The Metropolis Series #2: Quinn Beyond Bounds

IT TOOK A WRAPPED slice of banana bread to bring me back to my senses. It came landing on our table with an ungraceful thud!

“You know what you need, Julio?” Ms. Louise asked. It felt like she had just materialized out of thin air to deliver Julio’s takeout. “You need an outlet, something to do besides defending the city and fighting monsters and pining over Rachael.”

Julio chuckled bitterly. “You guys, I’m fine.” He smiled, but it looked forced.

Ms. Louise shook her head. “You don’t look like it.”

“They’re right, Julio,” I added. “Looks like you’ve been through a lot. You can’t keep carrying all this weight on your own.”

To be honest, I didn’t know what I specifically meant by that: his sworn duty to protect the Metropolis or the despair he was feeling over Rachael. I didn’t think that neither Ms. Louise nor Takahiro—nor even I—fully understood what he was going through.

“I’ll be waiting in the car,” Julio then said. He didn’t direct it to anyone specifically, but I knew that he was trying to tell me that the conversation was over. He got up and marched out the door, the little wrapped banana cake dangling limply from his hand.

Ms. Louise sighed, her eyes following Julio as he walked away. “Well, that went well.”

“He looks pretty wrecked,” Takahiro said.

“And there goes some wasted talent…” She then added mournfully. “Did you know that Julio wrote poetry?”

“Poetry?” I mused.

Meanwhile, Takahiro was trying his best not to laugh. He slapped a hand over his mouth, snorting.

Ms. Louise glared at him. “What’s so funny, young man?”

The boy cleared his throat. “Nothing”—he chuckled—“nothing at all. Julio just looks… so…”

Ms. Louise groaned. “Tough and scary? At best, he just acts like it. He may not look like the type who’d like poetry, but he loves it. In fact, the boy’s a genius! He’s better off with a pen than a sword if you ask me.”

I glanced out the window to see that Julio had just climbed into his run-down car. “Yeah, you’re right,” I then told Ms. Louise.

The barista had been staring out the window, too, her gaze distant yet focused. “Anyway,” she then said, breaking from what seemed like a trance. “I hope you have much more luck talking sense into that guy. I need to get back to work.”

“Sure,” I said. “Thanks, Ms. Louise.”

“No problem.” She then went back to the front counter.

Little did I realize that Takahiro was giving me a look like there was something odd about me—something that he realized was a little out of place.

“You’re different for a main character,” he said.

I gulped. “What do you mean?”

“You seem to know a lot about the Metropolis, and yet, you don’t seem so shaken by it. Why is that?”

And there, he had finally asked the big question. Of course, Julio had introduced me to Ms. Louise as one of them, so she didn’t present any doubts. As for Takahiro, it was the exact opposite. He had read Harumi’s diary. I had confessed to being Cassandra’s replacement. In all honesty, I was quite surprised by how quickly he accepted me.

“I honestly don’t know,” I admitted, taking the last bite out of my sandwich. “Julio didn’t know who I was when we met. He was even prepared to throw me into the Lethe if I got corrupted.”

Takahiro flinched. “Yikes.”

I sighed. “I know.”

Takahiro pursed his lips, eyeing my cup of hot chocolate. “May I have some of that?”

I blinked. “Oh, sure.”

I passed him the cup—and he finished the entire thing.

“With you being Cassandra’s replacement,” he said, putting down the empty cup (sad), “that would ultimately make you guys the same person, but it still doesn’t make sense. We don’t know what makes Cassandra so powerful. Also, your roommate shared information about the Metropolis with you, didn’t she?”

I nodded. “She did.”

“Why would she give it to you so freely, then?”

That was something I had never realized until that very day, which made me feel kind of stupid. If Harumi knew that information about the Metropolis would corrupt me, then why did she tell me about it in the first place? Props to Takahiro for that one.

“Anyway, our answers are probably in this bad boy right here,” he then said, tapping on Harumi’s notebook. “Now, I’m gonna need you to observe this Harumi for me, tell me if anything strange has been happening.”

I sighed. “I wish I could do that, but I can’t.” I began to lower my voice, looking around warily for any eavesdroppers. I didn’t know why, but it felt necessary. “Harumi’s been missing for about two days now. She said that she was going on an outing with her mom, and—”

Takahiro’s face grew pale. “A mom? None of us have a mom…”

I raised a brow. “What?”

“I mean—logically, we do have one, but as far as I know, the Author would most likely never materialize any of our immediate relatives. You may hear about them, but you never see them at all. I’m sure you’ve encountered characters like that before.”

I nodded. “Yes. Many times.”

“They’re utilized to advance the plot, aren’t they? But Yukine… Harumi… whoever she is, she isn’t even part of it anymore. I think she’s lying to you, Quinn, and it seems like she may have other plans that she doesn’t want anyone to know about. We need to find her…”