Iridescence

"Y'know, it's amazing," Noir started, "You've told me so much and yet we still know so little. What are we even doing here?"

Wendy made no response and simply continued walking.

"Like, this looks like some place where we would fight slimes and level up—or go up and down dungeon floors to max out our stats or something. What do we do in this world?"

Wendy again made no response and continued leading the way.

"Or we make a guild and share gold or equipment with other people to face off against opposing guilds—or something. I didn't read much fantasy…my father only kept some of his anthropology writings."

Wendy stayed silent.

"Are you even listening to me? I thought you couldn't lie or ignore questions in this world."

"You can't…" Wendy muttered, "...unless you don't know the answers! I've read all I can but I still know next to nothing! I don't know what people do here or what they like or how their societies are built or anything…I don't even know what we're looking for…I don't know what The Ultimate Weapon is…"

Noir was taken aback in a way that made him seem afraid. "So, you really don't know anything…Wasn't it a bit selfish and foolish to take a kid on a quest that you know so little about?"

Wendy chuckled and nodded. "Yes…it was. I've a question for you, however…and it's one that I've been afraid of asking…"

Noir felt pierced through the chest—if it made Wendy afraid, he could only guess what she was about to ask.

"You told me you came to the bar to make 'a drop' for some friends, right?"

"Yes…that is what I told you…it was a lie."

"I knew that. I looked all over your body while you were unconscious—you had nothing."

Noir braced himself for her next question:

"Why were you really at the bar?"

Noir could feel dozens of different answers slipping off his tongue. He seemed to be holding onto them desperately while the real answer left his lips:

"I was running from the police…well…they weren't in active pursuit of me—but I needed a place to get rid of some of these clothes before they could identify me…Otherwise, they would've found me the next day…"

Noir tripped over his words and was more comfortable in stumbling than he was in speaking. Wendy, however, stayed silent and let him finish.

"As I said before...I ran away from my home city less than a year ago…I still fight with myself almost every day whether or not I made the right decision…when I came to Shinjuku, I had nowhere to go and no one to trust. I spent several nights alone in the rain and several days alone behind buildings. People mocked me, pointed at me, laughed and made violent gestures…Until one person gave me a chance."

Noir stopped in place behind Wendy. Wendy paused as well and turned around. She remained silent until Noir continued:

"He told me his name was Douglas and that he came to Japan on healthcare business—he even spoke a bit of English to try to prove it to me. He found me alone at the park and eagerly approached, saying I was 'a great fit' for a project he was working on. I didn't know what it was then—but he seemed happy to let me stay with him while he prepared the parts. I offered to help him in any way I could several times, but he always shut me down…he said repeatedly that the area and chemicals he worked with were 'too dangerous to be handled by unpracticed scientists.' That raised a flag in my head—what did he want to do to me with things he deemed dangerous? He always kept his room locked but I was too paranoid to let it be. I found a bit of wire to lockpick the door while he was away—it took forever, but I made it in. He had so many reports of things he was working on, but the thing that fit the most with the equipment he was using was something called 'disease rotation.' He was going to put a variety of engineered viruses and illnesses in me—and a lot of them were deadly—in a way that would make them all appear at different times and make treating them almost impossible. It looked like he was working on it to turn a massive profit by making treatment cost a fortune. I also found out there that his name was really Hiro and that his business was in Japan, not overseas. While I was going over everything, one of the chemicals he left out made me faint—he came back while I was out and started choking me—I guess it was because I had seen too much. I managed to fight back and splash something in his eyes and get a grip on him. I strangled him and ran away when the police came."

Wendy nodded along silently while he spoke. She asked very matter-of-factly at the end: "Do you think they know it's you?"

"By now, maybe. Someone surely saw me run away in this hoodie—that I was supposed to throw away…I took this hoodie from him though—and I cleaned the place for hairs and prints pretty often."

"Well, it sounds like things could've been a lot worse. What else is contributing to your pathos?"

Noir paused again. He disliked confrontation of this type and disliked going on tangents even more. "Probably…the events that took place before I ran away…"

"Can you tell me more about that?"

Noir rolled his eyes. "What else could you want to know? I'm a murderer and that's that." After saying this, he reflexively covered his mouth. "How…did I just avoid your question?"

"Your pathos rejected it. I think that means you don't have sufficient focus to talk about it."

"But I had enough to talk about the other thing?"

"Yeah, it seems so. What happened back then must be weighing down on you way more."

"Wait—you didn't say there was a caveat to that thing: that 'We can't lie in this world—unless something else is at play.'"

"Yeah, I also said that your pathos determines what you can and can't talk about. Keep up."

"So, tell me more about this: our suffering is of similar quantity and quality, right?"

"Yeah, similar enough at least."

"Then what do you have in common with me? What about that story I just told you matches your experience?"

"I have zero clue."

Noir's mouth hung open and he froze in place. "Whuh—there's no way that's true…"

"It seemed like your story could not be more different from mine—other than that they both involve death."

"You're lying—you're probably just not ready to tell me yet."

"I was a famous violinist, you were a homeless runaway. I had a loving fiancé, you ran away alone. My fiancé died in an accident, you killed a man trying to kill you."

"What about the accident—could it be considered self-defense in some way?"

"Is a falling building self-defense?"

Noir paused for a moment out of sheer malevolence. "Okay, well, tell me: How did you escape unharmed?"

"I had a parachute ready. I was preparing to fake my own death because I needed to get to a new life. The building just happened to come down the same day."

"That's…awfully convenient to be a coincidence."

"I'm telling the truth, Noir."

"Well, there you go! That's the thing in common! We both needed to run away and start over!"

"No…that's too easy. If that were it, then everyone's pathos would be our color. It's gotta be something deeper."

"Like what? You said yourself you needed a change—and that you can't see anything else in the story it could be."

"I was thinking…my fiancé said something on the day that he died: that he had a meeting with some friends in real-estate and they took out insurance on the building the same day that it collapsed…"

Noir's eyes flashed with conviction: "The same thing happened—Hiro was using me to make money! Corporate greed—that's the common denominator!"

"No," Wendy shot back, "it's the same problem. It's just too common. We'd see our pathoses everywhere. And, yeah, they do combine into one color, but both of those are just too common."

"Okay…so it has to be something deeper. Also, what do you mean 'we?' You're the only one who can see pathoses."

"Oh, right—I forgot: I have to cast a spell on you to let you see the pathoses of other creatures. And it's not just humans, all living things have them. All living things suffer."

"Maybe you're right…okay! Cast that spell!"

"I'll do it when we get where we're going."

"Where are we even going? How do you know where to go?"

"I don't. Just wanted to see how long you'd follow me before you ask."

Noir grunted angrily before Wendy spoke again:

"I'm joking. I've read that the world we just came from should map onto this one in a variety of ways. I'm hoping that means that if I walk the same direction that I do when I go from my house in the forest to the market, we'll find something there."

"So you really are just guessing."

"Shut up…do you have a better idea?"

"Yes, I do—"

The moment Noir closed his lips, the ground beneath them began to shake viciously.

"Wh—What is that?!" Noir shouted.

Wendy inquisitively looked around—as though this was something she had quietly been expecting. "Look! In the reservoir ahead!"

Roughly fifty meters from them arose a creature—gargantuan and with a rough texture. Its very body appeared elemental: half-earth and half-water. On the green end it had rocky extrusions and sharp hedges, on the blue end it had small hurricanes and pieces of shipwrecks—but the halves of it alone were bigger than the two of them combined. It let out a horrific roar.

Wendy screamed in a panicked and confused voice: "It seems very angry! I read only certain things are hostile here—this must be one of them! Okay, Noir—this'll be your first lesson on combat in this world—"

The creature interrupted her with a sudden charge.