility and listen so I can clear up misunderstand."

"First thing first. You won't go to the battles nor you will be taking part of any operations."

"You will be allowed to leave the facility whenever you feel like it, simple put you will have freedom and you won't be put in the cage or have anything like collar strapped to your neck."

"However, the problem is you being the Tale Bearer."

"You don't know how to control it, therefore you could be possible an danger to the people around you and we also need an data that could possible give us something about Autos that were made using humans as one of their sides."

"Simple put an training and experiments."

"Training is something you need and want, right? You don't want problems, right?"

"…"

"Yes…. I don't want to." – replied Akrema.

"See?" – said Ayako.

"Not only that, there is another benefit. Money."

"We will pay you for each experiment slash training you do with us."

"Win win situation for both of us, right?

"And here comes the force part, you are dangerous."

"You are "gun" like we talked about and to make sure you won't fire it, we need to have you know how to take your hand off a trigger, with is why the training is necessary."

"We don't want to let lose an "bomb" that would explode at any moment, right?"

"…"

"Make sense…." – replied Akrema.

(Well, they are not wrong.)

(I don't even know how I even pulled the whole transformation in the first place. It was in pure panic. I did managed to revert back to the human, but I had something like experience from the thing Shuten taught me before.)

(…I don't really think I did that transformation really "intentionally".)

(More like spurt of moment thing?)

"…"

(Their offer DOES sound perfect… I won't have to worry about suddenly "bursting" out of a blue and I will also gain some money… It honestly will benefit me in few ways…. And honestly these guys "CAN", but instead they are giving me an freedom? Well, not full one, but still…. Is it scheme?)

*Sigh*

"Fuck it. As long as you don't send me back there, into that weird ass world, I'm fine working with you regarding that whole experiment."

"See? I knew you would reach understanding." – said Ayako.

"Well, I'm just glad that we now understand each other intentions." – said the man while reaching out to the Akrema.

"…Same." – said Akrema before then shaking hands with the man, sealing the deal.