Aurora Over a Dead World

"...Goddamn woman..." I mutter, moving through the alleys cautiously to avoid running into anyone, while Charlotte follows behind me looking confused.

"Is something wrong?... Actually, is this going to take much longer? It’s getting late..." She speaks a little calmer now.

"Yes, yes, the answer is yes to everything!" I shove my hand into my clothes and pull my underwear out, watching it get replaced by bombs.

"..." Charlotte stares at it with unease while I discard the bombs.

"Why the hell is she replacing our clothes with bombs?" Charlotte asks with a look of disgust, as if the culprit were some kind of pervert.

"Because most people don’t notice. Don’t be so weird about it — she’s not doing this out of perversion. It’s just something that can slip past anyone. She makes these things look almost identical to the originals, so a lot of the time you can get blown up without even realizing it."

"Honestly, she’s being pretty kind by not detonating anything. It shows she’s seriously holding back. You... wouldn’t want to see what happens when she decides to set off the things she replaces your clothes with..." I say, stepping into an empty building under construction.

"Are you defending her? You called her a pyromaniac..."

"She is one, but she’s not a degenerate. She’s more of a lunatic who likes blowing things up and loves fires..." I don’t say anything more, because she’d be disturbed to know the kind of things this crazy woman has already put bombs on.

"..."

"You seem to know most of the people here..."

"Yeah, I’ve seen some of them, worked with some, and heard rumors about others, but I’ve never been really close to anyone here, and I don’t actually know most of them." I hear a few beeps from devices and I know she’s really here.

’This firebug hasn’t changed one bit...’

"How did you know she was here?" Charlotte questions with suspicion. I raise a hand for her to be quiet.

"I worked with her for a few months—"

"Zenith, you didn’t even try to sneak in. I’m offended." We hear a voice coming out with static from somewhere.

"You could just give me the briefcase. I know you’re here. You didn’t even come for the briefcase — just for the chance to blow things up and set buildings on fire. You’re practically a terrorist, just one with government permission."

"How mean. I’m not that bad—"

"You put bombs on a rookie’s chest and replaced my underwear with explosives too."

"..." Charlotte glances around cautiously.

"It’s just business. Besides, the briefcase is worth good money. That black goo — I heard from the higher-ups that it was apparently used to turn a human into a true monster of fear."

’I didn’t know about that...’

"What do you mean?"

"I don’t know. I just know that liquid was used in that attack a few days ago." They didn’t tell me much about anything regarding that attack, and even with Nadir’s permission I couldn’t access the data.

"You do know it won’t be very hard for me to kill you, right?" I grab Charlotte’s hand and pull her away from a pipe.

"Don’t stand near closed things," I warn her sharply. She’s distracted.

"Zenith, don’t be so hard on the rookie. How about this — I’ll give you the briefcase if you two put on a striptease show for me." When she says that, Charlotte looks at me like I’m a liar.

"Don’t fall for her tricks. She’ll record it and sell it to buy explosives instead of enjoying it."

"Tsk, don’t ruin my image, Zenith. I’m not a mercenary... most of the time!"

"You really are a piece of shit, you know that? You’ve already ruined the reputation of plenty of girls with your lies." She sells these videos to a lot of people, so many girls who fell for that trick of hers had their images commercialized.

"...You’re so mean to me. And unfortunately, I know threatening you with bombs wouldn’t change anything... but what about this rookie? I think I recognize her." I glance at Charlotte.

"Oh, really?" While we talk, I’m using my powers to try to figure out exactly where she is.

"Forget it... you want the briefcase, and I know your personality well. You’re probably trying to find me right now, and you will find me, and you’ll try to kill me, and I don’t want to fight you... in five minutes, three people will arrive at this building."

"You two don’t have time, and I’m not having fun. So how about a trade? I want a close-up of this girl’s tits. I won’t get her face, but I’ll sell the photos. How about it?"

"I have a better offer, pyromaniac. How about I bring this whole building down?"

"..."

"Die, Zenith." She triggers the explosives. I hear the sound coming from below. I quickly grab Charlotte and throw her over my shoulders, then run to the building’s window, pulling space like a veil beneath me as I leap through it, landing on a platform.

The building starts collapsing downward, exploding rapidly. I’m confused by that choice.

"..." I look up at the sky and see some kind of customized, smaller helicopter flying overhead. Looks like she had an escape plan.

"Hey, we need to be fast. I’m going to throw you up — I need you to take down that helicopter by destroying its tail."

"..." I quickly spin, grabbing her legs, and then hurl her upward before she can even respond. She’s launched like a bullet and then tears through space in the area of the helicopter’s tail when she reaches it. She starts falling while I leap upward, creating more platforms. The building finishes crumbling as I catch Charlotte.

"That..." I see the briefcase in her hands. She gives an arrogant smile as she falls into my arms.

"I managed to open a rift inside to steal it," she says with a victorious smile, though I’m confused about how that works — she couldn’t open a rift fast enough for us to escape, but she managed one to steal the briefcase.

"...Very good..." I glance at the helicopter, knowing she won’t die from that.

"Now create a rift so we can get out of here," I say, setting her down on the platform while I take the briefcase.

"..." I open the briefcase and feel a chill run through me as I look at Charlotte, who starts opening a portal for us to leave.

"..." Quickly, I pick up the photo and look at the back.

"[Thanks for the gift, Zenith]" It’s written with several hearts, and the photo is an exact close-up of Charlotte’s bare chest. She must have taken it when I tore Charlotte’s clothes to remove the bombs from her chest.

’That bitch...’ I see another photo — this one of my private parts. It makes me crush the images in my hand. Even if they don’t show much of us, it’s still something that makes me grind my teeth.

The worst part is knowing this piece of shit is going to sell them and there’s nothing I can do to stop it. It’s honestly frustrating.

’I’m going to kill her the next time I see her...’ She just made herself a mortal enemy. This won’t end here.

"Something wrong?" Charlotte asks as I shove her into the rift. She teleports, so I consider it safe, and I jump in after her, coming out on top of a building near the academy.

"Nothing’s wrong..." I open the briefcase again. The contents are the same. I guess that crazy pyromaniac knew the briefcase would be stolen by us.

’Normally I’d still have to go through several fights before escaping... Charlotte is pretty convenient...’

"I guess I’ll consider this a job well done... Nexus, transfer 10% of the commission to Charlotte." I pay for the service, which leaves Charlotte confused. She pulls out her phone and her eyes go wide.

"W-What kind of madness is this!? This is a fortune!! This is only 10%?" I gave her money out of my own pocket, since I haven’t received the payment yet.

"...Don’t get too excited. For an ordinary person it really is a lot of money, but this doesn’t even cover decent military equipment. Honestly, I thought the pay this time was low."

"Consider it a small token for the good work. It should be enough for you to buy clothes, expensive dinners, and whatever electronics you like, or rent an apartment to live in for a few months." I close the briefcase to take it to someone who’ll deal with it.

"...Why would you help... the government? You don’t seem to like them..." She questions, putting her phone away.

"I don’t like them. I don’t even like the side I follow, but we have to choose sides, and the neutral side aligns better with what I want than the others. It’s just... a business choice. I don’t need to like it."

"Take this as a lesson. If you want to come with me on more missions like this, I can take you."

"...I want to..."

"Good, then every three days I’ll take you on missions like this. I was actually in need of money, so it might be good. They always have plenty of jobs that anyone can accept as long as you’re a veteran." I jump off the building, landing on the ground.

"..." I look at the vial I took from the briefcase.

"Hmm..." I slip it into my pocket. I’m not giving this to the government. Something used to create monsters in the hands of people like them? That’s a risk. I’d rather destroy it.

But in this case, that hooded woman knows too much about me. I’ll take this to an underground lab I know is reliable and won’t try to steal it.

"Yeah... maybe... this goo is connected to my past..." I had a few days to think while they were studying my new prosthetics, and I think I’m going to "accept" the hooded woman’s proposal. I’m going to descend from the island to explore down below when the island stops — if the island stops.

"I can’t believe I’m taking so many risks..."

...

...

...

"Damn it!!! My helicopter... what a bunch of fucked-up women. This is why I hate troublesome people like Zenith... at least that girl has nice tits and I got a good close-up of her. I think the photo will sell well..." The ’pyromaniac,’ as Zenith calls her, complains in her room while looking at the photos she took.

"The photo I took of Zenith is basically garbage. It’s dark and blurry since it was taken from bad angles... and she took it off too fast before the AI could make adjustments..." She crushes the photo she took of Zenith and tosses it in the trash, knowing it won’t sell for practically anything and isn’t worth the distribution cost.

"I expected a lot more... guess that’s it. I came out at a loss with the destruction of my helicopter... at least I cloned the data from the papers..." She plugs a flash drive into the computer, transferring the data she copied from the briefcase during the time she had possession of it.

"...I also got this..." She looks at a small vial with a few drops of the black goo. She knew she would lose the briefcase, and she didn’t want the trouble of fighting so many veterans for hours, so she preferred to just steal a little bit of the contents.

"I wonder who’ll pay the most for this..." She starts reading the papers whose data she cloned while spinning the vial between her fingers, determined to sell to the highest bidder.

"I’m so close!! My dream of building an incendiary warhead capable of covering an entire country will come true!!! Hehehe." She doesn’t even plan on actually using such a bomb, but just building it would be all the achievement she needs.

"Although the core is getting really expensive... I hope I have enough money for it... maybe I should sell photos and videos of myself too?"

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