Chapter 223 B4. 17.1 – Some Sense of Normalcy

I didn’t stay as Golden Blanchette for long because it could attract unwanted attention. Moving downtown, some techie stuff might pick up my energy signature. I bet that I was way more visible than Deen’s Core.

Also, I still wasn’t sure how far Corebrings could detect me. Did Trepanner sense that I was digesting her Corequip? It wasn’t yet time to fight Corebrings.

See? I was being prudent. Someone should give me a medal.

Nothing happened for the rest of the trip. The only challenge was stopping myself from scaring some people living in the drains. Fortunately for them, I wasn’t particularly assholish tonight. Exiting the drains, I switched back to my original body and then wore my third mask. I missed Golden Blanchette already.

I navigated dark and narrow alleys, zigzagging to the front of the Strip, my glass feet clinking on the concrete. A couple of times, I reached dead ends and had to turn back. This was taking longer than I expected. Walking around naked made me feel vulnerable. I hoped that I’d meet someone so I’d change my face.

Technically, I wasn’t naked because I was covered in glass. But glass was glass and very see-through, so… was I naked?

I forced my thoughts to wander because I didn’t want to think about Adrian’s death. I couldn’t really say I felt guilty about it. He wasn’t a good person and was a danger to Deen. But I was also uneasy. His death was too… violent. His spine—

I shook my head. Think of something else.

My power! I had some realizations. Several minutes of alone time had passed, and I was still technically naked Erind. The perception of others gives me an identity.

This reminded me of The Emperor’s New Clothes, a fairy tale of a vain emperor obsessed with the most lavish clothes who got scammed. Conmen faked making his clothes, saying that those who couldn’t see the clothes were idiots. The emperor, not wanting to admit he couldn’t see anything and be branded stupid, went on a parade wearing the fake clothes.

There weren’t really any clothes. He paraded naked.

Just like what I was doing now.

The people in the empire, from the highest-ranking officials down to the peasants, also didn’t want to be called stupid. And so, they praised the clothes that weren’t there. They all fooled themselves until a kid jeered that the emperor didn’t have clothes on. Everybody then started to laugh.

It’d be really annoying if a kid turned out to be my weakness.

When Mom read to me The Emperor’s New Clothes when I was a kid, I didn’t think much of it. Could people actually be that stupid? It took some years before I realized it was true; people saw what they wanted to see.

That same principle—kind of weird to call it a principle—was how the fame and infamy of Red Hood grew. People had expectations of the giant werewolf Adumbrae. No way Red Hood was a first-year law student who just liked to mess around with stuff.

Many people were going to feel really stupid once they knew the truth. Of course, I wouldn’t let anyone find out.

Eventually, I managed to find my way to the Strip and activated my auto-disguise. I rode the bus instead of taking a cab because I didn’t want to chat with the driver. Some silence, please, while I tortured myself with guilt.

Was it my place to punish Adrian? Wasn’t killing him taking the law into my own hands? How the hell do overthinkers make their brain shut up? How could I simply not care when I was in my original body?

I maintained my disguise entering the condo building. Wouldn’t want to scare anyone with my original body’s literal bloody hands.

I exited the elevator onto the twenty-first floor and went inside the emergency staircase. Taking off my mask, I climbed to the next floor as my cute Erind self. I leaned against the metal door and opened it a crack. No one was in the hallway. I rushed to my room while hiding my bloody hands under my shirt, the bag with Adrian’s arm swinging on my shoulder.

“Erind!” Deen opened the door and tightly hugged me as if she hadn’t seen me in years. “Thank goodness you’re here!”

“I’d prefer to enter first before our reunion rites,” I grumbled, suffocating in her bosom.

“Yes, come in.” Deen raised me off the floor, turned around, and deposited me in my room. “You have blood on you.”

“It’s not mine,” I said.

“Did anyone—?”

“No one saw the blood,” I cut in, knowing Deen’s question. “I used my power to disguise myself.”

“You have to tell me about this new power of yours,” Deen sternly said.

“I’d love to know about it as well,” Cecilia cheerily added from the kitchen.

“What the hell have you done here?” My eyes widened at the science fair project on the island counter and the sink. No, not a science fair project. A drug lab. Bubbling test tubes and beakers connected with tubes. There was also electrical wiring connecting the liquids to machines.

“We did some shopping while you were gone,” Deen said. “I paid for it. We got those from a second-hand shop nearby.”

“Wow, you’ve been really busy,” I said. “And I wasn’t gone for that long.”

“Your blonde friend had been a very lovely assistant,” Cecilia said while adjusting some tubes.

“Her demands were nonstop,” Deen sighed. “Anyway, Erind, I also bought a new knife set.”

I raised a brow. “Knife set?”

“You wouldn’t want Cecilia to use your knives for…” Deen glanced at the bag I carried.

“Oh, for butchering. Doesn’t sound very nice when I put it that way, but that’s what's going to happen. I got the arm of an Adumbrae right here.” I dropped the bag to the floor and kicked it in Cecilia’s direction. I didn’t want to come near her setup and accidentally break something.

Cecilia had an unhinged smile while unzipping the bag, as if she were a possessed kid in a horror movie, the one whose parents never believed was actually a monster. She pulled out Adrian’s arm and peeled off his torn sleeve. Then, she brought it to the sink.

“Apologies in advance,” said Cecilia. “I’ll clean the mess afterwards. With your help, of course. I’m not particularly good at cleaning.” She turned on the faucet and washed the dried blood off the arm.

“Whose arm is that?” Deen asked. “How did you get it? What happened to the Adumbrae?”

“Already a barrage of questions?” I made a face at her. “I’ve just come back. I haven’t even changed my clothes.”

“You didn’t immediately deny knowing the Adumbrae’s identity,” Deen said. “I’ll assume that I probably knew… him. It looks like a man’s arm. I can’t say I’m surprised given the demographics of the 2Ms’ clients. So, who is it?”

I weighed telling the truth or not. Deen would be angry at me if she knew this was Adrian. However, Deen would also learn of Adrian’s disappearance. She’d eventually piece together that Adrian was the forcible donor of the arm.

“It’s…” I pressed my lips tightly while looking at the floor.

“Who?” Deen patted my shoulder. “I won’t get angry. Promise.”

I was waiting for those magic words, I thought with a mental smirk. I sighed and lowered my shoulders. “It’s, uh… Adrian.”

“Wait… Elmwood? From law school?” Deen’s eyes widened.

I nodded.

“He’s an Adumbrae?”

“Yep, yep. I wasn’t really surprised when I learned about it. Like, he probably mingles with the 2Ms’ clients. Same social circles and all that. And he made the leap, too.”

“I… I never noticed any signs,” Deen said. “But I didn’t pay much attention to him. This means that his family as well… His father talks to my dad sometimes. Are you a hundred percent sure?”

I blinked. Adrian told me that he was an Adumbrae and I sensed something was off with him. Beyond that, I killed him so fast with all of my superstrength that I couldn’t tell if he was tougher than a regular human. “I’m sure,” I replied. “He used his powers when I killed him.”

Deen’s hand became a vise clamping on my shoulder. “You killed one of our classmates. Why did you—? You could’ve chosen someone else! Was this how you managed to isolate him?”

“You said you won’t get angry.” I could bring this up the next time Deen wanted me to tell the truth. Just stocking ammunition.

“I…” Deen’s grip loosened.

I brushed off her hand. “Adrian didn’t know it was me. Disguise powers, remember? And he was the easiest target at the Roost. I didn’t even need to infiltrate the Latch. For some reason, they had extra security tonight. An important event? Would you rather that I went down to the super-secret bar for Adumbrae, run by the Tea Party?”

“No,” Deen said. “You… You made the right choice. But did you have to kill him?”

I glared at her. “Any objections?”

“Why—? Never mind,” said Deen, shaking her head. “You had no choice.”

“It’s not like he’ll just let me take an arm,” I said.

“This is your classmate?” Cecilia held up a piece of Adrian’s flesh with tweezers. “What a small world.” She dropped it into one of the test tubes. The light green liquid inside fizzled and turned purple.

“Cecilia, have you found out more about the PCM cop?” I asked.  

“Some information, yes,” Cecilia said with her back to us. “I found that he’s assigned to a California Highway Patrol station in New Los Angeles.”

She continued to slice thin pieces of Adrian’s flesh as if it were prosciutto. What a funny-sounding word that didn’t sound like its spelling. But Italian wasn’t as egregious as the French language when it comes to spelling not matching the sound of the word.

“How did you do that?” I asked. “Like, go through the pictures of all the cops?”

“Nothing so tedious, dear,” said Cecilia. “I remembered his license plate number. It was a marked cruiser, a powerful start to the search that can yield plenty of information.”

I frowned. I should’ve had the presence of mind to memorize the cop car’s plate. “New Los Angeles. That’s next to La Esperanza. Do we really need to go back? Can’t we hire assassins or something? Deen can post the bounty.”

“I won’t do such a morally bankrupt act,” Deen said.

“Deen, we’re going to kill him anyway,” I said. “We already agreed. Isn’t it better to pay others to do it? I feel like it’s worse if we kill him with our own hands. And it’ll also be much safer for us.”

“If murder is absolutely necessary for our survival,” said Deen, “I’d do it myself.” It seemed that we really didn’t see eye to eye on certain things, though we were supposedly best friends.

“That’s the spirit,” Cecilia said, mixing two liquids to create a frothy solution. “Placing a bounty on this police officer’s head won’t work, I’m afraid. If our theory is correct that Auron had gone into hiding and Euphonia is hunting PCM members, our cop friend would likely have abandoned his regular life. He could be in a secret PCM commune with other members, waiting for Auron to reconnect with them.”

“How can we be sure that Euphonia hasn’t captured him?” Deen asked.

Cecilia pointed a bloody knife at the TV. “Breaking news," Cecilia said in a mock reporter voice. "Barstow Station destroyed by a massive gas explosion. Multiple casualties, dead and injured.”

“Will your lab self-destruct if intruders entered?” I evenly asked, trying not to sound excited.

Super cool to have such a backup plan! I wanted one, too. But I didn’t have a base to booby trap in the first place. Why was it called a booby trap? Deen might know because she had plenty of the first word.

“How despicable,” Deen commented with severe judgment. She definitely didn’t share my enthusiasm for the booby trap. “You don’t care about the lives of innocent people.”

Cecilia slowly looked up at us. “You… know of my nature. It puzzles me that we keep repeating these discussions.”

I’m not puzzled, I mentally remarked. Pretending to have the moral high ground was Deen’s drug. She needed to appear moral so she could shed it when it came time to make difficult decisions. Agonizing over moral quandaries and overthinking was another drug to her.

Times like these, I was very grateful to be normal.

“If you don’t want Barstow Station to be a crater,” Cecilia went on, “then we should hasten finding your cop friend. We should return to Marlon tomorrow.”

“Fine,” Deen said. “Do your grisly experiment in peace. I won’t bother you anymore. Erind and I have to talk.”

“We do? Woah!”

Deen pulled me to my room and closed the door.

“Is this about Adrian?” I preemptively asked, heading to the bathroom to wash my hands and face. “Are you going to scold me out of Cecilia’s hearing? Just for your information, he dated you to invite you to become an Adumbrae.”

“I’m not going to— What was that? Adrian said that?”

“Yeah. Their little group was talking about dating and stuff. And when it was Adrian's turn, your name came up.” I’d just cover that gay relationship rumor. Not dealing with that now.

“Oh…” Deen stood outside the bathroom. “Good riddance! I had an off feeling about his advances. I thought he was a creep wearing a good guy’s mask, but it was worse.”

“Much worse.” I scraped the flakes of dried blood from under my fingernails. “He became an Adumbrae to pursue power. You really dodged a very big scumbag bullet. Imagine if he became your boyfriend.”

Deen shuddered and pretended to vomit. “Gross! Anyway, I’m not looking for a boyfriend. I have you, don’t I?” She laughed at our little silly inside joke.

I chuckled along while picturing Deen’s rage when she’d know of the rumors spreading through campus. In a few days, someone was bound to ask her if we were in a relationship. Why were so many things about to happen in a few days’ time? Could I file for a vacation leave to avoid all of that shit?

“What did you want to talk about?” I asked, checking my arms and face for any blood.

“Your new power,” Deen said. “What is it? Abilities of your Pino form or something else entirely?”

My immediate reaction was to lie. I wanted to keep secrets as my personal space gets eroded by the day. But that seemed to be too much trouble. More schemes on the plate if Deen knew of my third mask. Additionally, I intended to reveal this power to Cecilia, pretending this was my entire schtick all along.

Not Red Hood at all.

“I have a third mask.” I concentrated on summoning it.

“It’s lovely,” Deen said as shimmering lights of various colors filled the bathroom. It looked like we were having a rave here. “What does it do?”

“It’s better to show you.” I placed the glass mask on my face.

“Oh, it’s gone,” Deen said. “Did you wear it?”

“Uh, yeah. Didn’t you—? Wait a moment.” This was weird. Why wasn’t Deen surprised that a new person popped in my place? “What do you see right now? Like, who am I?”

Deen furrowed her brows. “You’re… Erind.”