“Alrighty, little bro!” Noel smiled as she dragged me out of the guild building and into Pandora’s (not so) busy streets. “The world won’t be ready for the amazing duo of Noel and a Nobody!”

  I sighed and allowed myself to be tugged along. I wasn’t sure where she was taking me, but I didn’t have the energy to argue with her. So down random streets and corridors, we went, passing by the occasional group of people. Even with the new influx of Aspirants, Pandora’s population didn’t balloon past about 12 or 13k people. I guess that only makes sense since we took in one of the bottom five city-states, it wasn’t like they’d have the best survival rates. Still, from what Jae-Hyun had said, the people who did survive the culling weren’t half bad, and I’m sure that there are a few diamonds in the rough in there.

  Speaking of which, I should inform the Regressor about Alexis and that Benjamin person, those two stood out quite a bit during the last Trial. Alexis seemed like she’d be easy to get on board, and I’m sure that a nice talk with Marcus would eliminate some of the attitude problems that I saw with Ben.

  “Okay little bro,” Noel continued as she stopped at one of the busier streets. “This spot’s perfect!”

  This one housed most of the entertainment and food stores, and we had commandeered a spot by the window at one of the local coffee shops. I had ordered a drink for the two of us. Noel would occasionally flick her fingers before muttering something incomprehensible to herself.

  “So…” I started, “What’s the plan exactly?”

  The other woman looked at me funny. “What do you mean? Did you not hear our timelord leader? I’m here to scout for peeps, then I make a list, and then we go torture them for info!”

  “Uh… I’m pretty sure Jae-Hyun didn’t say that last bit.”

  Noel shook her head. “Nu-uh. He said you’re supposed to use your judgment, which means you’re judging them. Everyone knows that’s just secret talk for horrible medieval-style interrogations.” She pulled out a small leather case. “I brought my new kit! You’d be surprised by what they sell in the stores here!

  “And just between you and me…” she gave me a conspiratorial look before whispering. “Nell’s a real connoisseur. I got most of this stuff through her recommendation. She’s even written guidebooks and made a series of how-to videos!”

  “That’s…” I began but shook my head. There was no point trying to talk sense into this woman. “Nevermind. Let’s just do the first part first. Have you seen anyone who would fit the bill of a troublemaker?”

  “Oh, loads!” She flicked her finger again, but this time I was close enough to see what she was actually doing.

  A tiny, inky black fleck of that strange shadow-fire shot out of her finger, went straight through the window, and attached itself to one of the passers-by. Extending my senses, I saw that the horrible substance wormed itself directly into the bodies of the people Noel had targeted, all the while the person in question was completely oblivious.

  She saw me frown as I observed her work and chuckled. “I bet you wanna know what happens, right?” Her smile widened. “Right, little bro? You know your curious!”

  I mean… I kind of was. “Alright, fine, what’s it do? Some kind of tracker?”

  Now her smile turned into a bloodthirsty grin. “Watch.”

  She threw another speck of fire. I watched as it latched itself onto another individual, a young-looking guy in his early twenties perhaps, before it burrowed into his back. However, not a second after it was fully within the man, the poor Aspirant halted and went rigid as a stick. He fell over, every muscle convulsing as if he were having a billion volts of electricity assaulting his body. His buddies tried in vain to help him, and eventually, black bile and blood oozed out of his mouth and his eyes dissolved into a black mollassas-like sludge. He as dead within a few minutes, much to the shock and horror of the onlookers.

  “Oh…” I mumbled.

  “I know!” Noel beamed. “And don’t you worry, little bro. That guy definitely had no redeeming qualities, so don’t worry about the boss’s instructions! See, I’m learning! I made sure he was the weakest around before going all BAM!”

  “That’s uh, that’s great, Noel.” I continued, only too thankful for how desensitized I was with all of this. Thank god I had that earlier run-in with the Hospital and Village… I shook my head. “Great work.”

  She grinned and gave me a friendly one-armed hug. “I knew you would understand! Vadumb would have just told me that I was wasting resources or being reckless… stupid Vadumb.” She shook her head before giving me a thumbs up. “I knew I could count on my little bro!”

  “Uh, he can be right sometimes,” I added, tentatively. “Just cut back on liquifying ‘em before I get a chance to, you know, judge.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” she pouted. “I know, what with our whole survival at stake. But you did ask what I was doing!”

  Fair enough, I guess I was the idiot for asking Noel to show me anything that she was doing. I mean, what else did I expect to happen?

  I sighed. “Okay, fine, so what are you planning to do? Just set them all on fire in a while?”

  “Eh, I could do that, and it’d be super, ultra-cool, and it’ll be what I’d do if I were on my own, but you’re here! I’m using my ability to keep track of everyone first; there’s so many peeps around that there’s no way I’d be able to find out who’s who without a marker. Then we just track them down one by one, the ones with promise we torture like crazy until they fall in line, and the not-so-good ones we just blow up.” She nodded to herself. “Sounds like a good plan, I know.”

  Oh, that was… actually a good idea, sans the torture-like-crazy part. Without her flames keeping track of the populace, I didn’t think we could get through the whole population without wasting a lot of time documenting each encounter, plus, there was always a chance that we’d waste time double-counting some of them. Now Noel’s plan wasn’t fool-proof either, there could always be Aspirants that simply hid at home or were out of Pandora, but we just needed to work with a majority of the new population to secure Jae-Hyun the vote. This was doable.

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  “Alright, little bro,” Noel continued, gulping down the last of her coffee. “I think we’re about done here. Let’s move on to the other market! I need some new clothes after that last Trial, so we’re going shopping!”

  And so the rest of the day continued just like that. It didn’t feel like we were doing much of anything other than just having fun, but the crazy redhead was meticulous in her approach - if you paid close attention that is. She’d strategically hit up all of the busy areas that the Aspirants would visit, making sure that there wasn’t a lot of overlap between each location, and by the end of her rotation, I was fairly certain we were able to get to at least half of the populace. Noel told me that she’d get to the rest in a day or two.

  Truth be told, I was impressed by Noel’s work. Sure, the idiot acted like an idiot some, er, scratch that, most of the time, but there I was seeing why Jae-Hyun trusted her so much with tasks like this one. Plus, I was starting to understand why no one suspected her of her real craft. To anyone who bothered to pay attention to a pair of regular, ordinary-looking folk, it’d have just looked like we were out relaxing and having fun for the day. In fact, Noel’s tracking was so discreet that I wouldn’t have caught it even with my enhanced Xollon senses if I hadn’t already known what she was doing.

  The woman was good.

  * * *

  And so, all in all, it took us three days to be sure that we had screened the majority of Pandora’s new residents, and a few night time solo-trips by the redhead to get the hidden ones out of the way as well. Now, I was sure that the only people we hadn’t seen were the ones who were currently not in Pandora at all. Those shouldn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. During this time, the new Hosts - still not Raffiel for some reason - had announced the election and I could feel the tension in the air as I walked with Noel. The promise of power and control was on everyone’s mind.

  Worse, it seems like we had less time to work with than initially thought. The election was scheduled to be in 10 days. I had thought they’d give us a lot more time, but then again, why would Central ever do that? It wasn’t like Q could reschedule the entirety of Site 1102’s schedule because I asked.

  “Alright, little bro,” she said with that same carefree smile before handing me a little booklet from her pocket. “I think my part’s about done. That’s the info for the people I think stick out, we we should check ‘em out first.”

  I took the book and flipped through the pages. Once again, I was surprised by Noel’s professionalism. On each page was an outline of the individual in question along with a slew of information about them. That included any affiliations they had, friends, routines, and even general ability, and why they were considered a threat to the guild. How and when Noel had the time to get this information was anyone’s guess, but she was meticulous. All in all, the booklet had 15 names. Fewer than I thought.

  “These the ones with promise, right?” I asked. “The ones we should try to recruit instead of, uh, blow up?”

  “Yup yup! Those are the ones who need extra special treatment in any case.” the redhead nodded. “They’re the ones who’ll most likely challenge the timelord for his position. I say we just get rid of ‘em, but I guess we can’t be picky. They’re a stubborn bunch though, little bro, so just keep that in mind. Don’t think super torture will work here.”

  I nodded slowly, processing the information. I needed some time to think.

  Now what was the best way to approach this, especially since we desperately needed these ones loyal to our cause? My normal methods, which involved speaking with them one-on-one with a little bit of Noe magic, wouldn’t work. It’d take too long to get to know each Aspirant and pry out their fears and insecurities to use. That’s also not taking into account the thousands of other, lesser Aspirants that I’d have to quickly review. That would take a lot longer, even if Noel and I choose to use the uh, “brute force” approach and test out the redhead’s new toys. If I wanted to do my part to ensure Jae-Hyun’s victory, I needed to get through these 15 in about a day, two at the very max, and even that was cutting it close. They had a lot of sway with others, so I couldn't just ignore them even if their individual numbers were low, not to mention that we desperately needed new, useful staff in our guild.

  I sat down and frowned. Wisely, Noel chose not to disturb me.

  Okay, let’s break down what I need first. I have 15 scared and vulnerable Aspirants newly kidnapped into Pandora. They might be the brightest of the bunch here, but they were also probably the most corrupt, otherwise they wouldn’t have been spotted by Noel. Either way, there’s no way that they’d be recovered from the sudden changes in just over a week. That kind of mentality I could surely exploit, especially if I amp it up with Noe, but I doubt that would be enough to make egotistical assholes like them bend to the will of another organization. So the question remains, how do I do so in a way that would secure their dependency and loyalty to Jae-Hyun and the Abyss guild…?

  Let’s rule out fear and bribery right off the bat. That’d be great for the short term, but… wait, hold on a second. I was thinking of this entirely wrong. I didn’t need to secure their loyalty for the long term, at least not immediately. I’d have plenty of time to reeducate them once the Regressor’s position is secure. I just needed their vote, and to make sure that they didn’t have any bright ideas of trying to earn the spot as mayor for themselves. As long as I could guarantee that, then Future-Walter could solve everything else... and maybe I could have a bit of fun along the way.

  Now to confirm one last thing.

  Noe, how far along are you with the Perception Shard’s integration?

  “It is already done, my Host, or have you forgotten?” she replied. “But now that we are in the Main Stage and away from the Trial grounds, your influence of other’s perceptions will not be limited to your own form.”

  Just what I hoped for. And you can mimic the Trash Matrix’s messages, right? Like in that last Trial?

  “On a small scale, yes. I have already commandeered many of the Trash Matrix’s functions in Pandora, but they will have to be near the center of this city for me to do so reliably.”

  And where’s the center?

  “The Administration Building.”

  I smiled.

  “Say, Noel,” I muttered, “Can you kidnap all of them and dump them into the guild’s basement? Without them knowing, that is.”

  She shrugged. “Sure, it’ll take me like, an hour, tops. I can even sneak ‘em out again if you want. Gotta wait for them to be asleep or something first though, unless you don’t mind folks finding out that their boss or coworker's missing.”

  “Night’s fine,” I said, “I need some time to prepare in any case.”

  “Got it! Just let me know where and when!”

  I nodded.

  Walter’s Fine: Jae-Hyun? You there?

  Jae-Hyun: Yeah, what do you need, Walter? Is there an issue on your end?

  Walter’s Fine: Not exactly. I have a plan, but I’ll need to borrow the HQ’s basement. All of it. Might also have to do some slight renovations.

  Jae-Hyun: It’s yours. Do what you need.

  Walter’s Fine: Can you make sure that no one enters tonight? I can’t have anything interfering with what I’m about to do.

  Jae-Hyun: I’ll tell the others. Anything else?

  Walter’s Fine: Nah, that’s it.

  Jae-Hyun: Good luck, and thanks, Walter.

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