Oddity Specialist: Manifestor
Page 5
Quinn takes a moment to refocus his attention. “No, don’t worry about missing the mark, focus on how positive this is.”
“Only twenty left.”
Neri begins to head out, with Quinn coming with.
“Hang on.”
Molly says.
“What?”
“The cards, they’ve changed. A bunch are the same as The Devil.”
“I figured they would be.”
The card’s color has drastically faded.
“Wait here, we will be back once the rest of the specters are dealt with.”
“No, before you go...”
“What?”
Neri says a bit more impatiently.
“I want to go with you!”
“Why?”
“Because I can use my skills to tell peoples fortunes and know what the problem is.”
“I’ve already memorized how to read the cards.”
“But I have empierce with it. Besides, it’ll leave you more time to think on how to fix it and...”
“...And?”
“I know I can be of help.”
Neri examines the girls tone, her demeanor, and the look in her eyes.
“Fine.”
Molly gets an excited look.
“Thank you.”
“Uh-huh, come on.”
Heading outside, Neri looks up to the roof.
“Got them?”
Lucifer, who is sat atop the roof, looks down.
“Yeah.”
Held within his gloved hand, is twenty threads. There is a slight red glow, where he is holding them.
“Great.”
They set out to track down the specters. They come across the first specter. Neri visualizes, each card that’s left, within her mind.
“Got it.”
Neri runs ahead of the of the man walking down the street, without being seen. She pulls out a twenty and places it on his path. He notices the bill and picks it up. He looks around, not seeing anyone.
“Sweet.”
A piece is blown off of the muscular goat. It cries out in pain. Neri looks over to Quinn, who shakes his head. She then begins thinking on this. “This might take a long time. I went over plans with Quinn, on how to deal with what we might come up against. He can see them, but...”
Neri goes back to the group.
“Plan.”
“Yes?”
“Quinn, take Molly and solves that specters problem. If you see others, solve them as well.”
“And you’ll head off with lu-.”
He glances at Molly.
“-other member of the group.”
She nods her head.
“Alright.”
Quinn turns his attention to Molly and motions for her to come along. The two head off.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea.”
“We can give them the address of anyone’s we run across, that are solvable for them.”
“Not what I meant.”
“Let’s say it takes one hour, to beat each specter.”
“You’ll lose.”
“Yes.”
“Fine.”
Lucifer starts walking off.
“We’re heading to the next one, right?”
“What else?”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
Neri scratches her cheek. “He seems to help more readily, then Quinn had made him out to.”
Then come across another specter. The lights are on in this house for some reason. Neri looks around at what is visible.
“An elderly couple lives here.”
“I’m not going to ask how you know that.”
The girl pouts momentarily.
“That’s fine.”
A yell is heard. Neri runs up to the door and turns the nob. When that doesn’t work, she knocks on it. Then she slams her fist on it repeatedly. An older woman opens the door.
“w-What?!”
“Is someone hurt?”
She gives a bewildered look.
“My husband, he fell and is bleeding, so I screamed.”
“I know how to give first aid, may I come in.”
“y-Yes of course.”
Neri comes in.
“Do you have a kit?”
“Yes.”
The woman gets a kit. Neri makes her way to the husband. His arm has been cut open. Glancing around the building, she looks for anything useful. Neri begins to try and have a pleasant conversation with the man.
“You seem rather tough for your age.”
“Hm? This isn’t that bad.”
“Did you serve?”
“Yes, how did you know?”
“You just seem like the type.”
The woman gets the kit out.
“Here you go!”
“Thank you.”
Neri begins patching up his arm. The man starts grinding his teeth. Neri examines his face and mannerisms. “He is focused on something other than the wound.”
“You called nine-one-one?”
She asks.
“Yes.”
“And you have insurance?”
“...Well.”
Neri glances up to Lucifer, with an angry glare. “I guessed wrong.”
“Ah, another wealth one. I don’t know how you’ll solve this.”
“That’s fine that you don’t have insurance. This is not anywhere near bad enough for you to need it.”
Neri lies directly to them, feeling a pain course through herself.
“Really?”
The man asks. Lucifer points his thumb out to the side, lifting it slightly up.
“Certainty. I might not look it, but I’m actually really good at patching people up. Besides, you seem healthy, this isn’t that deep, things look good.”
“That’s a bit of a relief.”
Lucifers thumb nearly reaches all the way up.
“You’re still hurt though.”
“I know, I know, but this might not cost much.”
Neri focuses on the wound. “I can turn this into a reality. I can suture this up myself.”
“In fact, I’m sure this will be fixed up before the paramedics even get here.”
Lucifers thumb reaches the top positions.
“Ah, thank you for the help.”
“No problem.”
Neri finishes this up, then explains the healing process to the couple, up till near the time that the ambulance arrives. “We’re losing time.”
She then gets a message that the other specter was dealt with. She messages them back.
“We haven’t found one for you yet. You’ll just need to be on the lookout for now.”
“Got it.”
Once Quinn finishes the message, the two look around the town for another one.
“Spotted one.”
Quinn points at a young man, waiting for a bus.
“That almost looks like, two specters, but I think it just a lion and snake head, on one body spindly body.”
“It’s The Lovers.”
“Okay, so...”
Quinn unable to finish the sentence, starts to think. “What do we do? Try to fix a relationship being torn apart by a specter?”
“Hmm.”
Molly walks over to the man.
“Wait, what are... She isn’t stopping.”
She starts talking with him. Over time, his smile grows, as the specter dies. Quinn, with a blank expression, sends the girl a message, saying that it’s done. She walks back over.
“What did you do?”
“I asked if he had a girlfriend, he said no, so I hit on him, then gave him my number.”
“I see...”
“Hopefully, he doesn’t feel to bad when I tell him I’m not interested later.”
“...Uh-huh.”
Quinn slides his phone back into his pocket. “Scary.”
The groups run around the place trying to find and fix peoples bad luck. As time marches on, Neri’s tense concentration continues to
grow.
“What are you doing?”
Lucifer asks as they run down the street.
“Thinking over every possible outcome.”
“Didn’t you already do this before today?”
“There is an infinite number of possible variables. There is no way to know each one, but if I can figure out how to answer even one more before we get their...”
She re-enters her thought domain. “The amount of time it takes to find them, multiplied by the average amount of time thus far to solve them... We are at least two hours over. How to gain two hours back?”
Neri and Lucifer find a person with a career specter. Neri then spends an hour, both sneaking into their work and rebalancing their books for them. Once that specter is beat, they move on.
“We lost so much time!”
Neri sprints even faster down the street, reaching her full speed, which is far beyond even the fastest high-school athletes. “If I can maintain sprinting speed this whole day, I can save a few minutes.”
Lucifer glances down at the girl.
“This accomplishes what?”
Neri stops biting her finger, then slowly looks up at the man easily keeping pace with her.
“Fast...”
“Yeah, sure. Can we stop?”
“Why?!”
“Because you are going to trip up.”
“I don’t trip.”
“I didn’t mean physically.”
Neri slows down.
“...What? Do you have an idea on how to beat the remaining sixteen specters?”
“Not a clue.”
“Then we need to keep going.”
“Girl-”
He stops himself. Recomposing himself, he lets out an exaggerated sigh.
“Neri, listen to me very closely.”
“Yes?”
“Being a good detective is not about solving the case fast.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s about solving it when it needs to be solved. To be good ––– no, to be the best detective, you’ll have to not block out those emotions you are feeling. You can’t get overwhelmed, you know that, but it seems like you are putting emotions off to the side. Don’t do that. Use them and I mean that not in a generic way, I mean that in a very littoral way. Each of those separate emotions, should be capable of solving a case on its own. Together, they should be unstoppable.”
He pauses. Looking over the girls unmoving face, he places his hand over his mouth, contemplating something for a moment.
“That might be a bit much to take in right now. Instead of focusing on everything, simply just focus on the worst-case scenario.”
“The worst scenario?”
Neri thinks about it. When she does, an image of Quinn as he was laying on the floor comes to mind. That image then multiples itself by sixteen. “Sixteen people could die, each could have a dozen problems, with each solution its own complex system.”
Without even having a specific problem to think about, her mind shifts up a gear. Her brain fires off as fast as it ever has. Her entire focus isn’t on any problem in particular, but the concept of problem solving itself. Her eyes ignite.
“MH!”
Lucifer jumps back.
“h-Ho?!”
Neri turns down the street.
“Come on, we have some problems to solve.”
Lucifer watches as the girl starts to take off. Unable to help himself, a big smile spreads across his face.
“She even has your eyes.”
Lucifer catches up with Neri. Getting to high ground, Neri looks out over the town. She then gets on the phone with Quinn.
“Listen to everything I have to say very carefully.”
“Okay.”
“I’m going to tell you where to go. Put me on camera mode and point me towards the problems, while describing them. Then do as instructed.”
“Alright.”
Quinn says somewhat hesitantly. Doing as instructed, after running across the first specter, the problem is solved rapidly.
“That’s a stock-broker, with a career problem specter.”
“How-?”
“I’ll text you exactly what to tell him. After that, I’ll send you five locations, along with the specters that will be they’re and the solutions to them.”
“w-Wait-”
“Do you need more instruction?”
“...No.”
“Okay.”
Neri hangs up.
“We will handle ten, in ten hours.”
“Theirs more time left then that.”
She turns to Lucifer.
“And?”
“Nothing.”
They head onto the next specter’s location.
Eight hours later, Quinn finishes off the last of the detailed specters.
“Phew.”
“...Unbelievable. Did she go around locating these specters figuring out solutions for them?”
“I don’t know.”
“How did she know where they would go?”
“...I don’t know.”
“Oh, she might be a fortune teller as well.”
“Maybe it’s something like that.”
Quinn starts walking.
“Where are we headed to?”
“Neri.”
“You know where she is?”
“I know where someone is.”
“...Oh, the invisible, ghost, spirit, god king, thing, person... Can I ask about that now?”
“Mhh, I don’t think we are supposed to tell civilians to much information.”
She seems somewhat down.
“...But maybe just a little, wouldn’t hurt.”
She brightens back up.
“Yippee.”
Quinn spots Lucifer, then turns his attention over to where he is looking. Eventually, he spots Neri as well. She is talking with someone who has a specter. As they make their way over, the specter disappears. Neri turns around, seeing Quinn.
“Oh, hey.”
Quinn gives the girl a surprised, then worried look.
“w-What happened?”
“Hm?”
Her skin is pale and there are deep bags under her eyes. Though, the thing that catches the boys attention the most, is her eyes. “What’s going on? Why are her eyes glowing like that?”
Quinn makes his way closer to her.
“Are you feeling fine?”
“I’m better than ever!”
She slams her hand down onto her flexing bicep.
“Only – two ––– left...”
Neri collapses forward. Quinn narrowly catches her in his arms.
“Are you okay?”
“She ran out of stamina hours ago.”
Lucifer states. Quinn looks at the man, pissed.
“What happened?”
“This has nothing to do with me, it’s her own ability.”
Neri slowly re-opens her eyes. They are no longer glowing.
“What do you mean?”
She asks in a soft voice.
“A particular person called it the zone.”
“The zone?”
Neri asks.
“It’s a bit different then the zone you might be used to. Well, actually it also is very similar. Basically, your brain is simply operating at a higher level then most people can achieve. The amount of calculations you are able to do, matches that of a super computer. At least, that is how it operates to my understanding.”
“...The brain takes calories to operate.”
“You are physically in good shape, but compared to someone like Quinn, who has a body beyond human limitations, well, it’s not really the same.”
“...I see...”
She seems down by the news. Then she perks back up. Quinn helps her to stand on her own.
“That means, I’ve finally got a power of my own.”
She gives a confident smile.
“If you want to title it as such, sure.”
“Alright, I just
need to turn it back on and finish off the last two specters.”
“That isn’t-”
She immediately attempts to re-enter the zone, causing her legs to give out, once again having Quinn grab her.
“-A good idea.”
“w-Why?”
“You already pushed so far beyond your current limits, even just entering back into it, would cause major damage.”
“Okay...”
She looks down solemnly.
“It’s just two more.”
Quinn says. She looks up at him.
“I can handle two more.”
“But-”
“This is what I am here for. You’ve already handled almost everyone up to this point. In fact, I haven’t really taken on a single one of these specters yet. I’ll handle these last.”
“Okay.”
Quinn gives the girl a reassuring nod.
“Just let me catch you, when your about to fall. That’s all I need to do, after all.”
Neri looks at Quinn, slightly surprised at first, but then her expression shifts into one of contentment. She gives a nod.
“Mh-hmm.”
“Molly, would you sit with her, maybe get her something to drink.”
“Of course, but don’t you-?”
After guiding Neri to a bench, Quinn extends his hand out to the medium.
“The last two cards.”
“Got it.”
She hands him the cards.
“Good luck.”
He nods his head.
“Take care of her.”
“Of course I will.”
Quinn takes off with Lucifer in tow. Neri sits on the bench, feeling a numbness all over.
“Here you go!”
Molly hands her some water.
“Thanks.”
She chugs the whole thing down instantly.
“Uhh, more?”
“Calories, food.”
“Okay.”
Molly heads off to get food.
“My oh my, you look terrible Neri.”
Neri picks her head up, seeing Fortuna standing in front of her.
“Worried?”