White Rabbit

Chapter 57: Sedated Saccharine

REECE

"Okay," I cross my arms as I stand in the basement, raising a brow at Labyrinth and Kazuki as Caliber and Essence stand next to me, "let me hear this grand idea again."

"It's simple," Labyrinth waves a hand, "we'll just have Raphael rough him up until he remembers who he was. And, if that doesn't work, then I'll try it."

"That's not--" Kazuki starts, glaring at Labyrinth.

"Ah, ah, ah," Labyrinth holds up her index finger, glancing pointedly at Kazuki, "who out of the two of us got Cassidy to help us? Oh, that's right. Me, not you, me."

Kazuki sighs before rolling his eyes and shaking his head.

"I can't deal with her incompetence," Kazuki says as he starts to leave the basement, heading towards the stairs, "let me know how horribly this fails."

"Yet he has so many of his own," Caliber sighs quietly.

"Incompetence my ass," Labyrinth scoffs as Kazuki goes upstairs and passes Indigo, who is on her way down.

"What's going on?" Indigo frowns, her eyes scanning the basement, "and where did Genna go?"

"We're trying to figure out how to jog Azriel's memory," I sigh, pointing my thumb at Azriel, who sits there in his cell, glaring at us, "and Ink is currently interrogating Genna upstairs with Mitsuko and Ryouichi, who just got back from Tokyo."

"Oh," Indigo breathes out, realization dawning across her face, "that's what he meant when he said that he was going to 'get out his creative genius in order to deal with the eccentric genius.'"

"I could tell you!" Antillies shouts as she hops down the stairs, waving a paper around frantically, "I mean, about Azriel. I've worked out a formula!"

"What is it?" I ask, Antillies's words piquing my interest as she runs over and hands me the paper.

"Aphrodisiac!" Antillies beams happily as my eyes scan over the paper before flickering up at her in skepticism.

"I'm sorry, did you just say aphrodisiac?" I raise my eyebrows and Raphael laughs but tries to cover it with a cough as he stands by Azriel's cell.

"Yeah," Antillies nods and beams as she looks between me and the others, her smile slowly falling as she notices all of us staring at her as if she's said something outrageous, "oh, come on, guys! I did the testing. He needs an aphrodisiac. Well, an aphrodisiac of sorts. You see, according to my testing, Raphael was Azriel's closest childhood friend--"

"Enemy," Raphael interjects, holding up his index finger.

"--and I believe that if Raphael ends up taking Azriel by surprise, he could trigger some sort of stimulation by a release of adrenaline and in turn, dopamine in the brain from intimate contact. This would trigger old memories, familiar scents, experiences, and all sorts of things. If my assumptions are correct, then he could potentially hyper-start Azriel's old Supernatural system, as well as his old self," Antillies finishes explaining.

"I am not sure if that is such a good idea..." Caliber trails off wearily, her eyes darting between Raphael and Azriel.

"It'll be fine," Antillies waves, "I promiseeee."

"But how would he go about doing that? I mean, without that being too...awkward..." Indigo trails off.

Raphael sighs and pushes his back off of the wall before uncrossing his arms and reaching for his belt.

"Woah! Woah, wait--" I start, my eyes going wide as Essence lets out a small yelp.

"Calm down," Raphael chuckles, "I'm not doing what you think."