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Exp to no.0027 (RP with no.0009)
Words: 9777

Tldr; It won't make much sense if not read together with other RPs. :'D //So much has happened in RPs, that I don't even. Yeah, Jan's eyes changed color.

Like always, Jan was sitting in the study room and studying, but once it got dark, some yawns slipped in from time to time, so he kept drinking coffee.

"Hmm... Not this one, either..." Alicia pouted, putting another book back to the shelf. She was trying to do some research on conscious grays -- if possible, she wanted to move Odessa to another host, but there was hardly any useful information. She yawned. It was getting dark and she was a bit too excited during daytime. She turned around, planning to get some coffee for herself, but she was distracted when she saw Jan by a table. "Good evening." She smiled and waved at him.

"Evening," Jan returned the greeting and went to get another cup as well. Right now, next to the dispensers there was a huge stack of empty and clean porcelain cups. Jan had made them earlier in the day, because Olivia asked him to.

"Ah, did you leave these here?" Alicia's ears shook, when she noticed the cups by the dispenser. She took one and poured some coffee for herslef-- with a big portion of milk. "Very thoughtful, Jan." She smiled at him.

"I'm not. It was an... order," he said. He wasn't certain if Olivia was requesting or ordering him to make some cups, not being used to being asked to do something in such a soft, vague manner. Jan conjured a new cup for himself and got a simple and black coffee.

"Order?" Alicia furrowed her eyebrows, confused. "Why would someone order you to do a favor for others?" She sipped on her beverage, but being careless to the temperature, she burned her tongue slightly. "Hot, hot!" She made a face, fanning her tongue to help the numbness to pass.

"Hold out your hand." Jan conjured a cube of ice for her tongue. "She said the cups were cute, warm and made up a better drinking experience, so she'd love it, if I made a lot of them," was what Jan said about her previous question.

"Shanks..." Alicia put the ice in her mouth and mumbled. The ice cube melted quickly, and the numbness was gone. "How is that an order?" Alicia tilted her head, unable to understand how Jan interpreted that as 'an order.' "Whoever she is, she is obviously complimenting your cups. Well, and she is pretty much correct." She flicked the porcelain cup in her hand, and it make a silvery sound, "These are very cute. It feels like... home."

"Wasn't I asked to make them?" Jan tilted his head lightly.

"I guess she's just making a request. Instead of forcing you to do it, she hopes you would do it... Something like that." Alicia tilted her head. "Well, you could say that she asked you to make them, but she didn't order you."

"Is it different? In the end it's something you have to do." Jan shrugged his shoulders.

"That is different." Alicia had a stern look on her face. "It's different in the feeling, when one orders and requests. An order is hard and cold, it is something one is forced to do. A request... Well, it's something between friends and your loved ones, I guess. After all, you are not obligated to do it." Alicia tried to explain it to Jan, but apparently she was not doing a good job.

"Not obligated-- means they won't kill you, if you don't do it?" Jan asked simply.

"Not that I think anyone here would kill you if you don't do it, but you are right, I guess." Alicia put down her coffee and flipped through a few pages of the book in her hand. "By the way, are you familiar with conscious grays?"

Jan cast a surprised look at Alicia, but didn't ask anything further. He couldn't quite believe that disobeying authorities wouldn't lead to fatal consequences. He thought about the conscious grays then. "The only one I have seen was the one by that well."

"Oh, that. No, I mean... Have you read about them in the books here? I can't seem to find one with more information other than what I already know. I haven't looked through all of them though, so I thought you might know." She scanned through the book in her hand, until it came to a chapter called "The Behaviors of Conscious Grays." "There is a conscious gray in the house, just so you know. She isn't like the one by the well a bit, though-- that is what puzzles me. The one by the well seemed more like a vengeful type, if I have to say."

"No, I haven't found anything," Jan said and grew surprised by the things she said afterwards. "There is?"

"A cat cumimi's gray." Alicia nodded, but she subconsciously held the pendant on her neck. The night was falling, so it was about time that bird woman could come out of the necklace again. "She told us a lot about the incident that happened ten years ago. A pretty fun person-- or ghost-- if you have to ask me. Maybe she just doesn't visit the boys a lot."

"Why isn't it soulmatched already?" Jan asked straight away.

Alicia peered at Jan. "Conscious grays are almost nothing different from living beings. Reine was an exception..." She lowered her eyes, avoid answering Jan's question directly, "She is much more than just a soul waiting for you to soulmatch. I advise you not to attempt it-- you will only be looking for trouble." She thought it would be enough a warning, since she didn't want to argue with Jan-- plus, even if Jan decided to look for Kirie to soulmatch her, Kirie wasn't defenseless. But, if he knew about Odessa... Things won't be so easy. Her hand tightened on the pendant. Why would I care? She is better off gone! Alicia sulked, vexed that she actually thought of protecting Odessa.

Jan looked puzzled, wasn't it their duty to clear grays - it was highly odd, that one would be roaming around freely. "Do the priests know about it?"

"He does. Oh boy, he does." Alicia remembered the complexion on the old priest's face in the morning after Kirie smashed all his wine, "Hah... He knows better than anyone. He even let Kirie--I mean, that conscious gray-- to be our first soulmatch instructor."

Jan was completely confused. How did that work? But in that case, the gray was an approved existence by authorities. "We shouldn't clear our instructors-- by logic--" He tried to reason with it somehow, slowly regaining his calm.

"Well, you can't think of conscious grays the way you think of normal grays." Alicia was secretly relieved to see Jan giving up on soulmatching Kirie, "You would know what I mean if you meet her one day."

"Perhaps so," Jan said. He couldn't either affirm or reject it, since he didn't know.

Alicia smiled and made no comment. Suddenly, she noticed a line in the book. She narrowed her eyes. "Conscious grays are a rare form of a soul after leaving one's body after death... can possess or 'haunt' a specific object, or a person. The only way to remove this type of gray in the said situation is to either destroy the host or perform a Soulmatch." She read the text quietly. In that case... She would have to destroy her necklace if she didn't want to clear Odessa out of it?

Jan returned to reading then, since Alicia had done so as well. He still yawned from time to time, but coffee had made it a little better.

The yawns were contagious. Alicia tried to resist, but couldn't help up to yawn a little. "You know what, I'm going up to the attic to get some sunlight..." she stood up and stretched, "Do you wanna come as well? It works better than coffee." She glanced at Jan and invited.

"Sunlight?" Jan was confused-- how could there be sunlight at this time. But it did interest him enough for him to leave his seat and walk up to her with his book in hands.

The two reached the attic before long. Though knowing that it was fake, Alicia still loved coming here. "Neo made this illusion by accident-- and it kinda became permanent." She grinned, explaining to Jan.

Seeing the sunlight stunned him and he reached down to check the grass-- it even felt real. He didn't know one of them could do something like this-- "Amazing," he mumbled only after a while looking up to see that there was another cumimi sitting in the grass not far away from them. At first he didn't notice that the girl was lightly transparent.

"Hey, fox," Kirie put up her hand in a greeting. "So that dog can do something like this as well--" she sighed, not seeming all that happy about having overheard, who made the illussion. It pained her that her new favorite place was made by that nosy dog-- and she didn't want to change her opinion about him, the memory of priest washing still fresh in her head.

Jan's eyes went wider as he noticed that the girl who spoke was lightly transparent. He stepped back, almost falling off the stairs.

"Oh, so you already found out about it." Alicia greeted Kirie with a wave, "By the way, sorry about calling your name wrong last time." Odessa later told her about it, and she was embarrassed for quite a while.

She turned around and gestured at Kirie, "Jan, she is the conscious gray I was talking abou-- Jan?" Seeing Jan's strange expression, Alicia frowned slightly and asked out of concern.

At that moment, she also realized-- if Odessa appeared now, Jan would probably want to soulmatch her! Please don't show youself right now, please don't come out of the necklace!

"It's fine, I don't mind," Kirie said then peered at Jan. "Another dog, huh?" It didn't take her long to notice that Jan was black, that put her at ease.

If anything Jan was close to running away, not soulmatching, since Alicia was black like him and there was no way he could do it without any whites present. He breathed out, calming his expression and standing up straight. If this gray was an instructor, she shouldn't harm them, should she? He convinced himself to act under that assumption.

Kirie floated closer to take a better look at Jan-- "I feel like I've seen someone like you already--Right! You look like a copy of June."

Jan nodded lightly, it wasn't something surprising to hear, since he had grown up among countless cumimis who had exactly the same face as him. "I'm a mass produce type."

"Mass produce type?" Alicia casted a confused look at Jan, "What do you mean by that, Jan?" And what did Kirie mean, he looked like 'a copy of June'?

"Where is this place?" A voice suddenly spoke beside her ear, making her leap out of her position from shock.

"What the heck...!" Alicia turned around and saw Odessa floating at where she was at, wearing that same irritating smile with 0 guilt on her face. "Don't just sneak up on me like that!" Her eyebrows knitted together in pure anger, "Mind you, I could have left you in my dorm all day!"

"Yeah yeah. As if you would leave that necklace out of your sight..." Odessa was completely unfazed. Her eyes fell on Kirie. "Good evening... that I am not even so sure. It's been a while, Kirie." Odessa smiled and nodded, implicating the sunlight in the attic.

"I'm a clone," Jan said. "One of the types humans mass-produce to use in testing. My number was 034-546-397, meaning there were more that 34 million clones before I was made," he explained simply. He didn't feel the need to point out that almost all of them were dead - clones rarely lived past the age of 20, if left alone, and most died in testing before they were 2. When another gray appeared, Jan didn't freak out, but instead observed Alicia and Kirie, ready to react according to how they would.

"I wouldn't be here, if it wasn't evening," Kirie said, not seeming fazed one bit by Odessa appearing. "How much do you hear, while in that necklace?" She choose to ask, instead of paying attention to how angry Alicia seemed. Kirie had read enough about clones to know how it worked, but it still surprised her to meet one, so she kept stealing glances at Jan, who looked exactly like the girl she knew.

"Clones?" Alicia knocked on her forehead and finally recalled its meaning from one of the books she read downstairs. "Wouldn't you run into them so often, then? I mean, three million--" She didn't know much about clones, because she read mostly books about soulmatchs, otherwise fictions. Three million seemed to be too big a number for her to understand, only that she knew it would be a lot.

"That I know. I just don't believe my eyes." Odessa peered at Kirie. "I was taking a nap just now. Just how much did I miss?" She glanced at Jan. "And he is...?" She was actually awake after Alicia entered the attic, but she didn't feel the need to explain it. She planned to stay quiet in the necklace, but the sunlight was a pleasant surprise, and she had to see it for herself.

"You didn't miss much," Kirie said and floated over, closer to the bunch. "This attic is a well crafted illusion made by that dog and this dog is a clone --" she pointed at Jan. "What type are you, by the way?"

"Creator," Jan answered, then choose to elaborate, since Alicia had asked about the numbers. "Clones are used in testing by humans, so most die before they reach the age of two and if nothing is done to prolong their life, clones don't live past the age of 20 - we aren't as perfectly crafted as naturally born beings, so even if there have been around 34 million before me, almost all are dead."

"So mindforcers can conjure up wonderful things like this, too." Odessa smiled softly and looked around the attic. She listened to Jan's explanation and nodded, "What would make sense." She peered at him, wondering he himself would also be the case of not living past the age of 20. "By the way, what is the closest city? I've lost track of that on my way."

Alicia's lips parted, as if she wanted to say something. She looked at Jan with a worried look, but still didn't utter a word.

Since Alicia didn't say anything more, Jan turned to answer the gray's question. "It's Degate."

Kirie floated around. "Well, you guys will be lucky enough if you live past the age of 12," she said and floated a bit further away to lie back down in the grass and continue reading her book.

"Degate..." Odessa lowered her eyes and recalled her memory of this region, "I didn't know I came such a long way." She glanced at Jan, "I've seen that face, now that you said it. Lying still on the side of the street, like a squirrel run over by a car. Probably a run-away from one of those facilities."

Alicia glared at Odessa, "That was not necessary!"

Odessa shrugged and dropped the topic," Anyway, why did you come into the attic? You are usually in the library by this time."

Alicia blinked, then realized she brought Jan here to read books. "Well, you see, this is what I wanted to show you." She said to Jan, pointing at the ceiling, "Isn't it a wonderful place to read?"

Jan didn't seem fazed by what Odessa said and was looking around the place instead. "It is well lit and one wouldn't feel sleepy in a place like this," Jan agreed, then found a place to sit, as far from Kirie as possible, and continued reading his book calmly, soon enough being lost in the text.

Kirie was practically glaring at Odessa and shaking her head in a very annoyed manner. She wasn't the most sensitive person out there, but being that blunt was too much. After a while she clicked her tongue and choose to go back to reading herself.

"One day, I swear one day I will find a way to get you out of my necklace." Alicia stuck out her tongue at Odessa, then turned to Kirie, "Kirie, what are you reading?" She walked up to her and peeked curiously.

Odessa smiled, as if did not notice their expression. She wasn't exactly all that content being stuck inside a necklace herself, though luckily it seemed that no one noticed her secret protest.

"Story collection from Edgar Allan Poe," Kirie said and floated the book closer to Alicia. "I got that old fox to bring me some books from outside," she smiled seeming pleased with her deed. "Otherwise I was already starting to re-read the books in this house." She didn't say it out loud, but that was the bit that irked her the most about not being able to leave the house. She had picked up reading out of boredom, but now it was a fond pastime.

"Ah, I've seen that book a little while ago." Alicia's eyes lit up, remembering reading that some time ago, "And that guy also talked about it, he--" She froze, realizing Otto was already gone-- she soulmatched him herself, with Neo. She lowered her eyes a bit and let out a sigh. "Nevermind. Wait-- you already read all the books in the house? Including all the soulmatch books?" she looked at Kirie with hopes sparkling in her eyes.

Odessa payed attention to their conversation as well-- Alicia never hid her intention to move her from the necklace, and Odessa herself did hope there was a way-- since Alicia didn't want to help her to consume grays, she needed to find some other way to get out of here. She didn't want to get stuck in the same place for ten years like Kirie did.

"Yeah," Kirie said. "One of them was written so weirdly it took me a week to decipher it," she said, referring to the same book priest gave to kids. "Anything you'd like to ask?"

Jan's ears perked. He pretended to keep reading his own book, but he was listening to their conversation.

"He did threaten to make us read a super thick book if we didn't listen to his lesson." Alicia pouted, then got to the point, "Is there a way to move a conscious gray to another host without breaking the original host or soulmatching the gray?"

Kirie cast a look at Odessa. So Alicia and her didn't converse much. They had talked about it, while Alicia was sleeping and Odessa had asked the same thing. "Let me get one thing straight," Kirie said "The whole array of books about soulmatching in this place are about how to soulmatch grays and the most efficient methods how to get rid of them, it doesn't look into methods of preserving grays or moving them to other locations."

"Ughghghgh...." Alicia dropped to the floor in frustration, "I knew it..." She turned around to look at Odessa again, then secretly considered mayb-- just maybe, she should give Odessa's suggestion a try.

Odessa was sitting on the window sill with closed eyes, enjoying the bit of sunshine she probably will rarely get. As if hearing what Alicia was thinking, she opened her eyes and locked gaze with Kirie, "I don't understand. If you really want to leave this place, why do you refuse to consume grays? You don't know-- you might be ending their suffering in a more merciful way. Are you being kind to let them wander into eternity without a purpose?"

"Eating them probably is kinder than let them be dyed black," Kirie said - she had thought about it plenty, but it just seemed too-- she didn't know how to call it even - how could anyone just go and tear someone apart like that. It was a feeling that it was somewhat wrong to do so, also because that went against what cumimis were supposed to do - clear the life energy not amass it into yourself and keep a bigger chunk locked.

"Alicia, if you became a gray, would go go around tearing other grays up, if that meant you could walk around freely?"

Odessa never soulmatched a gray, so she couldn't understand Kirie's feeling. She didn't view herself to be obliged to preserve energy for the world, though she knew the purpose of soulmatches.

Alicia smiled dryly and hugged her knees to her chest. "Not to count how rare conscious grays are, but if I ever became one..." She looked up at the ceiling, which was replaced by a pleasant canopy of blue skies, "I don't really know, because I can't feel how you guys undergo all of this. I think it will come to me if I died. But... I don't want to become someone like Reine. What she did was wrong." She lowered her head, "I don't think wanting to live freely is something so bad, but grays were once people, too. Sometimes good people are condemned to Hell, purely based on how strongly a cumimi can affect their minds. I don't think that's fair at all."

"It's odd you are black, if you feel that way," Kirie said. "Most blacks I knew were ready to tear apart even priests and--" she recalled the thing with Reine, that pretty much confirmed how black side kids felt about humans. "What about you?" She asked Jan.

Jan was out of the loop, but from the earlier question Kirie had asked Alicia, he now knew that grays could go around tearing apart other grays to become stronger in some way. "If I became a conscious gray I would eat all the grays I see and become as strong as I possibly could. I would possibly kill those, who come after my head, but causing a gray storm doesn't sound like something I would do, or maybe it wouldn't be so bad to wipe out some human cities."

Alicia just smiled at Jan's comment. She sort of saw that coming anyway, since it was Jan, after all. She had met some other black cumimis with similar mind set. "Isn't it funny? How we are judged to deserve heave or hell based on if we love humans or not?" She let out a sarcastic laugh. "I hate humans in the way that they refuse to acknowledge our feelings as if they are superior-- and I would continue to think so if it wasn't for him." She didn't specify. "Some humans can understand us, but it's unfair that we are cleaning after their butts while we are supposedly inferior or created to be some sort of monstrosity. I mean, my parents are humans-- I just want us cumimis to live in peace, that's all." Her reason told her that, but she knew she couldn't just forgive those people that took everything away from her-- anger could even urge her to kill, like the fire she set to her circus.

"Exactly," Jan agreed. "The system of cumimis being inferior and criteria for getting to heaven and hell is so ridiculous, one would be an idiot to fit in there. They say cloning humans is unethical, but mass produce half-assed copies of cumimis for every purpose there is - since 'oddly enough' cumimis and humans have exactly the same diseases and strikingly similar physique, they even interbreed perfectly - meaning cumimis are closer to humans than lions are to tigers." Jan had read enough about build of their bodies to conclude that cumimis were superior and that made this enforced inferiority even more ridiculous.

Kirie didn't comment on their conversation - they raised legit concerns, but it was all too apparent to her that even if they spoke about equality and rights - hatred seeped through their words.

Odessa played with a strand of her hair while listening to their conversation. "If that's the case, have you ever thought why while cumimis are physically superior, we are bound to serve the human race if we want to enjoy a happy after-life?" She smiled softly, contrary to her words, "It's the way that it is. Because cumimis possess the ability to clear a soul." She held out five fingers on a hand and three on the other. "Love not not. Accept not judge. Choose life, before death. Treasure the life of others. Tell truth not lies. Don't take what is not yours. Never abuse the soul of another." She paused for a moment, then continued, "It is really hard not violate any of that, if a cumimi was to soulmatch a human's gray, especially in many societies nowadays where we are abused. It is not that we are inferior to humans, it's just what it tends looks like when we have to live with humans in this world. At least, that is what I think." She sighed and leaned back on the window.

"I suspect most humans have troubles keeping that up as well," Kirie said. "Do you think those humans, who abuse cumimis 'treasure the life of others' - cumimis are living beings and the last one 'never abuse the soul of another' - it's about lacking kindness isn't it?"

Jan didn't comment on what either of grays said. He did agree with what they said - those rules weren't easy to keep up and for cumimis it was even harder - when they were treated like this. It was exactly like Odessa said - serving the human race. Selflessly serving them at that - otherwise you would eventually be fed up.

"It's easier for humans to ascend to heaven than for us." Odessa began braiding her hair, "Many humans do go to hell for abusing us, but in general-- more cumimis are affected by the negative impact of their actions. Many humans can live without even considering about how cumimis survive, but many of us are thankful at the end of each day just for being able to live, not to mention committing unjust deeds."

Alicia nodded in agreement. She had some brutal first-hand experience with that.

Jan nodded as well. That's how all his life had been. And even if it was a cruel thing to think, in a sense he felt a tiny bit better knowing that maybe his experiences weren't all that unique - it was like confirming he was sane for feeling the way he felt.

Kirie didn't comment seeing how the bunch were in sync. "I'll just keep reading, then," she said and buried her nose in her book.

"Awww, don't feel left out." Odessa laughed softly and teased her. "The topic was too heavy. I agree. Let's see... Is there any moment in your life that you felt so very happy?" She asked the other three, wishing to dissipate the atmosphere in the room.

Alicia stopped reading the book, since she wouldn't be able to find anything she wanted to in it anyway. "Me? Well... There are many, despite many other sad ones. But I guess recently what makes me really happy is being able to save Jan in that gray storm." She thought for a moment, then said with a smile.

"Eh--" it surprised Jan that Alicia mentioned that and now it felt like it would be unfair if he didn't say anything.

Jan wasn't even sure what happiness was exactly. Sense of contentment? He felt content when he managed to learn making something he couldn't before. At times that even lead to joy - discoveries were like that. At the time when he found his comrade among the corpses he felt relieved to the point he cried, that being the only time in his life when he remembered crying, but neither of them were it... neither of them seemed to fit the mark well enough to share. "Learning new things makes me happy," he said and stared down on his book, continuing to read.

"Eating stuff made me happy," Kirie said with a grumpy expression, since she couldn't eat anymore. "Odessa, maybe there's something you'd like to read?"

Odessa froze for a moment, then gave Kirie a grateful smile-- it was probably the first genuine smile she gave her-- "I wish there could be some music that I can read, but I guess there can't be many. If I could play again..." She stared at her half-transparent hands and was lost in her memory for a second.

"You mean music sheets?" Kirie asked. There's a shelf in the music room with them. "Right, the old fox got the piano fixed too, so - go and knock yourself out."

"I would like to, but..." Odessa smiled and pointed at Alicia's necklace, "Plus, I can't move anything like this." She reached out her hands, which went through everything solid.

Kirie cast a longer look at Odessa then flew over to Alicia and started ruffling her hair using her hands. It probably felt cold, but she could properly touch her hair enough to ruffle it. "You are a newbie - if you concentrate on making your hands solid they will become solid."

"Ahhh--! Stop that, Kirie!" Alicia pouted and waved Kirie's hand away. "If you are bored-- since I am, too-- you can show me how to play piano." She walked up to Odessa and gestured at the pendant.

Odessa stared blankly at them for a second, couldn't understand why they became so enthusiastic about it all of a sudden. The pendant swayed under the light and reflected a blue glint into her eyes. She blinked, then smiled. "All right."

"Kirie is coming, right?" Alicia grinned at Kirie, then turned to Jan, "Jan, come with us!" She secretly wished Odessa to play Salut d'Amour, but actually any piano song would be nice-- since they all reminded her of her home.

"I'm not interested in music," Jan said simply intending to stay behind. In a sense he felt it was great luck to have the attic all to himself, so he can keep reading in peace. He still didn't feel completely safe amongst grays, even if he tried to convince himself to, seeing how Alicia was.

"Let's leave the party pooper behind and go," Kirie said and rushed Alicia and Odessa down-stairs.

"Come on down when you change your mind!" Alicia waved at Jan and rushed down to the music room. It was close to bed time, but she didn't feel sleepy at all tonight.
"Ehem, so uh-" Alicia cleared her throat and looked at Odessa with sparkling eyes, "Can you play- uh- Salut d'Amour?"

Odessa raised a brow, and a rare expression of nostalgia appeared in her eyes. "Salut d'Amour... Mais oui, c'était ma première chanson. (Ah yes, it was my first song.)" She mumbled something in French and smiled at Alicia, "Yes, but I haven't played for a long time... Please excuse me."

She floated onto the piano bench and opened the cover-- just like Kirie said, she could touch things if she concentrated. Ecstasy appeared on her face, and she put her fingers to the position.

Kirie listened to the song with sparkling eyes. It was not how someone rusty played - the sounds came out clean and full with emotion. It was a beautiful song and Odessa played it with such gentleness, it didn't even compare to the crisp and neat performance Reine had given - this one was overflowing with colors and memories.

Alicia froze as Odessa began her first note. The details of Odessa's version were different from the one she listened to when she was little, but the emotion that flowed between the movement of her fingers was ever so familiar-- she never imagined someone like Odessa could play something this moving, seeing how uncaring and insensitive she was. When she realized, tears already blurred her vision. She quickly wiped them off.

The song slowly came to a stop, and as if still lingering in the music, Odessa's hands stayed on the keys a little longer without doing anything. She breathed out, and her shoulder relaxed. "It's been a while... I didn't think I would ever to be able to do this again." she curled her lips, and a genuine smile appeared on her face. She felt so grateful right now-- so much that she didn't mind to be stuck in a small necklace as much.

It was strange how something small like a piano melody and a genuine smile could change a person. Kirie never expected Odessa could be like this-- maybe that's how she was before she died. She smiled. "I'll talk with that old fox-- maybe he is searching for a music teacher, since-- you know, nights in winters are long and there's plenty of time in evenings and mornings," Kirie said. That was her way of saying that she finally accepted Odessa being here.

Alicia's eyes lit up at Kirie's suggestion, "Yes, you gotta teach me how to play piano! That was beautiful!" She grabbed Odessa's wrist, and for the first time it didn't just go through her-- it was cold, but she felt Odessa's skin.

Odessa blinked, then realized what Kirie implied in her words. She turned around to look at the gleaming light in Alicia's eyes. She lowered her eyes-- she didn't know how to react to all this that came so suddenly, but she felt that maybe, just maybe-- she was happy to be here. She raised her head and looked at Kirie, then smiled. "Yes, winter nights are long indeed..."

The doorknob turned and the doors opened. Old priest peered inside and stared at the three of them for a longer while. "If you say you were here since the beginning, I won't buy it," he said, but there was a tint of amusement in his expression.

"Yo, old fox - hire this lady to be a music teacher," Kirie stated at point blank. "Otherwise your whiskey will suffer."

Odessa stood up and curtsied slightly. "Good evening. My name is Odessa Leclerc." She lowered her head to hide the amused smile, when she heard the way Kirie talked to the priest about all this. "Am currently residing in this girl's necklace pendant."

Alicia made a face at the priest. She had secretly decided that if he dared to say 'no,' she would help Kirie her feat.

"What good timing, I was searching for a music teacher," the priest said without batting an eyelid. " My name is Mather Redmill, I'm the head priest here. Your senior, teaching assistant Kirie will introduce you to students, we can discuss your salary later or if you have any requirements I can listen to them now." He treated her exactly like he would treat a regular human.

Kirie nodded at that, looking content with the deal. The old fox had improved, or maybe his respect towards her and her threats had gone up - she wasn't sure. But like this everything worked out well.

"A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Redmill." Odessa kept her usual gentle expression,"Salary doesn't matter. A gray doesn't need much, anyway. But there is one thing--" She suddenly raised her eyebrows in pure anger-- a sort of expression that never appeared on her face before, "You call this a music room? Heavily damaged instruments without proper maintenance-- scattered around the room?" She pointed at the pile of broken instruments that were yet to be repaired, "And what is this?!" She floated to the window and put her hand on it-- it left a clear hand print among the dust, "You let these delicate crafts be put in such a dusty room?! Not to mention--" She glared at the priest and pressed a key on the piano that didn't sound so apparently different from the others , "This one, did you hear that? And you said it was fixed?! Middle E, high F and high A are clearly out of tune!"

Alicia's mouth dropped open. She had never seen Odessa to act that way, and so-- aggressive... But somehow, it made her seem more real than ever.

The priest was completely calm listening to her complaints, but since it was far too long of a list to remember and since he could help around half of the issues... "We are still understaffed, so it will take a while to get things in order."

Kirie snorted. "At least she's serious about it," she whispered to Alicia.

Alicia giggled and nodded. It was funny to see someone yelling at the priest like that, and it made her feel better as well, since she was mad at the priest.

Odessa exhaled deeply, then her a smile resurfaced on her face, as if all that rage just now was an illusion, "I hope so."

***

It had been three days since Jan's eyes changed color and he was slowly getting used to seeing the world differently. He hadn't even gone to study room, just sat in the still vacant boy's dorm room, slowly fixing his own body, till his life energy finally aligned with his body like it did for others. It was the most tedious work he had ever done, but once he was done, he was instantly glad he had - his body felt so light and finally bent to his will completely: there was no trace of the previous stiffness. Even his expression now reminded more of the child he actually was.

He ran down the stairs in a faster pace than before and almost ran into Alicia along the way. "Excuse me," he said and slowed down.

"Oof!" Alicia barely stopped her steps so she didn't bump into Jan. "Sorry, I was running, too." She smiled apologetically. "How's it going, Jan?" She asked casually, then furrowed her brows. "Jan... Is there something different about you?" She leaned close and observed his face attentively. "Ahh--! Your eyes!" Her mouth formed an 'O' in shock.

At first Jan wasn't sure how Alicia could tell-- could she also see life energy? But then his surprise waned. Right. His eyes. "That just happened," he said. "I probably did it myself."

"Things like that do not just happen." Alicia puffed her cheeks. "Really, what happened? Do you need to see a doctor for that?" She asked out of concern.

"No, it's all right," Jan said confidently. "I did it myself and I can tell that right now everything is all right with my own body." Then he cast a look at Alicia's body - like peering through her clothes, checking if everything was in order.

"Using your ability?" Alicia blinked, then her eyes lit up, "Does that mean your body is no different from a normal cumimi kid's? So you can live past the age of 20 now?" She was too happy for Jan to notice his scanning gaze.

"Yes and yes," Jan said - "I have fixed it. My liver won't fail and lungs won't fill with water," he said, since judging from his life energy those were the things most likely to kill him and he fixed not only life energy connections, but also their structure and condition. It was hard to explain, but it felt like he could see everything inside a body as long as he concentrates and since the time of practicing with Valen he gradually became able to make living tissue.

"That's just--" Her hopes confirmed, a ecstatic grin appeared climbed up Alicia's lips. Suddenly, she threw her arms around Jan and jumped in excitement, "Next time we play cops-- I mean, next time when we train, you will be able to run just like everyone else! That is just so great, Jan!"

Jan was completely dumbfounded by the level of excitement she had just from someone like him getting better. He wasn't worth it-- but then again Alicia had also saved him in the gray storm. "Thank you," he said silently. "Alicia, do you want me to remove the scars from your back?" He asked after a while.

"Ah, those? How did you I had them? Did Neo tell you or something?" Alicia laughed dryly, recalling how she got them, "Well, if there is a way-- I don't want anything to do with that place, of course."

"No, I can see through your clothes, so I can see them," he said simply and started replacing the scar tissue with normal skin - it wasn't painful, maybe just a lightly tingling, ticklish feeling. "Does it feel annoying?" Jan asked, considering numbing the nerves.

"Y-you what?!" Alicia's face blushed bright red, holding out a finger and pointed shakily at Jan, "You saw-- You saw---" Before she could finish her words, a slight tingling feeling went down her spine from her back-- she remembered it clearly, it was where her scars were. "What--?"

"I mean, should I numb your nerves? And yes, I probably saw whatever you meant with that," he added nonchalantly and continued replacing the skin on her back, soon enough half of the scars were gone.

"...." Alicia just stared at him, her cheeks burned like a pan on the stove. "PERVERT--!!!" She screamed, finally coming back to her senses, all five of her shadow arms appeared at her back by instinct, as if ready to attack at any moment.

Jan had barely finished replacing the skin on her back, erasing all traces of scars, when he saw five masses of life energy form around her. From her scream he guessed that she was angry-- he tried to recall what pervert meant with a conflicted expression. "Unacceptable sexual behavior? I think there's a misunderstanding."

Alicia glared at him and hugged her shoulders to cover her chest-- she didn't feel so safe around Jan now. But then... Jan was not someone like that, she knew it. She exhaled softly and calmed down, dissipating the arms into thin air. "If you don't give me a proper explanation, I'm not letting this one pass!" She scowled, not letting her guard down.

"Proper explanation on what exactly?" Jan asked, not being clear if she wished him to elaborate on how he didn't constitute as pervert or was it something in more detail about how his ability worked.

"On-- On--" Alicia's cheeks flushed red again, her glare growing more malicious. She wasn't even sure now if Jan was making fun of her or just purely dense.

Her anger confused him. "Did I do something harmful?" He asked. "Your life energy looks perfectly fine to me now," he said, checking if all parts were properly aligned.

"Wait, life energy?" Alicia caught the key words, then looked at him incredulously, "What do you mean by that? Can you see it?"

"Yes, I can see it," Jan said. "My eyes turning purple was a side effect to that."

Alicia exhaled, then relaxed her posture. "Okay, sorry for mistaking you for a pervert..." Saying so, she still more or less avoided Jan's gaze. It was just so awkward, knowing that someone can see you through cloth...

"Yes, that word was incorrectly used," Jan said. "I don't really think about reproducing and it's not even possible in our age."

".....=__=" Alicia didn't imagine that someone could ever talk about this topic with such a deadpan face, and she knew Jan sure meant it purely scientifically, but she wouldn't ever be able to respond to that comment. "A-anyway," she switched the topic stiffly, "What did you say about my scars again? Sorry, I didn't pay too much attention..." Her voice trailed off, not wishing to lead up to the subject of 'are you looking at me naked or not'.

"Your scars are gone now, that's it," Jan said simply and was about to continue heading down-stairs to the study room.

"!!!" Alicia's jaw simply dropped in disbelief. Suddenly, she began running downstairs and rushed straight into the girl's bedroom and took off her dress. If was true-- the skin on her back was smooth instead of her familiar uneven touch of scars. She checked with the mirror again-- nothing. Nothibg was on her back. Joy filled her heart, and she quickly put on her dress and dashed out of the door, looking for Jan.

Jan looked at her go, then got to study room and stood by a shelf, looking for a book to study next.

Knowing Jan well enough, Alicia ran straight to study room-- the sudden bang of the door startled a lot others who were enjoying the silence. But God, she was just too happy. "Jan!" she ran up to him and gave him a tight hug, her tail swinging in pure ecstasy. "Thank you thank you thank you--"

Jan was about to take a book, so she caught him in an awkward position. Really - this girl made little sense to Jan - she got so angry and now she was so happy, what is even going on in her head... "Welcome," he said, feeling awkward.

Alicia realized she was a little overboard, so she soon released him and smiled apologetically. "Sorry, I was just too happy."

"It's fine," Jan said and picked the book he wanted and went to sit down to read it.

***

"Alicia, your neck..." Jan walked up to Alicia before breakfast. There was a question in his eyes. "May I?" Jan wished to fix the traces on her neck. It seemed like someone had strangled the girl, unsuccessfully, though. But the thought itself was very unsettling. It surprised him that he was so unsettled with something like that when he had seen so many die already.

"Heh?" Alicia turned around. Seeing that it was Jan, surprise filled her eyes. Since when did Jan begin willingly talk to others? Her thoughts went blank for a split second, then realized he was talking about her neck. "Ah, this..." she touched the fading red marks with an unnatural expression, then nodded and took off her necklace, "Th-thank you."

It took less than a minute to fix the traces left on her neck and he looked up at her. "Who?" He knew it wasn't his business and he couldn't explain why he felt so heavy about it. Was it anger... did he feel anger. Was it because he owed Alicia his life? He couldn't tell.

Alicia touched her neck again, and the slight piercing pain was gone. "A- a gray..." she lowered her head, looking at the ground. She was so ashamed. Being so reckless, thinking that it was safe even at night after the gray storm was over, she had already scolded herself a million times. If Odessa wasn't there, she was dead already. "I- I was training by the beach, and accidentally ran into one..."

Jan looked down as well, his hands made fists, but expression was still calm, despite the anger he felt. It wasn't his business, so scolding her was not something he thought he could do, so he didn't. But if it was gray--what happened to it? He recalled what the grays had talked about up in the sunny attic. "...Odessa ate it?"

Alicia smiled softly and raised the necklace. It glistened under the light, as if Odessa was listening. "Yes. It's all thanks to Odessa. If it wasn't for her, I can't imagine... Maybe you will find me as one addition to the collection of grays to soulmatch. Oh wait, we don't have a soul until thirteen." She said jokingly, even shaking her head regrettably, " Which means if I die, I would have just died for nothing. Tsk tsk tsk."

It pained him to see her talk about death so easily. "Alicia, you.. no, it's nothing." Jan said, feeling like a hypocrite - he could only reason with it due to the fact, that differently to him, Alicia was an unique specimen, so her life had more value either way. "If you do become a gray, I can make you a body, so now it really would be all for nothing, at least survive past 12."

"Huh?" Alicia couldn't process his words for a moment. Was this still the Jan she knew? She blinked, then realized what was meant in the way he acted now-- that discovery brought a smile to her lips, "Well, if I do, somehow, became a conscious gray, I will be counting on you for that." Alicia grinned and patted his shoulder. "Unless I go to hell right away or something. You know, just black kids things."

"Right, I'm the same boat," Jan agreed. And since he had no idea how to make a black turn gray, he couldn't comment on that much. And before things could get awkward, since he had no idea what to say, they got called for breakfast.

"Oh, it's breakfast time." Alicia just realized how hungry she was after a good night's sleep. "Jan, let's go." She waved at him with a warm smile.

Jan walked after her.

***
After breakfast Jan headed towards the wardrobe to put on some warm clothes. He wanted to test some things out and study room wasn't the best place to work with that, considering he didn't want to kill all the potted plants in house to do his bidding.

Alicia decided to go to somewhere closer to the house today, plus it's still morning, so it shouldn't be dangerous. She put on a warm jacket and changes into a thick woolen dress-- all these fancy stuff was all Odessa's fault. Alicia grumbled at how convenient these were, then saw Jan heading outside the house as well. "Yo, Jan! Are you heading out as well?" she knew he was going sonewherw from the warm cloth he put on, but she just wanted to tag along, really. Being by one's self wasn't particularly exciting.

Jan spotted Alicia approaching. "Yes, training," he said and started walking towards the forest. He was aiming to go to the closest meadow and stay there for a while.

Alicia smiled. Now that was the Jan she knew. "Mind if I come along?" she ran a few steps and caught up with him.

"Feel free to," Jan said. If she was there it meant he might be able to do more with his training, that was a good change. Soon enough they came out in a meadow. Jan breathed out at first, then made a small fir tree wither collecting the life energy from it, then used the life energy to make a mouse-- but it was a very retarded mouse. It was alive, but it glanced at him with glazed eyes and died a moment later. Jan made the mouse disperse in atoms, looking a tad disappointed.

Alicia looked curiously at what Jan was doing, then her eyes widened when the mouse Jan created moved, even though it was a short moment. "Jan! Y- you just created life!" Her mouth formed an 'O' from surprise.

"Yes," Jan said, though he didn't seem happy about it. "But there's something severely lacking-- mind if I scan you as reference?"

"Hah? Uh, I guess it's fine..." she nodded hesitantly. She didn't exactly understand what Jan meant by scan her as reference. Should she look like a mouse?

After getting her permission Jan carefully went through all Alicia's body from head to toe, concentrating very hard and after a while fell silent, thinking about something.

"Have you figured out something?" After a while of silence between them, Alicia leaned close a little and asked curiously.

Jan was startled from her being that close, but only a faint glint of surprise in his eyes gave it away. "I can't create life properly," he said after that. "If I have a gray or.. it's just healing an existing body, then it's all right, but I can't make it work. I lack information particles-- those are things dispersed like dust - very tiny, finer than life energy and everywhere."

"Information particles--" Alicia tilted her head, a look of confusion appeared on her face," Is it essential to create life? You said they are finer than life energy, and if they are also everywhere... Why do you say you lack them?" She furrowed her eyebrows. She wasn't a creator, and she didn't have eyes like Jan's, so she didn't really understand why Jan was facing the problem.

A glint of understanding passed his eyes then. But instead of explaining, he took the life energy from another fir tree and made a blooming indoors plant this time, putting it in a pot, then checked it all over. "This one is fine. Information particles are similar enough to make it work."

Alicia mused, then realized what Jan meant and what information particles signified. "In that case, if you were to create a mouse like what you did just now-- you need to find..." She stopped herself, realizing something really horrifying. "I-if it is how it works, you... you won't kill a person to create another person, right?" She asked carefully, her voice was even a little shaky.

"If I have their gray, then no," Jan said. "Grays have all the information particles and life energy in them, so I wouldn't need any life to make a body. But if I ought to make a new body, then yes, that's what it means."

Alicia's eyes widened. "That means... You can just create a body for Kirie and... and Odessa?" She straightened her body sub-consciously and clutched her pendant.

Jan looked sideways. "I better not, right now I'm not nearly as fast at it to make it work well. It took me three days to fix my own life energy and only half of connections were off, I have no idea how long it might take to do something like that from zero and it might be terribly painful like this."

"Oh, I'm not pushing you to do it at all!" Alicia waved her hands, meaning Jan didn't need to worry about it. "I just thought... If that's true, so many grays can be given a second chance in life." She smiled softly, "It will be wonderful, if that can happen."

It made him relieved that Alicia didn't ask for something like that, since he wasn't sure if he could refuse in case she made a request like that. He didn't think about that being wonderful or anything of the sort, though, he wasn't close to any of the grays and it wasn't his business being an ally of justice to give others second chances. "Perhaps." He said and turned to face the blooming potted plant he made before - he picked it up, thinking he can continue practicing with the life energy it contains indoors. "I'm going back inside," he said and started walking back towards the house, while carrying the heavy plant, so his gait was slow.

"Eh-- Going back so soon?" Alicia grinned, then took the pot from his hands carefully with two shadow arms, "I won't drop it, don't worry." Though she felt a pity not being able to enjoy the sun a little more, she thought she'd help Jan to carry the potted plant. "Are you going to leave it in the study room?"

"Thank you," Jan said, then shook his head. "No, I will keep using the life energy it contains for practice."

"Can you make other plants... I mean, trees with this?" Alicia asked with sparkling eyes, imagining cherry blossom flower in winter. She had seen it in one of the books' illustration.

"I can make trees, if I have more life energy-- any requests? If you carry it for me, I don't mind creating something." They were among the trees and close to the house, so there was plenty of life energy around to use.

"You can?" Alicia's eyes lit up. "Well, if you can make a cherry blossom tree, that'd be great-- It'd be even greater if you can make it bloom." She thought for a second, then waved it off, "Well.. it doesn't really matter if you can't make the flowers bloom. If you make one and it stays in the yard, I will be able to see it in spring, anyway." She smiled brightly.

"It's not a problem," Jan said and first created a big pot and filled it with soil, then made a tree nearby wither and made a beautiful medium height cherry blossom tree in full bloom, placing it in the pot. He made grass grow on the surface of the soil and now it seemed like a piece cut out from spring. The pot was big enough to have someone sit in the grass - maybe even have a picnic there.

Alicia watched all the wonders happen in awe. She stared at the sight for a little while, then smiled softly. "Truly, a Creator's ability undoubtedly marvelous." She stepped onto that small surface of grass, then touched the tree trunk carefully, as if any forceful action would make the scene disappear. "Jan..." She turned around to look at the boy with a warm and genuine smile, "...Thank you."

"Welcome," Jan said, feeling like it was a small thing, but a part of him felt really glad he had taken the time to study plants as well. "It's better to take it inside, it's cold out here."

Alicia nodded with a wide grin. She hopped down and lifted the whole thing with three shadow arms. She tried not to make it wobble too much, so the flowers on the tree could stay intact. Thus, a bizarre sight occurred-- two cumimi kids walked into a house with a cherry blossom tree in full bloom stumbling at their back, barely managing not to hit on the door frame.

Some branches still got broken off, but as soon as they were inside, Jan fixed them back. "Maybe put it in dining room?" Jan asked turning to Alicia, while taking off his coat and scarf - we don't use most of the space there.

"Yes, and others can sit by the tree when they eat~" Alicia nodded at the suggestion and moved the tree across the hall into the dinning room. She looked at the falling petals, then smiled at the scene.

Jan made the fallen off petals disappear and fixed the branches that got broken while moving through the dining room doors.

Description

Exp to no.0027 (RP with no.0009)
Words: 9777

Tldr; It won't make much sense if not read together with other RPs. :'D //So much has happened in RPs, that I don't even. Yeah, Jan's eyes changed color.

Like always, Jan was sitting in the study room and studying, but once it got dark, some yawns slipped in from time to time, so he kept drinking coffee.

"Hmm... Not this one, either..." Alicia pouted, putting another book back to the shelf. She was trying to do some research on conscious grays -- if possible, she wanted to move Odessa to another host, but there was hardly any useful information. She yawned. It was getting dark and she was a bit too excited during daytime. She turned around, planning to get some coffee for herself, but she was distracted when she saw Jan by a table. "Good evening." She smiled and waved at him.

"Evening," Jan returned the greeting and went to get another cup as well. Right now, next to the dispensers there was a huge stack of empty and clean porcelain cups. Jan had made them earlier in the day, because Olivia asked him to.

"Ah, did you leave these here?" Alicia's ears shook, when she noticed the cups by the dispenser. She took one and poured some coffee for herslef-- with a big portion of milk. "Very thoughtful, Jan." She smiled at him.

"I'm not. It was an... order," he said. He wasn't certain if Olivia was requesting or ordering him to make some cups, not being used to being asked to do something in such a soft, vague manner. Jan conjured a new cup for himself and got a simple and black coffee.

"Order?" Alicia furrowed her eyebrows, confused. "Why would someone order you to do a favor for others?" She sipped on her beverage, but being careless to the temperature, she burned her tongue slightly. "Hot, hot!" She made a face, fanning her tongue to help the numbness to pass.

"Hold out your hand." Jan conjured a cube of ice for her tongue. "She said the cups were cute, warm and made up a better drinking experience, so she'd love it, if I made a lot of them," was what Jan said about her previous question.

"Shanks..." Alicia put the ice in her mouth and mumbled. The ice cube melted quickly, and the numbness was gone. "How is that an order?" Alicia tilted her head, unable to understand how Jan interpreted that as 'an order.' "Whoever she is, she is obviously complimenting your cups. Well, and she is pretty much correct." She flicked the porcelain cup in her hand, and it make a silvery sound, "These are very cute. It feels like... home."

"Wasn't I asked to make them?" Jan tilted his head lightly.

"I guess she's just making a request. Instead of forcing you to do it, she hopes you would do it... Something like that." Alicia tilted her head. "Well, you could say that she asked you to make them, but she didn't order you."

"Is it different? In the end it's something you have to do." Jan shrugged his shoulders.

"That is different." Alicia had a stern look on her face. "It's different in the feeling, when one orders and requests. An order is hard and cold, it is something one is forced to do. A request... Well, it's something between friends and your loved ones, I guess. After all, you are not obligated to do it." Alicia tried to explain it to Jan, but apparently she was not doing a good job.

"Not obligated-- means they won't kill you, if you don't do it?" Jan asked simply.

"Not that I think anyone here would kill you if you don't do it, but you are right, I guess." Alicia put down her coffee and flipped through a few pages of the book in her hand. "By the way, are you familiar with conscious grays?"

Jan cast a surprised look at Alicia, but didn't ask anything further. He couldn't quite believe that disobeying authorities wouldn't lead to fatal consequences. He thought about the conscious grays then. "The only one I have seen was the one by that well."

"Oh, that. No, I mean... Have you read about them in the books here? I can't seem to find one with more information other than what I already know. I haven't looked through all of them though, so I thought you might know." She scanned through the book in her hand, until it came to a chapter called "The Behaviors of Conscious Grays." "There is a conscious gray in the house, just so you know. She isn't like the one by the well a bit, though-- that is what puzzles me. The one by the well seemed more like a vengeful type, if I have to say."

"No, I haven't found anything," Jan said and grew surprised by the things she said afterwards. "There is?"

"A cat cumimi's gray." Alicia nodded, but she subconsciously held the pendant on her neck. The night was falling, so it was about time that bird woman could come out of the necklace again. "She told us a lot about the incident that happened ten years ago. A pretty fun person-- or ghost-- if you have to ask me. Maybe she just doesn't visit the boys a lot."

"Why isn't it soulmatched already?" Jan asked straight away.

Alicia peered at Jan. "Conscious grays are almost nothing different from living beings. Reine was an exception..." She lowered her eyes, avoid answering Jan's question directly, "She is much more than just a soul waiting for you to soulmatch. I advise you not to attempt it-- you will only be looking for trouble." She thought it would be enough a warning, since she didn't want to argue with Jan-- plus, even if Jan decided to look for Kirie to soulmatch her, Kirie wasn't defenseless. But, if he knew about Odessa... Things won't be so easy. Her hand tightened on the pendant. Why would I care? She is better off gone! Alicia sulked, vexed that she actually thought of protecting Odessa.

Jan looked puzzled, wasn't it their duty to clear grays - it was highly odd, that one would be roaming around freely. "Do the priests know about it?"

"He does. Oh boy, he does." Alicia remembered the complexion on the old priest's face in the morning after Kirie smashed all his wine, "Hah... He knows better than anyone. He even let Kirie--I mean, that conscious gray-- to be our first soulmatch instructor."

Jan was completely confused. How did that work? But in that case, the gray was an approved existence by authorities. "We shouldn't clear our instructors-- by logic--" He tried to reason with it somehow, slowly regaining his calm.

"Well, you can't think of conscious grays the way you think of normal grays." Alicia was secretly relieved to see Jan giving up on soulmatching Kirie, "You would know what I mean if you meet her one day."

"Perhaps so," Jan said. He couldn't either affirm or reject it, since he didn't know.

Alicia smiled and made no comment. Suddenly, she noticed a line in the book. She narrowed her eyes. "Conscious grays are a rare form of a soul after leaving one's body after death... can possess or 'haunt' a specific object, or a person. The only way to remove this type of gray in the said situation is to either destroy the host or perform a Soulmatch." She read the text quietly. In that case... She would have to destroy her necklace if she didn't want to clear Odessa out of it?

Jan returned to reading then, since Alicia had done so as well. He still yawned from time to time, but coffee had made it a little better.

The yawns were contagious. Alicia tried to resist, but couldn't help up to yawn a little. "You know what, I'm going up to the attic to get some sunlight..." she stood up and stretched, "Do you wanna come as well? It works better than coffee." She glanced at Jan and invited.

"Sunlight?" Jan was confused-- how could there be sunlight at this time. But it did interest him enough for him to leave his seat and walk up to her with his book in hands.

The two reached the attic before long. Though knowing that it was fake, Alicia still loved coming here. "Neo made this illusion by accident-- and it kinda became permanent." She grinned, explaining to Jan.

Seeing the sunlight stunned him and he reached down to check the grass-- it even felt real. He didn't know one of them could do something like this-- "Amazing," he mumbled only after a while looking up to see that there was another cumimi sitting in the grass not far away from them. At first he didn't notice that the girl was lightly transparent.

"Hey, fox," Kirie put up her hand in a greeting. "So that dog can do something like this as well--" she sighed, not seeming all that happy about having overheard, who made the illussion. It pained her that her new favorite place was made by that nosy dog-- and she didn't want to change her opinion about him, the memory of priest washing still fresh in her head.

Jan's eyes went wider as he noticed that the girl who spoke was lightly transparent. He stepped back, almost falling off the stairs.

"Oh, so you already found out about it." Alicia greeted Kirie with a wave, "By the way, sorry about calling your name wrong last time." Odessa later told her about it, and she was embarrassed for quite a while.

She turned around and gestured at Kirie, "Jan, she is the conscious gray I was talking abou-- Jan?" Seeing Jan's strange expression, Alicia frowned slightly and asked out of concern.

At that moment, she also realized-- if Odessa appeared now, Jan would probably want to soulmatch her! Please don't show youself right now, please don't come out of the necklace!

"It's fine, I don't mind," Kirie said then peered at Jan. "Another dog, huh?" It didn't take her long to notice that Jan was black, that put her at ease.

If anything Jan was close to running away, not soulmatching, since Alicia was black like him and there was no way he could do it without any whites present. He breathed out, calming his expression and standing up straight. If this gray was an instructor, she shouldn't harm them, should she? He convinced himself to act under that assumption.

Kirie floated closer to take a better look at Jan-- "I feel like I've seen someone like you already--Right! You look like a copy of June."

Jan nodded lightly, it wasn't something surprising to hear, since he had grown up among countless cumimis who had exactly the same face as him. "I'm a mass produce type."

"Mass produce type?" Alicia casted a confused look at Jan, "What do you mean by that, Jan?" And what did Kirie mean, he looked like 'a copy of June'?

"Where is this place?" A voice suddenly spoke beside her ear, making her leap out of her position from shock.

"What the heck...!" Alicia turned around and saw Odessa floating at where she was at, wearing that same irritating smile with 0 guilt on her face. "Don't just sneak up on me like that!" Her eyebrows knitted together in pure anger, "Mind you, I could have left you in my dorm all day!"

"Yeah yeah. As if you would leave that necklace out of your sight..." Odessa was completely unfazed. Her eyes fell on Kirie. "Good evening... that I am not even so sure. It's been a while, Kirie." Odessa smiled and nodded, implicating the sunlight in the attic.

"I'm a clone," Jan said. "One of the types humans mass-produce to use in testing. My number was 034-546-397, meaning there were more that 34 million clones before I was made," he explained simply. He didn't feel the need to point out that almost all of them were dead - clones rarely lived past the age of 20, if left alone, and most died in testing before they were 2. When another gray appeared, Jan didn't freak out, but instead observed Alicia and Kirie, ready to react according to how they would.

"I wouldn't be here, if it wasn't evening," Kirie said, not seeming fazed one bit by Odessa appearing. "How much do you hear, while in that necklace?" She choose to ask, instead of paying attention to how angry Alicia seemed. Kirie had read enough about clones to know how it worked, but it still surprised her to meet one, so she kept stealing glances at Jan, who looked exactly like the girl she knew.

"Clones?" Alicia knocked on her forehead and finally recalled its meaning from one of the books she read downstairs. "Wouldn't you run into them so often, then? I mean, three million--" She didn't know much about clones, because she read mostly books about soulmatchs, otherwise fictions. Three million seemed to be too big a number for her to understand, only that she knew it would be a lot.

"That I know. I just don't believe my eyes." Odessa peered at Kirie. "I was taking a nap just now. Just how much did I miss?" She glanced at Jan. "And he is...?" She was actually awake after Alicia entered the attic, but she didn't feel the need to explain it. She planned to stay quiet in the necklace, but the sunlight was a pleasant surprise, and she had to see it for herself.

"You didn't miss much," Kirie said and floated over, closer to the bunch. "This attic is a well crafted illusion made by that dog and this dog is a clone --" she pointed at Jan. "What type are you, by the way?"

"Creator," Jan answered, then choose to elaborate, since Alicia had asked about the numbers. "Clones are used in testing by humans, so most die before they reach the age of two and if nothing is done to prolong their life, clones don't live past the age of 20 - we aren't as perfectly crafted as naturally born beings, so even if there have been around 34 million before me, almost all are dead."

"So mindforcers can conjure up wonderful things like this, too." Odessa smiled softly and looked around the attic. She listened to Jan's explanation and nodded, "What would make sense." She peered at him, wondering he himself would also be the case of not living past the age of 20. "By the way, what is the closest city? I've lost track of that on my way."

Alicia's lips parted, as if she wanted to say something. She looked at Jan with a worried look, but still didn't utter a word.

Since Alicia didn't say anything more, Jan turned to answer the gray's question. "It's Degate."

Kirie floated around. "Well, you guys will be lucky enough if you live past the age of 12," she said and floated a bit further away to lie back down in the grass and continue reading her book.

"Degate..." Odessa lowered her eyes and recalled her memory of this region, "I didn't know I came such a long way." She glanced at Jan, "I've seen that face, now that you said it. Lying still on the side of the street, like a squirrel run over by a car. Probably a run-away from one of those facilities."

Alicia glared at Odessa, "That was not necessary!"

Odessa shrugged and dropped the topic," Anyway, why did you come into the attic? You are usually in the library by this time."

Alicia blinked, then realized she brought Jan here to read books. "Well, you see, this is what I wanted to show you." She said to Jan, pointing at the ceiling, "Isn't it a wonderful place to read?"

Jan didn't seem fazed by what Odessa said and was looking around the place instead. "It is well lit and one wouldn't feel sleepy in a place like this," Jan agreed, then found a place to sit, as far from Kirie as possible, and continued reading his book calmly, soon enough being lost in the text.

Kirie was practically glaring at Odessa and shaking her head in a very annoyed manner. She wasn't the most sensitive person out there, but being that blunt was too much. After a while she clicked her tongue and choose to go back to reading herself.

"One day, I swear one day I will find a way to get you out of my necklace." Alicia stuck out her tongue at Odessa, then turned to Kirie, "Kirie, what are you reading?" She walked up to her and peeked curiously.

Odessa smiled, as if did not notice their expression. She wasn't exactly all that content being stuck inside a necklace herself, though luckily it seemed that no one noticed her secret protest.

"Story collection from Edgar Allan Poe," Kirie said and floated the book closer to Alicia. "I got that old fox to bring me some books from outside," she smiled seeming pleased with her deed. "Otherwise I was already starting to re-read the books in this house." She didn't say it out loud, but that was the bit that irked her the most about not being able to leave the house. She had picked up reading out of boredom, but now it was a fond pastime.

"Ah, I've seen that book a little while ago." Alicia's eyes lit up, remembering reading that some time ago, "And that guy also talked about it, he--" She froze, realizing Otto was already gone-- she soulmatched him herself, with Neo. She lowered her eyes a bit and let out a sigh. "Nevermind. Wait-- you already read all the books in the house? Including all the soulmatch books?" she looked at Kirie with hopes sparkling in her eyes.

Odessa payed attention to their conversation as well-- Alicia never hid her intention to move her from the necklace, and Odessa herself did hope there was a way-- since Alicia didn't want to help her to consume grays, she needed to find some other way to get out of here. She didn't want to get stuck in the same place for ten years like Kirie did.

"Yeah," Kirie said. "One of them was written so weirdly it took me a week to decipher it," she said, referring to the same book priest gave to kids. "Anything you'd like to ask?"

Jan's ears perked. He pretended to keep reading his own book, but he was listening to their conversation.

"He did threaten to make us read a super thick book if we didn't listen to his lesson." Alicia pouted, then got to the point, "Is there a way to move a conscious gray to another host without breaking the original host or soulmatching the gray?"

Kirie cast a look at Odessa. So Alicia and her didn't converse much. They had talked about it, while Alicia was sleeping and Odessa had asked the same thing. "Let me get one thing straight," Kirie said "The whole array of books about soulmatching in this place are about how to soulmatch grays and the most efficient methods how to get rid of them, it doesn't look into methods of preserving grays or moving them to other locations."

"Ughghghgh...." Alicia dropped to the floor in frustration, "I knew it..." She turned around to look at Odessa again, then secretly considered mayb-- just maybe, she should give Odessa's suggestion a try.

Odessa was sitting on the window sill with closed eyes, enjoying the bit of sunshine she probably will rarely get. As if hearing what Alicia was thinking, she opened her eyes and locked gaze with Kirie, "I don't understand. If you really want to leave this place, why do you refuse to consume grays? You don't know-- you might be ending their suffering in a more merciful way. Are you being kind to let them wander into eternity without a purpose?"

"Eating them probably is kinder than let them be dyed black," Kirie said - she had thought about it plenty, but it just seemed too-- she didn't know how to call it even - how could anyone just go and tear someone apart like that. It was a feeling that it was somewhat wrong to do so, also because that went against what cumimis were supposed to do - clear the life energy not amass it into yourself and keep a bigger chunk locked.

"Alicia, if you became a gray, would go go around tearing other grays up, if that meant you could walk around freely?"

Odessa never soulmatched a gray, so she couldn't understand Kirie's feeling. She didn't view herself to be obliged to preserve energy for the world, though she knew the purpose of soulmatches.

Alicia smiled dryly and hugged her knees to her chest. "Not to count how rare conscious grays are, but if I ever became one..." She looked up at the ceiling, which was replaced by a pleasant canopy of blue skies, "I don't really know, because I can't feel how you guys undergo all of this. I think it will come to me if I died. But... I don't want to become someone like Reine. What she did was wrong." She lowered her head, "I don't think wanting to live freely is something so bad, but grays were once people, too. Sometimes good people are condemned to Hell, purely based on how strongly a cumimi can affect their minds. I don't think that's fair at all."

"It's odd you are black, if you feel that way," Kirie said. "Most blacks I knew were ready to tear apart even priests and--" she recalled the thing with Reine, that pretty much confirmed how black side kids felt about humans. "What about you?" She asked Jan.

Jan was out of the loop, but from the earlier question Kirie had asked Alicia, he now knew that grays could go around tearing apart other grays to become stronger in some way. "If I became a conscious gray I would eat all the grays I see and become as strong as I possibly could. I would possibly kill those, who come after my head, but causing a gray storm doesn't sound like something I would do, or maybe it wouldn't be so bad to wipe out some human cities."

Alicia just smiled at Jan's comment. She sort of saw that coming anyway, since it was Jan, after all. She had met some other black cumimis with similar mind set. "Isn't it funny? How we are judged to deserve heave or hell based on if we love humans or not?" She let out a sarcastic laugh. "I hate humans in the way that they refuse to acknowledge our feelings as if they are superior-- and I would continue to think so if it wasn't for him." She didn't specify. "Some humans can understand us, but it's unfair that we are cleaning after their butts while we are supposedly inferior or created to be some sort of monstrosity. I mean, my parents are humans-- I just want us cumimis to live in peace, that's all." Her reason told her that, but she knew she couldn't just forgive those people that took everything away from her-- anger could even urge her to kill, like the fire she set to her circus.

"Exactly," Jan agreed. "The system of cumimis being inferior and criteria for getting to heaven and hell is so ridiculous, one would be an idiot to fit in there. They say cloning humans is unethical, but mass produce half-assed copies of cumimis for every purpose there is - since 'oddly enough' cumimis and humans have exactly the same diseases and strikingly similar physique, they even interbreed perfectly - meaning cumimis are closer to humans than lions are to tigers." Jan had read enough about build of their bodies to conclude that cumimis were superior and that made this enforced inferiority even more ridiculous.

Kirie didn't comment on their conversation - they raised legit concerns, but it was all too apparent to her that even if they spoke about equality and rights - hatred seeped through their words.

Odessa played with a strand of her hair while listening to their conversation. "If that's the case, have you ever thought why while cumimis are physically superior, we are bound to serve the human race if we want to enjoy a happy after-life?" She smiled softly, contrary to her words, "It's the way that it is. Because cumimis possess the ability to clear a soul." She held out five fingers on a hand and three on the other. "Love not not. Accept not judge. Choose life, before death. Treasure the life of others. Tell truth not lies. Don't take what is not yours. Never abuse the soul of another." She paused for a moment, then continued, "It is really hard not violate any of that, if a cumimi was to soulmatch a human's gray, especially in many societies nowadays where we are abused. It is not that we are inferior to humans, it's just what it tends looks like when we have to live with humans in this world. At least, that is what I think." She sighed and leaned back on the window.

"I suspect most humans have troubles keeping that up as well," Kirie said. "Do you think those humans, who abuse cumimis 'treasure the life of others' - cumimis are living beings and the last one 'never abuse the soul of another' - it's about lacking kindness isn't it?"

Jan didn't comment on what either of grays said. He did agree with what they said - those rules weren't easy to keep up and for cumimis it was even harder - when they were treated like this. It was exactly like Odessa said - serving the human race. Selflessly serving them at that - otherwise you would eventually be fed up.

"It's easier for humans to ascend to heaven than for us." Odessa began braiding her hair, "Many humans do go to hell for abusing us, but in general-- more cumimis are affected by the negative impact of their actions. Many humans can live without even considering about how cumimis survive, but many of us are thankful at the end of each day just for being able to live, not to mention committing unjust deeds."

Alicia nodded in agreement. She had some brutal first-hand experience with that.

Jan nodded as well. That's how all his life had been. And even if it was a cruel thing to think, in a sense he felt a tiny bit better knowing that maybe his experiences weren't all that unique - it was like confirming he was sane for feeling the way he felt.

Kirie didn't comment seeing how the bunch were in sync. "I'll just keep reading, then," she said and buried her nose in her book.

"Awww, don't feel left out." Odessa laughed softly and teased her. "The topic was too heavy. I agree. Let's see... Is there any moment in your life that you felt so very happy?" She asked the other three, wishing to dissipate the atmosphere in the room.

Alicia stopped reading the book, since she wouldn't be able to find anything she wanted to in it anyway. "Me? Well... There are many, despite many other sad ones. But I guess recently what makes me really happy is being able to save Jan in that gray storm." She thought for a moment, then said with a smile.

"Eh--" it surprised Jan that Alicia mentioned that and now it felt like it would be unfair if he didn't say anything.

Jan wasn't even sure what happiness was exactly. Sense of contentment? He felt content when he managed to learn making something he couldn't before. At times that even lead to joy - discoveries were like that. At the time when he found his comrade among the corpses he felt relieved to the point he cried, that being the only time in his life when he remembered crying, but neither of them were it... neither of them seemed to fit the mark well enough to share. "Learning new things makes me happy," he said and stared down on his book, continuing to read.

"Eating stuff made me happy," Kirie said with a grumpy expression, since she couldn't eat anymore. "Odessa, maybe there's something you'd like to read?"

Odessa froze for a moment, then gave Kirie a grateful smile-- it was probably the first genuine smile she gave her-- "I wish there could be some music that I can read, but I guess there can't be many. If I could play again..." She stared at her half-transparent hands and was lost in her memory for a second.

"You mean music sheets?" Kirie asked. There's a shelf in the music room with them. "Right, the old fox got the piano fixed too, so - go and knock yourself out."

"I would like to, but..." Odessa smiled and pointed at Alicia's necklace, "Plus, I can't move anything like this." She reached out her hands, which went through everything solid.

Kirie cast a longer look at Odessa then flew over to Alicia and started ruffling her hair using her hands. It probably felt cold, but she could properly touch her hair enough to ruffle it. "You are a newbie - if you concentrate on making your hands solid they will become solid."

"Ahhh--! Stop that, Kirie!" Alicia pouted and waved Kirie's hand away. "If you are bored-- since I am, too-- you can show me how to play piano." She walked up to Odessa and gestured at the pendant.

Odessa stared blankly at them for a second, couldn't understand why they became so enthusiastic about it all of a sudden. The pendant swayed under the light and reflected a blue glint into her eyes. She blinked, then smiled. "All right."

"Kirie is coming, right?" Alicia grinned at Kirie, then turned to Jan, "Jan, come with us!" She secretly wished Odessa to play Salut d'Amour, but actually any piano song would be nice-- since they all reminded her of her home.

"I'm not interested in music," Jan said simply intending to stay behind. In a sense he felt it was great luck to have the attic all to himself, so he can keep reading in peace. He still didn't feel completely safe amongst grays, even if he tried to convince himself to, seeing how Alicia was.

"Let's leave the party pooper behind and go," Kirie said and rushed Alicia and Odessa down-stairs.

"Come on down when you change your mind!" Alicia waved at Jan and rushed down to the music room. It was close to bed time, but she didn't feel sleepy at all tonight.
"Ehem, so uh-" Alicia cleared her throat and looked at Odessa with sparkling eyes, "Can you play- uh- Salut d'Amour?"

Odessa raised a brow, and a rare expression of nostalgia appeared in her eyes. "Salut d'Amour... Mais oui, c'était ma première chanson. (Ah yes, it was my first song.)" She mumbled something in French and smiled at Alicia, "Yes, but I haven't played for a long time... Please excuse me."

She floated onto the piano bench and opened the cover-- just like Kirie said, she could touch things if she concentrated. Ecstasy appeared on her face, and she put her fingers to the position.

Kirie listened to the song with sparkling eyes. It was not how someone rusty played - the sounds came out clean and full with emotion. It was a beautiful song and Odessa played it with such gentleness, it didn't even compare to the crisp and neat performance Reine had given - this one was overflowing with colors and memories.

Alicia froze as Odessa began her first note. The details of Odessa's version were different from the one she listened to when she was little, but the emotion that flowed between the movement of her fingers was ever so familiar-- she never imagined someone like Odessa could play something this moving, seeing how uncaring and insensitive she was. When she realized, tears already blurred her vision. She quickly wiped them off.

The song slowly came to a stop, and as if still lingering in the music, Odessa's hands stayed on the keys a little longer without doing anything. She breathed out, and her shoulder relaxed. "It's been a while... I didn't think I would ever to be able to do this again." she curled her lips, and a genuine smile appeared on her face. She felt so grateful right now-- so much that she didn't mind to be stuck in a small necklace as much.

It was strange how something small like a piano melody and a genuine smile could change a person. Kirie never expected Odessa could be like this-- maybe that's how she was before she died. She smiled. "I'll talk with that old fox-- maybe he is searching for a music teacher, since-- you know, nights in winters are long and there's plenty of time in evenings and mornings," Kirie said. That was her way of saying that she finally accepted Odessa being here.

Alicia's eyes lit up at Kirie's suggestion, "Yes, you gotta teach me how to play piano! That was beautiful!" She grabbed Odessa's wrist, and for the first time it didn't just go through her-- it was cold, but she felt Odessa's skin.

Odessa blinked, then realized what Kirie implied in her words. She turned around to look at the gleaming light in Alicia's eyes. She lowered her eyes-- she didn't know how to react to all this that came so suddenly, but she felt that maybe, just maybe-- she was happy to be here. She raised her head and looked at Kirie, then smiled. "Yes, winter nights are long indeed..."

The doorknob turned and the doors opened. Old priest peered inside and stared at the three of them for a longer while. "If you say you were here since the beginning, I won't buy it," he said, but there was a tint of amusement in his expression.

"Yo, old fox - hire this lady to be a music teacher," Kirie stated at point blank. "Otherwise your whiskey will suffer."

Odessa stood up and curtsied slightly. "Good evening. My name is Odessa Leclerc." She lowered her head to hide the amused smile, when she heard the way Kirie talked to the priest about all this. "Am currently residing in this girl's necklace pendant."

Alicia made a face at the priest. She had secretly decided that if he dared to say 'no,' she would help Kirie her feat.

"What good timing, I was searching for a music teacher," the priest said without batting an eyelid. " My name is Mather Redmill, I'm the head priest here. Your senior, teaching assistant Kirie will introduce you to students, we can discuss your salary later or if you have any requirements I can listen to them now." He treated her exactly like he would treat a regular human.

Kirie nodded at that, looking content with the deal. The old fox had improved, or maybe his respect towards her and her threats had gone up - she wasn't sure. But like this everything worked out well.

"A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Redmill." Odessa kept her usual gentle expression,"Salary doesn't matter. A gray doesn't need much, anyway. But there is one thing--" She suddenly raised her eyebrows in pure anger-- a sort of expression that never appeared on her face before, "You call this a music room? Heavily damaged instruments without proper maintenance-- scattered around the room?" She pointed at the pile of broken instruments that were yet to be repaired, "And what is this?!" She floated to the window and put her hand on it-- it left a clear hand print among the dust, "You let these delicate crafts be put in such a dusty room?! Not to mention--" She glared at the priest and pressed a key on the piano that didn't sound so apparently different from the others , "This one, did you hear that? And you said it was fixed?! Middle E, high F and high A are clearly out of tune!"

Alicia's mouth dropped open. She had never seen Odessa to act that way, and so-- aggressive... But somehow, it made her seem more real than ever.

The priest was completely calm listening to her complaints, but since it was far too long of a list to remember and since he could help around half of the issues... "We are still understaffed, so it will take a while to get things in order."

Kirie snorted. "At least she's serious about it," she whispered to Alicia.

Alicia giggled and nodded. It was funny to see someone yelling at the priest like that, and it made her feel better as well, since she was mad at the priest.

Odessa exhaled deeply, then her a smile resurfaced on her face, as if all that rage just now was an illusion, "I hope so."

***

It had been three days since Jan's eyes changed color and he was slowly getting used to seeing the world differently. He hadn't even gone to study room, just sat in the still vacant boy's dorm room, slowly fixing his own body, till his life energy finally aligned with his body like it did for others. It was the most tedious work he had ever done, but once he was done, he was instantly glad he had - his body felt so light and finally bent to his will completely: there was no trace of the previous stiffness. Even his expression now reminded more of the child he actually was.

He ran down the stairs in a faster pace than before and almost ran into Alicia along the way. "Excuse me," he said and slowed down.

"Oof!" Alicia barely stopped her steps so she didn't bump into Jan. "Sorry, I was running, too." She smiled apologetically. "How's it going, Jan?" She asked casually, then furrowed her brows. "Jan... Is there something different about you?" She leaned close and observed his face attentively. "Ahh--! Your eyes!" Her mouth formed an 'O' in shock.

At first Jan wasn't sure how Alicia could tell-- could she also see life energy? But then his surprise waned. Right. His eyes. "That just happened," he said. "I probably did it myself."

"Things like that do not just happen." Alicia puffed her cheeks. "Really, what happened? Do you need to see a doctor for that?" She asked out of concern.

"No, it's all right," Jan said confidently. "I did it myself and I can tell that right now everything is all right with my own body." Then he cast a look at Alicia's body - like peering through her clothes, checking if everything was in order.

"Using your ability?" Alicia blinked, then her eyes lit up, "Does that mean your body is no different from a normal cumimi kid's? So you can live past the age of 20 now?" She was too happy for Jan to notice his scanning gaze.

"Yes and yes," Jan said - "I have fixed it. My liver won't fail and lungs won't fill with water," he said, since judging from his life energy those were the things most likely to kill him and he fixed not only life energy connections, but also their structure and condition. It was hard to explain, but it felt like he could see everything inside a body as long as he concentrates and since the time of practicing with Valen he gradually became able to make living tissue.

"That's just--" Her hopes confirmed, a ecstatic grin appeared climbed up Alicia's lips. Suddenly, she threw her arms around Jan and jumped in excitement, "Next time we play cops-- I mean, next time when we train, you will be able to run just like everyone else! That is just so great, Jan!"

Jan was completely dumbfounded by the level of excitement she had just from someone like him getting better. He wasn't worth it-- but then again Alicia had also saved him in the gray storm. "Thank you," he said silently. "Alicia, do you want me to remove the scars from your back?" He asked after a while.

"Ah, those? How did you I had them? Did Neo tell you or something?" Alicia laughed dryly, recalling how she got them, "Well, if there is a way-- I don't want anything to do with that place, of course."

"No, I can see through your clothes, so I can see them," he said simply and started replacing the scar tissue with normal skin - it wasn't painful, maybe just a lightly tingling, ticklish feeling. "Does it feel annoying?" Jan asked, considering numbing the nerves.

"Y-you what?!" Alicia's face blushed bright red, holding out a finger and pointed shakily at Jan, "You saw-- You saw---" Before she could finish her words, a slight tingling feeling went down her spine from her back-- she remembered it clearly, it was where her scars were. "What--?"

"I mean, should I numb your nerves? And yes, I probably saw whatever you meant with that," he added nonchalantly and continued replacing the skin on her back, soon enough half of the scars were gone.

"...." Alicia just stared at him, her cheeks burned like a pan on the stove. "PERVERT--!!!" She screamed, finally coming back to her senses, all five of her shadow arms appeared at her back by instinct, as if ready to attack at any moment.

Jan had barely finished replacing the skin on her back, erasing all traces of scars, when he saw five masses of life energy form around her. From her scream he guessed that she was angry-- he tried to recall what pervert meant with a conflicted expression. "Unacceptable sexual behavior? I think there's a misunderstanding."

Alicia glared at him and hugged her shoulders to cover her chest-- she didn't feel so safe around Jan now. But then... Jan was not someone like that, she knew it. She exhaled softly and calmed down, dissipating the arms into thin air. "If you don't give me a proper explanation, I'm not letting this one pass!" She scowled, not letting her guard down.

"Proper explanation on what exactly?" Jan asked, not being clear if she wished him to elaborate on how he didn't constitute as pervert or was it something in more detail about how his ability worked.

"On-- On--" Alicia's cheeks flushed red again, her glare growing more malicious. She wasn't even sure now if Jan was making fun of her or just purely dense.

Her anger confused him. "Did I do something harmful?" He asked. "Your life energy looks perfectly fine to me now," he said, checking if all parts were properly aligned.

"Wait, life energy?" Alicia caught the key words, then looked at him incredulously, "What do you mean by that? Can you see it?"

"Yes, I can see it," Jan said. "My eyes turning purple was a side effect to that."

Alicia exhaled, then relaxed her posture. "Okay, sorry for mistaking you for a pervert..." Saying so, she still more or less avoided Jan's gaze. It was just so awkward, knowing that someone can see you through cloth...

"Yes, that word was incorrectly used," Jan said. "I don't really think about reproducing and it's not even possible in our age."

".....=__=" Alicia didn't imagine that someone could ever talk about this topic with such a deadpan face, and she knew Jan sure meant it purely scientifically, but she wouldn't ever be able to respond to that comment. "A-anyway," she switched the topic stiffly, "What did you say about my scars again? Sorry, I didn't pay too much attention..." Her voice trailed off, not wishing to lead up to the subject of 'are you looking at me naked or not'.

"Your scars are gone now, that's it," Jan said simply and was about to continue heading down-stairs to the study room.

"!!!" Alicia's jaw simply dropped in disbelief. Suddenly, she began running downstairs and rushed straight into the girl's bedroom and took off her dress. If was true-- the skin on her back was smooth instead of her familiar uneven touch of scars. She checked with the mirror again-- nothing. Nothibg was on her back. Joy filled her heart, and she quickly put on her dress and dashed out of the door, looking for Jan.

Jan looked at her go, then got to study room and stood by a shelf, looking for a book to study next.

Knowing Jan well enough, Alicia ran straight to study room-- the sudden bang of the door startled a lot others who were enjoying the silence. But God, she was just too happy. "Jan!" she ran up to him and gave him a tight hug, her tail swinging in pure ecstasy. "Thank you thank you thank you--"

Jan was about to take a book, so she caught him in an awkward position. Really - this girl made little sense to Jan - she got so angry and now she was so happy, what is even going on in her head... "Welcome," he said, feeling awkward.

Alicia realized she was a little overboard, so she soon released him and smiled apologetically. "Sorry, I was just too happy."

"It's fine," Jan said and picked the book he wanted and went to sit down to read it.

***

"Alicia, your neck..." Jan walked up to Alicia before breakfast. There was a question in his eyes. "May I?" Jan wished to fix the traces on her neck. It seemed like someone had strangled the girl, unsuccessfully, though. But the thought itself was very unsettling. It surprised him that he was so unsettled with something like that when he had seen so many die already.

"Heh?" Alicia turned around. Seeing that it was Jan, surprise filled her eyes. Since when did Jan begin willingly talk to others? Her thoughts went blank for a split second, then realized he was talking about her neck. "Ah, this..." she touched the fading red marks with an unnatural expression, then nodded and took off her necklace, "Th-thank you."

It took less than a minute to fix the traces left on her neck and he looked up at her. "Who?" He knew it wasn't his business and he couldn't explain why he felt so heavy about it. Was it anger... did he feel anger. Was it because he owed Alicia his life? He couldn't tell.

Alicia touched her neck again, and the slight piercing pain was gone. "A- a gray..." she lowered her head, looking at the ground. She was so ashamed. Being so reckless, thinking that it was safe even at night after the gray storm was over, she had already scolded herself a million times. If Odessa wasn't there, she was dead already. "I- I was training by the beach, and accidentally ran into one..."

Jan looked down as well, his hands made fists, but expression was still calm, despite the anger he felt. It wasn't his business, so scolding her was not something he thought he could do, so he didn't. But if it was gray--what happened to it? He recalled what the grays had talked about up in the sunny attic. "...Odessa ate it?"

Alicia smiled softly and raised the necklace. It glistened under the light, as if Odessa was listening. "Yes. It's all thanks to Odessa. If it wasn't for her, I can't imagine... Maybe you will find me as one addition to the collection of grays to soulmatch. Oh wait, we don't have a soul until thirteen." She said jokingly, even shaking her head regrettably, " Which means if I die, I would have just died for nothing. Tsk tsk tsk."

It pained him to see her talk about death so easily. "Alicia, you.. no, it's nothing." Jan said, feeling like a hypocrite - he could only reason with it due to the fact, that differently to him, Alicia was an unique specimen, so her life had more value either way. "If you do become a gray, I can make you a body, so now it really would be all for nothing, at least survive past 12."

"Huh?" Alicia couldn't process his words for a moment. Was this still the Jan she knew? She blinked, then realized what was meant in the way he acted now-- that discovery brought a smile to her lips, "Well, if I do, somehow, became a conscious gray, I will be counting on you for that." Alicia grinned and patted his shoulder. "Unless I go to hell right away or something. You know, just black kids things."

"Right, I'm the same boat," Jan agreed. And since he had no idea how to make a black turn gray, he couldn't comment on that much. And before things could get awkward, since he had no idea what to say, they got called for breakfast.

"Oh, it's breakfast time." Alicia just realized how hungry she was after a good night's sleep. "Jan, let's go." She waved at him with a warm smile.

Jan walked after her.

***
After breakfast Jan headed towards the wardrobe to put on some warm clothes. He wanted to test some things out and study room wasn't the best place to work with that, considering he didn't want to kill all the potted plants in house to do his bidding.

Alicia decided to go to somewhere closer to the house today, plus it's still morning, so it shouldn't be dangerous. She put on a warm jacket and changes into a thick woolen dress-- all these fancy stuff was all Odessa's fault. Alicia grumbled at how convenient these were, then saw Jan heading outside the house as well. "Yo, Jan! Are you heading out as well?" she knew he was going sonewherw from the warm cloth he put on, but she just wanted to tag along, really. Being by one's self wasn't particularly exciting.

Jan spotted Alicia approaching. "Yes, training," he said and started walking towards the forest. He was aiming to go to the closest meadow and stay there for a while.

Alicia smiled. Now that was the Jan she knew. "Mind if I come along?" she ran a few steps and caught up with him.

"Feel free to," Jan said. If she was there it meant he might be able to do more with his training, that was a good change. Soon enough they came out in a meadow. Jan breathed out at first, then made a small fir tree wither collecting the life energy from it, then used the life energy to make a mouse-- but it was a very retarded mouse. It was alive, but it glanced at him with glazed eyes and died a moment later. Jan made the mouse disperse in atoms, looking a tad disappointed.

Alicia looked curiously at what Jan was doing, then her eyes widened when the mouse Jan created moved, even though it was a short moment. "Jan! Y- you just created life!" Her mouth formed an 'O' from surprise.

"Yes," Jan said, though he didn't seem happy about it. "But there's something severely lacking-- mind if I scan you as reference?"

"Hah? Uh, I guess it's fine..." she nodded hesitantly. She didn't exactly understand what Jan meant by scan her as reference. Should she look like a mouse?

After getting her permission Jan carefully went through all Alicia's body from head to toe, concentrating very hard and after a while fell silent, thinking about something.

"Have you figured out something?" After a while of silence between them, Alicia leaned close a little and asked curiously.

Jan was startled from her being that close, but only a faint glint of surprise in his eyes gave it away. "I can't create life properly," he said after that. "If I have a gray or.. it's just healing an existing body, then it's all right, but I can't make it work. I lack information particles-- those are things dispersed like dust - very tiny, finer than life energy and everywhere."

"Information particles--" Alicia tilted her head, a look of confusion appeared on her face," Is it essential to create life? You said they are finer than life energy, and if they are also everywhere... Why do you say you lack them?" She furrowed her eyebrows. She wasn't a creator, and she didn't have eyes like Jan's, so she didn't really understand why Jan was facing the problem.

A glint of understanding passed his eyes then. But instead of explaining, he took the life energy from another fir tree and made a blooming indoors plant this time, putting it in a pot, then checked it all over. "This one is fine. Information particles are similar enough to make it work."

Alicia mused, then realized what Jan meant and what information particles signified. "In that case, if you were to create a mouse like what you did just now-- you need to find..." She stopped herself, realizing something really horrifying. "I-if it is how it works, you... you won't kill a person to create another person, right?" She asked carefully, her voice was even a little shaky.

"If I have their gray, then no," Jan said. "Grays have all the information particles and life energy in them, so I wouldn't need any life to make a body. But if I ought to make a new body, then yes, that's what it means."

Alicia's eyes widened. "That means... You can just create a body for Kirie and... and Odessa?" She straightened her body sub-consciously and clutched her pendant.

Jan looked sideways. "I better not, right now I'm not nearly as fast at it to make it work well. It took me three days to fix my own life energy and only half of connections were off, I have no idea how long it might take to do something like that from zero and it might be terribly painful like this."

"Oh, I'm not pushing you to do it at all!" Alicia waved her hands, meaning Jan didn't need to worry about it. "I just thought... If that's true, so many grays can be given a second chance in life." She smiled softly, "It will be wonderful, if that can happen."

It made him relieved that Alicia didn't ask for something like that, since he wasn't sure if he could refuse in case she made a request like that. He didn't think about that being wonderful or anything of the sort, though, he wasn't close to any of the grays and it wasn't his business being an ally of justice to give others second chances. "Perhaps." He said and turned to face the blooming potted plant he made before - he picked it up, thinking he can continue practicing with the life energy it contains indoors. "I'm going back inside," he said and started walking back towards the house, while carrying the heavy plant, so his gait was slow.

"Eh-- Going back so soon?" Alicia grinned, then took the pot from his hands carefully with two shadow arms, "I won't drop it, don't worry." Though she felt a pity not being able to enjoy the sun a little more, she thought she'd help Jan to carry the potted plant. "Are you going to leave it in the study room?"

"Thank you," Jan said, then shook his head. "No, I will keep using the life energy it contains for practice."

"Can you make other plants... I mean, trees with this?" Alicia asked with sparkling eyes, imagining cherry blossom flower in winter. She had seen it in one of the books' illustration.

"I can make trees, if I have more life energy-- any requests? If you carry it for me, I don't mind creating something." They were among the trees and close to the house, so there was plenty of life energy around to use.

"You can?" Alicia's eyes lit up. "Well, if you can make a cherry blossom tree, that'd be great-- It'd be even greater if you can make it bloom." She thought for a second, then waved it off, "Well.. it doesn't really matter if you can't make the flowers bloom. If you make one and it stays in the yard, I will be able to see it in spring, anyway." She smiled brightly.

"It's not a problem," Jan said and first created a big pot and filled it with soil, then made a tree nearby wither and made a beautiful medium height cherry blossom tree in full bloom, placing it in the pot. He made grass grow on the surface of the soil and now it seemed like a piece cut out from spring. The pot was big enough to have someone sit in the grass - maybe even have a picnic there.

Alicia watched all the wonders happen in awe. She stared at the sight for a little while, then smiled softly. "Truly, a Creator's ability undoubtedly marvelous." She stepped onto that small surface of grass, then touched the tree trunk carefully, as if any forceful action would make the scene disappear. "Jan..." She turned around to look at the boy with a warm and genuine smile, "...Thank you."

"Welcome," Jan said, feeling like it was a small thing, but a part of him felt really glad he had taken the time to study plants as well. "It's better to take it inside, it's cold out here."

Alicia nodded with a wide grin. She hopped down and lifted the whole thing with three shadow arms. She tried not to make it wobble too much, so the flowers on the tree could stay intact. Thus, a bizarre sight occurred-- two cumimi kids walked into a house with a cherry blossom tree in full bloom stumbling at their back, barely managing not to hit on the door frame.

Some branches still got broken off, but as soon as they were inside, Jan fixed them back. "Maybe put it in dining room?" Jan asked turning to Alicia, while taking off his coat and scarf - we don't use most of the space there.

"Yes, and others can sit by the tree when they eat~" Alicia nodded at the suggestion and moved the tree across the hall into the dinning room. She looked at the falling petals, then smiled at the scene.

Jan made the fallen off petals disappear and fixed the branches that got broken while moving through the dining room doors.