12 Jaime and Spark

On the ground, Linri was comforting Jaime. He was patting her head while saying calming words to her.

"There, there. It's all right. Just let it all out." Even though Linri was trying to calm her down his heart was beating furiously. He was almost killed by the person who he was trying to find and possibly help. Remembering about it gave him goosebumps all over again. Damn! Even a newly transmigrated person with no fighting experience and whatsoever could easily kill him. This realisation really hit him hard. I mean he knew that he was weak but he did not think he was THIS weak!

After about 5 minutes Jaime finally calmed down and let go of him. Her eyes were still reddish almost as if she could start crying any time.

"Calmed down finally?"

Linri was looking at the girl in front of her. She had long silver hair and green almond eyes. She was wearing a hoodie, a black skirt and striped stockings. There were headphones around her neck. Now that he looked at her carefully he could see that she was quite cute but that was not out of his own expectations. Almost every character he met in the game was described as either handsome or beautiful aside from some special cases. Again who would want to play as an ugly person if it was not the concept of the character? I mean Linri could even name monsters that were more beautiful than Angelina Jolie. Actually, now that he thought about it there was even a frankenstein type girl who was hot as hell.

"Yes" answered Jaime meekly. Oh right, he still needed to deal with Spark. This was not the time for thinking about hot girls... although?

"Oh right! Good, so is there anything you want to say?"

"I'm sorry" She apologised meekly. She looked so darn cute but he was definitely going to bully her later. He could not help it. He was a REALLY petty person.

"I was not asking you to apologise. I was asking you to elaborate on your situation. Why are you here? Haven't you said that Jaime was some kind of prodigy detective? So what's with this shit hole?"

"I don't know" Jaime answered meekly again.

Seeing her confused look Linri could tell that she really didn't know anything about this.

"Anyway I see some chairs and a desk let's sit down there and talk. I feel very uncomfortable sitting here" Linri changed the subject. He didn't wanna force her to speak when she seemed like she could cry any minute now.

Linri sat on the chair in front of the table while Jaime sat on the one opposite to him. If it was a normal situation it would look like Linri came here to hire her. He had to admit she really gave a Sherlock Holmes-like vibe the only thing she was missing was a Watson... oh right! I guess Brie was her Watson.

"Soooo, I always wanted to ask you why does Jaime wear headphones? She doesn't seem like the type to listen to music?" Linri knew the reason why but he asked for it anyway. The reason why Jaime always wore headphones was classic music had a calming effect on her and it would help her think more clearly in cases she had trouble solving. Since he found out that running helped him think more clearly maybe listening to music could help Spark calm down. He was also trying to confirm whether they were affected by the characters they became now or was it just a placebo effect it had on himself.

"Oh, it relaxes her and helpful in thinking" said Jaime.

"So have you tried listening to it yet?"

"Of course not! How could I? Everything is crazy and I don't know what's going on! Who would want to listen to music in a situation like this?" Jaime was starting to panic again. I guess it was time to confirm one of his hypothesis.

"You should try listening to it. I heard that classical music can help people relax. I can see that you are still jumpy so why not try it? I mean even If it does not work what do you have to lose and if it does it would be even better and you can tell me your side of the story with a calm mind"

Jaime hesitated a little but eventually said okay and put on the headphones and closed her eyes. Linri could see her visibly relaxing like a great burden was taken off of her shoulders. While she was listening to music, Linri got up and checked around the office. Compared to outside, it looked a lot better and there wasn't that disgusting smell around. Still, the place looked like it could collapse at any minute now.

He did not see any kind of pictures or posters on the wall. There was a door to his left, Linri assumed it was leading to her bedroom but Linri did not see anything else. There was not any kind of bathroom or a kitchen. The bedroom might have a bathroom inside it but there was no way that there could be a kitchen too. Linri wondered if she had eaten anything yet or if she was hungry.

Jaime suddenly spoke and pulled Linri out of his trance.

"Wow, you were right! Listening to music really helped. I wonder why I didn't think of this before. Now that I did, it seemed like such a simple thing"

"Well then. Now that your murdering tendencies are gone how about you start telling me what happened? I can roughly guess but I wanna hear from your mouth." Linri asked in a joking manner.

When Linri mentioned her attack she turned red. It seemed like she was embarrassed over what happened. Well, that showed that at least she had a conscience.

"You remember the PM I sent you right? I received similar replies from Gendor and the others. That was when the audio file appeared in the forum. I listened to it and I remember feeling like my head was about to split. Then I was suddenly in a dark space. I kept falling for god knows how long before suddenly crashing to the ground. I saw Jaime and the other 7 from the pictures. I tried to talk but there was no sound. Then Jaime came and stabbed me through my heart. When I woke up again I was already here, inside this body."

Her experience was almost identical to what Linri been through aside from some minor details. That was when he caught onto a fact.

"Wait? Only 8 people? Wasn't there a 9th person in there?" This was the most important question. Linri remembered seeing a 9th person but he couldn't remember his face. He was 90% sure that if they wanted to return he was the key to all this. Does that mean there was a 9th transmigrator outside or was it the person who orchestrated all this?

"No? I don't remember any 9th person. So why are you here Kasaix? Is there also others who came? Do you know how we can return?" Linri could see some hope in Spark's eyes. Like he was the person who could answer all her questions and magically send her home.

"Well, since you are also here that means there are 6 other people who came here besides us. Also, I am sorry, but I don't know the way back. Just like you, I also went through the same experience aside from some slight differences. I thought that there might be others that came here because Linri said that 'They were not going to be our toys but we will be their toys' since he talked plural and there were 7 other guys I decided to check it out. You were the closest and here we are" Linri explained slowly.

When she heard that he did not know how they could return she was disappointed but there was nothing she could do.

"You know that you are weird right? How can you think all that stuff? I was shaken by what happened and couldn't even leave this room but here you are already trying to find others. How can you be so calm?" Jaime was surprised by the question she asked. Why did she want to know that? Wasn't already good enough that she learnt that she was not alone?

Just like her Linri was also surprised by the question. Now that he thought about it the things he did seemed especially weird. At the morning when he woke up he was shaken but it didn't take him long to get over it. Even though he knew there might be others that came together with him he didn't immediately search for them. The first thought he had was to get a weapon. These were not normal actions. It hadn't even been a day but he already seemed to accept that he could not return so he didn't even try to search for a way back. I mean yeah when he was a child his father taught him some stuff to deal with unknown situations just like any parent would but he was kinda awesome wasn't he?

"Well I think I know the answer but are you certain you want to know too? I am not sure how you are gonna handle that. Also just to remind you this might not necessarily be the truth and I might just be weird you know?" Linri didn't want to answer her outright and tried to see her reactions first. He asked the question in a joking way to stop her from getting nervous again.

"Yeah sure. I mean what's the worst that could happen right?" There was not a shred of hesitation in her voice when she answered.

"You see, if my hypothesis is right we might have a problem but it also might not be a problem per se. You remember I asked you to listen to music right? I mean it was like five minutes ago so you definitely remember anyway not to point. So I noticed this in the morning. I think there might be a possibility of us being affected by the personality of the bodies we possess right now. You are Jaime so you can relax by listening to music. The same applies to me. One of the character traits I gave Linri was that being always calm and collected when he was in a dangerous situation or he did not know what's going on. This was what my father thought to me IRL, I mean I can't say that I am always this calm IRL but I guess it worked better since I put it in his personality. I also think that we will slowly be assimilated by their personalities. The worst part is we won't even notice this. It will just feel natural " Hearing his answer Jaime was horrified.

What Linri told her was akin to getting brainwashed slowly, the worst part was he said they will slowly be assimilated and they won't even notice it. Even thinking about it left her shaken. I mean could she confidently say that the person she was now was Alina or was she, Jaime?