To Be Diligent: Stepped Too Far Into Madness

Prologue: Save Our Souls

Donning a pale blue button up shirt and casual black jeans, the professionalism shown by the headphone wearing man sitting behind the desk of a police operation table could be argued to be rather lacking. But what he made up in unprofessionalism, he made up for in competency as the leading emergency telephone operator of his station. Which would be somewhat attributed to the countless cans of iced tea thrown into the tiny recycling bin beside his surprisingly well organized desk.

Going for another sip of his iced tea, his eyes reopened with a renewed surge of energy to work through the late hours he clocked in to earn his bonuses. Mindlessly doing the extra stack of paperwork that the head chief, Makoto Kosen, had so “kindly” assigned to him. Well, it's not as though he is a terrible boss, quite the opposite as many of his colleagues would agree that his dutifulness was his most prominent trait, which ended up being forced down everybody's throats. Especially his own

In spite of that, he remained content with his misery as the pay was good, and the contributions he made to society were certainly worth it. Sure, he didn't get to become the Pro Hero he dreamed to be, but hey, at least he's got a stable job! Heh, nothing beats working until your retirement, am I right? Ah... that just sounded so depressing in his head

However, the sound of an emergency would suddenly ring in the headphones he wore. Prompting him to immediately put aside the paperwork on his desk in favor of the situation at hand

He pressed a single key on the keyboard, allowing the voice of a young foreign woman to enter his ears

“…Hello? Is anyone there?”

Deep within the confines of a facility, what seemed to be a young woman was confined in an insane asylum with a white tiled floor stained with the nauseous sight of blood. But conflicting with the colours of the deep red puddle were the walls, ceiling, and even the bed as they all had the same blindingly pristine shade of white. A psychologically torturous room that had evidently taken its toll on the young foreign woman as unsteady, almost trembling feet kept the woman standing up straight

However, her attempts to fully connect through the large human sized device before her failed as the camera on the young woman's side malfunctioned, resulting in a distorted display of black, white, and gray lines that completely distorted the entire screen. To which he could feel the young woman internally cursing at this unfortunate limitation as what sounded like a vexed grunt made it through the audio static

But unknown to the man was that paired with the plain white hospital gown she wore was the peculiar 3rd person observation that, from head to toe, her entire body was wrapped beneath layers upon layers of medical bandages, only leaving a few spots unshielded such as her eyes, mouth, fingers and a few locks of fiery orange hair sweeping out of her mummy-like head. Even her neck and bare feet weren't excluded from the bandage wrappings

“Corestella police station here, what is your emergency?” Straightening his posture, the man could already feel the uneasiness seeping through her tone as she slammed her fist onto a metallic object

“You've got to help us! W-We’ve been prisoners to these damn Villains for weeks, months? I-I can't even remember…” The caller said as she held onto the side of her bandaged head, groaning in pain as she clearly suffered from some sort of condition. It could possibly be something else, but he wasn't going to assume that Villains were willing to feed her medicine unless she was some sort of high value individual capable of being held for ransom. So he remained level headed, just as he was trained in police academy, and proceeded with the standard line of questions

“Ma'am, please remain calm. I am going to need to know your name, location and the Villains that have you captive” With the click of his pen, he prepared to list down everything she was about to say. To which she promptly complied

“R-Right. My name is Charlotte Romanee. I'm a student of Mori Chowa highschool. A-A-And I'm stuck in some sort of insane asylum right now. I don't even know where I am as ever since I was captured I've been held in a cell with my classmate. All because of those freaks that call themselves Apostles as if they are some-” Before she could finish, her body felt weak as she dropped to the ground, her body colliding with the floor as her sky blue eyes expressed confusion at the suddenness of their own body's collapse

Oh god, oh god, her lungs felt as though they had burst into flames as she devolved into a coughing fit. She wanted it to stop, make it stop for just a second to catch a breath that didn't relentlessly try to strangle her neck. But lying on the floor didn't help the fact that the injuries that these cursed bandages covered her entire figure in were subjecting her to even deeper amount of pain due to the physical pressure of her body weight. This is fucked, so fucked, absolutely fucked! She felt like dying, ending it all for a peaceful rest. But no, that's just utterly absurd... she didn't want to die! She wanted to live, live and fight until the bitter end. All for the happy ending that she rightfully deserves to have, a life of pure love and joy with those she held dearly near

Meanwhile, from the other side of the screen the operator panicked as he heard the glitchy rustling from where he sat. Visibly unsure of whatever the next best course of action may be

“A-Are you alright, Romanee?” To which the the bandaged woman gritted her teeth as she tried to pull herself up by her bed, groaning miserably as she precariously regained her footing. Shit, it all still fucking hurts, especially her once light toned skin. Which felt as though an iron cast was seared into her, something that would periodically ambush in the day or the dead of night under the Villains' captivity

Damn it, damn it all! Why can't she do something as simple as standing the fuck up? She's been dealing with this agonizing pain for what felt like months now, and you're telling her that one spasm is all it takes to fuck it all up? How... how ridiculous!

“Do I sound fine!? That damn witch is keeping me hooked on some shitty medical treatment just so she can persuade my friend to let her drain his blood! I swear… I'm going to-”

“Ma'am, I implore you to calm down. We need to get a hold of-” 

“I AM CALM!”

The operator was hushed into silence after being subjected to her short temper, allowing the young woman's heavy breathing to be the only sound between them for a short while

“Sorry… It's my Quirk. I just have a very short temper” The man released an internal sigh of relief, glad that she had finally calmed down enough. But a sense of urgency still lingered in the back of his mind, feeling the eyes of his colleagues staring at his back

“I understand, but please return to the topic at hand”

“I will, it's just that I'm worried that-”

Interrupting her was the sound of a metallic door being bashed open, causing the telephone operator to jump in surprise. But that shock instantly turned into worry as he heard the beginning of scuffle on the other side of the call

“L-Let me go! You scraps-” 

As the struggle between what he assumed to be the captor and hostage went on, the audio became increasingly distorted with the toppling and crashing of objects. The grunts accompanying each blow Romanee dealt against these Villains were unmistakable, yet curiously, none of these supposed Villains had spoken a word

Coupled with the faint breathing of the highschool girl in question, all the operator could do was lament their inability to help in that very moment. But when the conflict seemed to cease after a bit, he took this opportunity to call out to her or whoever the captor was

“Are you there, Romanee?” 

Unfortunately for him, that was the last he'd heard from that call as nothing but static met him on the other end of the phone