Glitch

Sixteen! Of Unregisted And Irregulars

Naturally, I mouth back, "How do you know that?"

"How I know isn't important." He sighs and closes his eyes, when he opens them again, they are icy and his expression is uncaring.

I decide to leave it at that. Now isn't the right time to have a full on conversation with Mr. I'm Mysterious and like to not explain stuff. "What are you doing here anyways?"

"I'm making sure my future partner doesn't die."

Ironic, his tone indicates otherwise.

"Why would you care if I died or not?"

He shakes his head. "You would serve no purpose to me if you died."

"Right, just latch onto me for as long as you want... like a leech." His glares at me and I view my screen, ready for the consequence of the decision I'm about to take. "I don't even know what you want with me anyway, I can't promise to be of use to you."

"Indeed?" Without a pinch of amusement in his voice. "Just stay there and be oblivious then, what you don't know can't kill you."

Stop speaking in parables, I want to say.

You have 60 phases more to carry out your task.

It's been two cycles already?

30.

20.

10.

1.

I take in a deep breath, wondering if this would hurt. Fortunately, it doesn't. But the feel of having lost my left arm is rather familiar.

Ha... I'd lost the same arm in the Dungeon.

Aki looks at me in horror, almost the same look Black Hood has on, except perfectly masked with indifference. "What happened?"

"I didn't carry out my task."

A: I really wouldn't have blamed you if you killed the psychopath.

C: I couldn't.

C: I don't have barely enough strength to kick him.

I bet Aki's calculation would have gone perfectly smooth if Keanu didn't intervene. That said, Keanu is the only casualty he didn't consider. I hope it doesn't change our survival rate in the quest.

"Was it to eliminate me?" A level one shock evident on his face.

"Yes," I quickly glance at him, "and we both know that's impossible so I didn't try."

"You should have-" He stops talking halfway and groans.

I don't need to listen completely before knowing he was definitely going to say something offensive.

Luckily, I disappear and reappear five boxes to the left of my current location. Lucky because I didn't hear the words that came out of Keanu's mouth. Not so lucky because the boxes between Aki and I are so far apart that I can't help but think: Oh fuck.

We're exactly seven boxes apart.

As for Keanu, we're four boxes apart.

Keanu stares icily at Aki then at me. I suppose he's trying to communicate but I can't really make sense of his words. He shakes his head in irritation after I don't guess correctly the words he's saying.

Then the unexpected happens, his gaze penetrates through me as his right arm disappears.

This time I guess what he's saying correctly: Damn it, that's the one I use to aim.