No More Riddles - Part 4

“You know this subject is a little too sensi…”

“Ain’t willin’ to speak fer free, ay? So, what if we went on turns?” Anna cut her partner’s words to offer a new deal but then continued speaking before hearing an answer. “Me first then. It ain’t an exact description, but I’m more made than born if you go by definition. Yer turn.”

Most couldn’t react right away to the off-hand information they were receiving, and the ‘I don’t care’ expression on Anna’s face wasn’t helping. Sensible considering she should be the only person around that wouldn’t be surprised by the information. Even Col only knew her as the younger Solomon sibling, and she was the only that knew something.

The inquisitor was expecting that Minako’s reaction wouldn’t be on par with the others though. She was in the belief that the shrine maiden had somehow learned way more things she shouldn’t be able to in her loops. Only the wingless angel trying to stay out of the talk seemed to react with something other than confusion.

“Could it be that you…”

“Very likely, yes. Thing is, they never could finish, so it ain’t perfect… I’m kinda only holdin’ as is 'cause of this eye and a li’l external help I don’t even know the real origin.”

“Impressive… To think that, at least at one point, the current world managed to go beyond what we had back in the day. And for it to be an artificial human no less…

“Wait, wait, wait! Artificial human? Aren’t you Ben’s sister?! Is he also…”

“Nay. I’m kinda adopted, but kinda not too… There’s this thing called a lab-grown embryo and there was this person who was real good at messin’ with’em. She could even mix make the damn thing be kinda related to someone else and then mix buncha other things...” She continued for a moment, stopping only when she saw how confused Col was getting. “Anyway, that ain’t no matter now. And it ain’t mah’ turn anymore… Now talk, Shorty.”

The attention turned to Karim now as she was yet with a displeased expression while being questioned. It was obvious that the cop wasn’t feeling like talking, but her enforced partner didn’t seem to be willing to retreat.

“Why do you want to know about me this much? I don’t see how…”

“Honestly? I just wanna be able to trust you lot a li’l bit.” The inquisitor answered before the question was even completed. “I can, of course, keep going as is and use y’all like slightly-useful pawns, but that won’t cut anymore... Even if I can beat that brat by mahself, I won’t be gettin’ close to him after failin’ this once. He ain’t stupid to give other openin’ like this… He’ll find out ‘bout mah’ own rat soon.”

“I’m sure that’s not how trust works…”

“It how it works fer me.”

“Sigh… Fine then. If you want to know this so bad…” Karim spoke slowly after getting her mind in order. “My mother is a witch like I said I am, but my father was an angel or something close to it. I never met him, so it’s hard to be sure. All I know is what mother told me before she got… before she went crazy.”

“Which is why she recovers so fast when inside a temple, by the way,” Minako added from the side, which gained her some glares. “What?! She told me herself! Not here, but alas…”

This information explained some things, a lot of them even, but letting the kitsune go ham with whatever bits of information she collected through time wouldn’t be good. She was already weird enough as is, so it was scary to imagine her being even more unrestrained because she knew something that she shouldn’t.

Still, Anna left a note in her mind to ask the fox about what kind of things she saw though. The experience itself seemed like something interesting to add to her knowledge.

“Back to tracks now, ‘kay? Since it’s mah’ turn…”

“This ‘turn’ thing is stupid.” It was Karim’s turn to interrupt now. Hers only made the redhead smirk though.

“Is it? Do ya wanna tell us all yer story in a go? Be mah’ guest then. It’ll save time…”

“This…” The blondie stopped to think for a moment, likely noticing the real point of the whole ‘turns’ thing. “Go on like this, please.”

Some people preferred to be hit with everything in a single hit and cared very little about their past, Anna was both of those, but it was the opposite for Karim. Her partner knew this from her observations, so her weird moves were to somehow minimize the problem.

It was also a good way to set everyone on par with her own backstory while doing so. They would get some mutual trust like this, or at least the inquisitor hoped so.

“Back to me… Some things happened and the lab I lived was destroyed, so I was adopted by the pope at the time. It was quite the nice family with a cool brother even...” As she was speaking, even if only for a moment, Annabeth’s expression darkened a lot before going back to normal as she controlled herself. “The bastard then killed ‘em both and tried to get me too, but I’m kinda hard to kill, so he leveled half the city and I got the rest. All else’s history…”

“So he was what you were fighting back then… Makes more sense than a demon incursion out of nowhere, that’s for sure.”

“It wasn’t as if the big brats’d tell everyone their hero decided to blow up his own ceremony after comin’ back from the war and then kill the pope. Kinda hard to sell this, even fer someone that was as close to him as ya… Heck! If I wasn’t there and wasn’t as troublesome as I am, they’d likely shut me down after that.”

"I hate how it makes sense... You could have told me at least though. I mean, we could very well be family with time."

"If ya wanna the truth, then it's all 'cause I wasn't sure if you'd turn sides if I told ya. Love thingys are a pain, y'know? But anyways... We've gone through most points now. All's left's talkin' 'bout yer aunt, 'aight, Shorty?"

The method was a little rough, but the focus of the talk went back to where it had to go. Karim couldn't feel pleased due to that, even if she could see it was a fair question by now.

Although, until now, Anna couldn't understand how everyone was trusting her this easily. Her story was as hard to believe as they came and she wasn't known for being honest too. Maybe it was another perk of having easygoing and/or way too trusting companions...

"I still don't like talking about it, but I don't care by now..." Karim continued with another sigh. "Auntie adopted me after some investigation. I'm not that sure of the reason, but she got inside where I was living, they arrested mom since she was insane and rescued me. That's all in there unless you ask auntie herself... Her reasons are somewhat above me."

Most of what was said in the last few minutes was outrageous or very depressive, so Karim's backstory wasn't such hard hits by now. Still, after this much, it was getting hard for anyone to react. That is, anyone that had any shred of commonsense at least.

"I think that settles all then..." The redhead broke through the heavy air as if it wasn't there. "Feels like enough bondin' fer me, so... We're a proper team now, 'kay? I'll even let the angel there join and ask out li'l captain later."

She then presented her hand to the other people in the area, which only gained her some confusion at first. Confusion that was broken by a loud sigh from one side and a cackle from the other as both Karim and Minako started to move. And with them, the other two also approached and formed the cliched circle Anna wanted.

Not exactly the most animated situation, and it didn't seem like most of them were enjoying it, but was good enough. All left was to top it with the biggest piece of news that was missing from their talks...

"And by the way, I'll die in three months tops."