Dead girlfriend got better

We were back in Silvie’s car. Adam took out three cold cans of coke from the glove department and distributed them among us.

“I will start from the very beginning so it may take some time, save the questions for later.”

Said Silvie after taking a short sip. Adam just sat with hands crossed behind his head and looked bored, while I was recalling everything I knew to prepare myself for the incoming battle.

“The first time when Aurora used her powers was at the age of five. Her friends in the preschool started disappearing one after the other and yet no one noticed anything. Even I wasn’t an exception from this rule, only when people from TET came and explained everything I understood the situation.”

“TET has money, influence, people and most of all the ‘seal that blocks all light’. Treat them like something akin to an esper police mate.”

Interjected Adam, apparently unable to hold himself back from commenting.

“Yes, it was them who explained to me the details and instructed on how to deal with the situation. Aura had been using her power on people subconsciously and as a result some of them died.”

“The moment when someone tries to make a situation involving ESP public, the Seal comes into play and erases involved people’s memories mate. You may also call it superpowers instead of ESP.”

“Adam, stop cutting in. Ekhm, the Seal is one of the pillars of TET power. We suspect that it may be someone's passive ability. As long as you don’t try to actively reveal the situation to the public or when you’re on TET authorized whitelist you won’t be affected.”

If it’s true, that could explain the holes in Victor’s memories. Did they really have to wait so long before telling me this? ‘For your and her's sake.’, yeah, right. He was just too lazy to explain it properly and used a convenient excuse.

“But what about the physical evidence that can’t be erased?”

Like pictures, movies, letters. There are even vague traces left online.

“A, haha, haha they’re building a new asylum in our city as the old one has run out of vacant rooms. The worst cases are people who fall into a ‘loop’, they forget about it only to find some pictures and stuff and then they try to make it public and they forget again and it repeats till they break. There’s this doctor who even thinks it’s some kind of a local disease.”

“That’s a rather forced solution…”

If there were only one or two people like that it could somehow pass unnoticed, but I was wondering what would happen in the case of a whole city stuck in a loop.

“Yeah mate, TET knows the risk of this getting out of control so be careful. Even if you’re on their whitelist if you force the Seal to work without a good reason you may become one of the looped. By the way mate, you better avoid leaving Eprya as the Seal only covers the Maiden Island and the moment you try to leave it will always activate.”

Based on his explanation, either TET was a huge and powerful organization with iron discipline or the esper society was small enough to control it freely.

“Let me continue. My Aurora’s situation was special as natural born espers called Gatemakers are very rare, there are only five of them in the whole country.”

“Country, not a city?”

Five?

“Yes, but as most mana spots appear in Claymore and surrounding cities, people searching for more power tend to gather here. To become espers others have to use a ticket near a mana spot and win the demon’s challenge. TET’s slowly working on increasing the number of people with superpowers under its control. That’s where Adam and that girl come into play.”

“Yup, we were just your old poor orphans selected by evil people for their experiments. They gave us tickets, made us espers and told to protect Aura."

When Adam was busy playing the role of a pierrot, Silvie only sighed deeply and corrected his version.

“Aurora’s mental state at that time was bad and TET offered me a solution involving that girl ability.”

“Why do you call Rora ‘that girl’?”

“Because before using her ability on Aurora she was a different person. After that, one of them started calling herself Aura and the other Rora. Both of them have changed and it's as if my daughter was split into two pieces with someone else mixed in…”

A tinge of sadness was imbued into her voice. I could only imagine how a mother would feel after making such choice for the sake of her daughter.

“Don’t worry mate, it was Rora’s first time and she went a bit too far, it won’t happen again. By the way, my position in their deal was like a freebie attached to Rora.”

“You just followed all on your own. Anyway, it wasn’t all that bad, now I have two cute daughters and one stupid son.”

“A, haha, hah, yes mother.”

“Mother?!”

I accidentally allowed my shock to spill outside.

“I’m Rora’s and Adam’s legal guardian.”

“Adam Toril at your service mate. I’ve got a confession to make… I’m dating my own sist- ugh.”

With one swift move, Silvie crushed the empty can on Adam’s head.

Hah! Serves you right for trying to make me jealous. I’ve got a cute little sister of my own. She even calls me onii-chan and I never heard Aura or Rora calling you anything else than ‘Adam’. I win.

“Go, take a walk, your head’s overheating when you try to stay serious for more than five minutes.”

Silvie sharp voice left no room for negotiations, it gave me a clear understanding of the power relation between those two.

“Yes mother.”

He really left and she even locked the car...

“I hate it when people interrupt a serious conversation with stupid jokes.”

“Haaa… yeah me too.”

I will better keep my mouth closed.

“Anyway, that would more or less cover the basics. Let’s move to the next point. As a Gatemaker, Aura can make those drawings of black squares, they’re used as tickets to open mana spots and meet with demons and they’re also a really pricey commodity.”

“You sell them?”

“Yes. It’s a good income, but mostly we just scam people and give them a fake after a little demonstration of Aura’s power. After that, we just tell them that it’s really unfortunate that it didn’t work, but it’s stated in the contract that they have to pay anyway. That’s how I think you got dragged into it.”

“Aren’t you worried about that whole Seal?”

“Remember, you must first actively try to make the public aware, but if you keep the amount of truth to the minimum and carefully avoid spilling critical information it won’t activate, otherwise people would lose memories every time someone says ‘superpowers’ on TV. Also, no one will believe a person who just goes around speaking nonsense about espers without a solid proof. Still, those are only my own conjectures, TET won't answer any questions about it.”

“So how did it turn like that in my case?”

“Sorry, but I don’t know anything other than that. Rora decided to change everything by herself and she’s the only one who knows the true story behind it. She likes to show off so try talking to her with no audience, it will make her more likely to listen.”

In other words, I wasn’t the only one gathering information. Silvie was also confused by this development or was lying to me with a straight face. Just recalling how she had acted last time we met made my doubt-o-meter beep.

“What’s this Rora’s network that I’m part of?”

“People protecting Aura with the power of Rora’s ability. I’m not an esper, but I’m part of the network as mother category, which allows me to feel the position of my daughters. The closer the more precise it becomes.”

“Something like a GPS?”

“Yes, something like that. The situation we tried to recreate today was based on something that had actually happened twice.”

“Aura’s been kidnapped twice?”

For a moment I was wondering how can you kidnap someone who can make you bend to her will with a slight touch, but after putting myself into the kidnapper shoes I realized that simply using a taser from a distance would do the trick.

"Aura and her power, her ability to make tickets, the ability to identify mana spots. It's like a tempting triple win for some people. The possibility of her being abducted again exists all the time, even though we’re acting a lot more careful now.”

“To tell you the truth… it was ridiculous. If that’s the method you’ve used to rescue her previously, you guys are incredibly lucky.”

“Not really, you don’t know Adam’s ability. If something similar ever happens, just do as we did today. Trust me, the hostage situation and open negotiations are the best way to handle it.”

“Why won’t you just tell me about this ability of his? I won't have to worry that much next time.”

“It’s our trump card, the fewer people know about it the be-”

Our conversation was interrupted by knocking, outside the passenger's window stood Adam with a sad face. He probably tried to come inside only to find out that the door was closed. 

Silvie was just watching him for a moment with a bored look before she had opened the door.

“A, haha, ha thank you. It’s cold you know?”

“I know, that’s the point. Well, let’s go back home, it’s really late and I'm worried about Aura.”

“She should be fine, it doesn’t happen that often.”

“Yes, but usually Rora’s with her.”

“Just don’t drive too fast."

As I had no voice in that matter, she started the car and soon we were driving through empty streets.

I hope they won’t forget to let me out near my house.

There was still enough time left for a question or two so I decided to make a good use of it.

“Isn’t Aura important to those guys from TET, why do you even have to worry about her getting kidnapped?”

“They are only strict when it comes to their rules, other than that they won’t intervene too much in the matters of other espers and I’ve turned down their offer of protection.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t want to pick my daughter’s future for her.”

“And there’s me! There’s nothing to worry when I’m around mate. By the way Silvie where’s my taser?”

“...”

“Silvie?”

“...”

“Don’t tell me…”

“You can go and grab it tomorrow.”

“Oh come on, you left it there?! What if it breaks due to the cold? That thing cost me quite a lot, what am I going to do with the batter alone?”

Battery?

“Adam… you took out the batter before giving it to me?”

“Of course mate, why should I risk you stunning me from behind? But, the face you made when you said ‘I had one before’, a, haha, hahaha, haha, did you thought that just pressing a button will work? You didn’t even notice that it was lacking a battery, real stunning master.”

“I… kind of had a lot on my mind at that time…”

“Don’t tease him too much Adam, he already deserves a praise for not panicking.”

Her words hurt. I promised myself to learn more about tasers and stun guns after coming back home.

Alright let's change the topic, there’s no point in getting depressed now, this is probably my best chance to ask about the things that are bothering me.

“You’ve mentioned it before, but what are those TET rules?”

“Rule number one, misusing the Seal will result in removing the offender from the whitelist.

Rule number two, trying to obtain mana spots discovered by TET will result in removing the offender from the whitelist.

Rule number three, misusing your esper power will result in removing the offender from the whitelist.”

Recited Adam with a momentous voice.

“That’s it? That almost sounds like they’re the good guys.”

“Yeah mate, that’s it and did we ever said that they’re the bad guys? I wouldn’t call them good though. I actually wonder why did they even made three rules, when all they need is the last one. Think about it for a sec, they can classify anything they don’t like as ‘misusing your power’ and wipe out your memory. Now you get it why they're the top dogs in esper community? Luckily for us, they’re actually trying to remain neutral. By the way mate, I actually forgot to ask you an important question, what’s your ability? You’ve got one now right?”

“I would like to know about it as well Ando.”

As I was expecting this question to come I already had prepared an answer that downplayed my skill but wasn’t a lie.

“After someone asks me a question, like you just did, I can use my ability to analyze three potential ways of answering and their consequences. For example, by using it I learn that answering with truth will result in you believing me, answering with a lie will make you doubt me and the third one is rather random like answering with ‘I love Nyaruko-chan’ will result in you looking at me with pity.”

“Come on mate, the thing you just described is called 'thinking'. Why lie now? That can’t be tru-”

“You can ask Aura to check it later.”

”...”

“Ando, I can now understand a little why Rora instinctively gave you the pet category. My condolences.”

“I concur… it’s so shitty that there’s no point in even trying to make it better with mana.”

I may have just shot myself in the foot… It is rather random, but it’s not as bad as I described and giving it more mana wouldn't hurt.

We spent the rest of the way in silence. There were some more question running around in my head, but after analyzing the situation I found out that there was a huge problem with them.

Becoming Rora’s pet is just her whim that no one truly understands…

The death of Victor is a thing that only Rora knows the details of…

Oh yeah! In the end, what did they want from me? Wait… wasn’t it to scam the old Victor out of money that went wrong due to Rora’s change of mind?

...

That greedy girl is hoarding all the key answer! She acts like a player who keeps the elixir in case of emergency and when such case finally arrives, the elixir is still not being used due to the possibility of an even bigger emergency.

Before I could think of any other good question they already drove me back home.