Chapter Text
A lone soul stands in a grim scenery, “I… I can’t...” it whispers quietly.
Slowly it walks forth, the sound of flowing water almost entirely silencing his voice.
“I cannot… let this go on…” the figure takes a few more steps, now waist deep in the water, thinking is only getting harder and harder.
“I… I have to… find a way…” it mutters, “I cannot bear eternity any longer.” The figure finally utters before collapsing into the waters.
Unfortunately for this poor soul, the devil is in the details, thus:
Onto the inferno the unrepented was cast… to find another outcome for the damned and for itself… for the better or worse…
---
The bus was quiet as the sinners were headed for a specific location in district 4. Dante was still trying to wrap their head around their sudden employment and having to order sinners to essentially commit murder. They didn’t even want to begin to ponder what was going on with the bus and its ability to pull ‘mirror-world’ version of the sinners (although to their chagrin, most of them are from this world).
“Mephi hungry.” Charon said.
Vergilius grumbles “Everyone, of the bus.” he ordered to the rest of the bus.
While the sinners were dispatching the rats without much trouble, Dante took a look at the PDA to check how they were doing in terms of resources. A few shard crates, an enkephalin box, a few modules, oh? 1300 lunacy? You know what that means.
While the sinners were chucking the poor rats in the jaws of the bus, Dante went to the extraction to see if they’d be any lucky.
“Dante Dante!” exclaimed Rodion. “you’re doing a 10-pull?” she asks with a head-tilt.
<You mean a decaextraction?> she nods <Then yes, we have enough and… I’m feeling rather lucky>
Dante inserts the required lunacy, taking a moment to notice the sinners having started to conglomerate around him before pressing a button with the word ‘EXTRACT’ written on it with bold letters.
The ball of chains is revealed and at first, it seems to just be a red one, earning a groan from the crowd of onlookers. Dante reaches out to grab it, and upon contact, the chain rapidly switches to a deep blue color. Before they have time to wonder what that means (maybe a 4 star?) they instead more-so out of habit start of with the grey ones 7 of them to be precise. They then pulls the 2 reds, W-Corp Meursault and Cinq Outis, they would have to see how they hold up, for now there remains the big mystery. Before pulling it, they decide to ask the sinners about it.
<Hey! Who do you think this one is going to be for?>
“I dunno, feeling pretty lucky today so reckon its gonna be me” said Heathcliff.
“Nay, I say it should go onto sir Gregor!” said Don Quixote as energetic as ever.
“Statistical probability would imply that the identity is one for Gregor, However the extraction system seems to be entirely random” states Meursault.
“Aww, there goes my easy bet.. Hey Fau! Who do you think it’s gonna be?” asks Rodion
Faust takes a moment to answer before speaking.
“That is not an Identity.” She speaks.
“Then is it an EGO?” attempts Sinclair.
“No.” Faust answers plainly to which Sinclair looks down. “Dante if you would, Faust wishes to test something.”
<Oh yeah right! My bad..> Dante ticks before grabbing a hold of the blue chains, upon which a flash appears before them, not unlike those of 3-star IDs. However, instead of the crest of a sinner, a brand new crest appears before them. [what appears to be a small shield emitting smokes and chains] Words start echoing in their head.
~~~
“So, answer me, knowing the risk in our line of work. Why do you still wish to participate?”
“I… I want to help others… even if it means throwing myself into danger.”
“Very well, welcome aboard #######. Head through there to start your training.”
~~~
Dante snaps out of the vision to notice they were holding onto the wrist of a figure who was now laying on the ground, face into the dirt.
<GAAH!... Who is that?!> Dante screeches before letting go of the wrist and taking a step back.
“Chill there, manager bud. The guy’s passed out. Plus,” Gregor points with his chin to the figure right hand “Doubt he can do much with that chunk of metal tied to his hand.” He continued while taking a cursory glance at his own right ‘hand’.
“The chunk of metal appears to be a buckler,” Meursault began explaining. “A small shield-like tool that was used in duels before the popularization of reaction speed implants. The presence of chains tying it to the person indicate either a fear of losing it, or that it was a punishment of another party” Meursault concludes.
“DUELS? Does thou think this individual might be a fixer from the Cinq?” Don Quixote asks, barely able to stand in place.
“Silence!” Outis bellows. “Executive manager, the situation as it stands is that we have a potentially dangerous individual, currently unconscious in our presence.” Outis states, before she can continue, Sinclair screams.
“HE’S WAKING UP! MAN-mmph!” Sinclair tries to call, only to be stopped by Rodion holding his mouth shut.
“Come on Sinc~ nobody likes to wake up to the sounds of screams.” Rodion tries to lighten the mood before we hear a groan from the other side.
---
‘Oooh boy, that wasn’t a nice nap. What the fuck happened? Was I Drunk? Everything feels hazy at best. Wait, this ain’t home! Come on, I gotta recall something, anything... Do I even know my name? I think it’s something along the lines of…’
<Evander?>
‘What? Who’s that? I heard a voice coming from my mind, have I finally lost it?’ I start standing up and turn towards what sounds like a clock to check the time, only to find that said clock as hands, legs and a body. Wait a god damn minute.
“H-Hello?” I try; please don’t tell me this is what I think it is…
<Is that your name? sorry, that’s what it says on this…> said the clock while holding what looked like a employee tag.
Oh, oh no. I don’t want to be here. “Dante, please tell me you have a way to send me back.” I feel like I already knew the answer but I’d love to be proven wrong.
<You know who I am?> Dante asks visibly surprised to some extent. Maybe not my best move.
“I asked first, I think it’s clear to both of us I’m not supposed to be here.” I answer, desperately hoping that the next thing they’d say would go along the lines of ‘Oh sorry, we’ll send you home straight away’ or something like that.
<Right, right… Faust?> Dante asks. To which Faust says something I can only make out to be German, knew I should’ve listened more in high school.
<Oh, they asked if we can send them back.> Dante answers, seems like the misunderstanding is both ways.
Faust speaks for a while before taking an analytic look at me and the buckler on my right hand (since when did that got here. I know I used one when… when did I use one?) before heading inside Mephistopheles.
“Sooooo…” I try.
<ok I know it sounds bad,> oooh boy, <but we don’t really know how you got here in the first place, so to send you back, it would take time.> perfect, just perfect.
“At least it can’t get any worse than this right.” I try to joke while attempting to remove the chains on the buckler before a stinging feeling wards me off from further attempts.
« Il semblerait que mon hypothèse était correcte. » says Meursault, at least that I do understand.
“well, now what?” I ask Dante. Before they can answer Faust comes back holding a paper and a pen and hands them to me before saying something to Dante.
<Ok, so Faust says given your circumstances, you’ll become a temporary employee of Limbus Company until we can find a way to send you back.> Dante says before pointing to the paper. <She says this should also allow you to understand the sinners too.> that’s useful, how does that work, don’t ask me! It’s a world where you can’t go 12 seconds before meeting horrors beyond your comprehension and have to fight the flood if you stay late out at night.
I go to sign the paper before realizing that every sinner as some meaning behind their signature, ‘Oh I know! ‘Malchance’, there now that should do the tri-‘ I don’t have the time to finish my thought before a sharp pain makes me stagger before going away. Looking closer, you could see a barely visible chain leading to Dante. Looks pretty cool, a tad worrying too.
“So, he should understand us now, right?” Ishmael speaks in clear English.
“Yes, the contract Faust has given him grants innate understanding of the common language.” Faust answers. “Given his reaction, he seems to understand us now.” She says, pointing out my confused look.
“OOH, sir Evander, do you happen to be a fixer of the Cinq?” Don Quixote comes hurtling before stopping a few inches away from me.
“Yesn’t? I definitely did some similar things but not ‘officially’ let’s say.” I give a non-answer.
“What do you mean?” she asks confused.
“That means the bloke was a criminal that’s what that means.” I hear Heathcliff shout off the distance.
“a criminal?” Don asks while tightening her grip on her spear, uh oh.
“N-no, I simply wasn’t really allowed to do what I was doing.” I try to weasel my way out.
“that’s called a criminal.” Interjects Rodion with a sly grin, visibly enjoying the situation.
“you’re telling me that you would let the law stop you even if others were suffering?” I ask not thinking about my words.
She looks at me with a downcast look before walking away, the fake smile back where it should be.
Maybe I shouldn’t have said that-
<Sooo, now that you got your answer…> uh oh. <how do you know my name?>
“It depends, want the long answer or the short answer?” I ask with a bit of luck…
<the short one please.> YES.
“its written on your uniform.” There, safe and sound for now-
<Oh, right, and the long answer then?> bollocks.
“So, where I’m from, first off, there’s no city.” Ignoring the shocked gasp and Faust’s poker face I continue. “Second, the tale of Limbus Company is a video game, so I kind of know what your deal is up to a certain point.” Ignoring Faust now shooting me a glare I continue. “And third, all of you have a ‘book’ or ‘source material’ counterpart by which you were inspired, yours being ‘Dante Alighieri’ from ‘the Divine Comedy’ or more precisely ‘Dante’s Inferno’.” I conclude. “Any questions?”
I see a few hands raised up before quickly being put back down. Now that I notice, every sinner somewhat quieted down. I hear a cough from behind me.
“Dante, we are still supposed to be heading for our destination.” I hear Vergilius say in a low voice.
“Everyone get on the bus before I make you.” He says to which the sinners somewhat hurriedly shuffle inside. I turn to follow only to be face to face with Vergilius.
“You.” He begins while glaring at me.
“M-me?” I answer while swallowing a gulp.
“What do you know of the library?” he demands more-so than ask.
“Quite a lot I’d say.” I answer while straightening my posture.
He looks away before saying, “we’ll discuss this at a later date.” Before stepping into the bus while signing me to follow.
Stepping on board, I notice that most seats are already taken (duh) so I have to do the worst thing known to man.
“’scuse me.” I begin while facing Sinclair, “mind moving a bit to the side please?” I ask while trying to not be awkward.
“O-oh yeah sure… sorry…” he says while moving a bit to the left.
“Thank you.” I say while taking my seat.
Not gonna lie, not how I expected my day to go, but hey, at least I may be able to gain some work experience, sure, said ‘work experience’ will probably include human suffering, but that’s still something I can put on my resume.
“Oh by the way,” I might as well ask, “where exactly are we heading?”
“We’re on our way to regroup with our guide for the L-Corp Branch.” Faust answers in a bored tone.
So right at the beginning, cool at least I won’t be under-leveled I guess, does that even apply here?
Suddenly, my train of thought comes to a halt as I remember a crucial detail, Yuri. When I started this game, I thought of at least a couple of dozen ways for the mission to go better, time to put them to use I guess.