The Voyager Association

Ciel stood in a room full of desks.

Well, they weren't really desks. They were more like floating disks with counters wrapping around the edges.

The room resembled a nightclub, with purple overhead lighting and each floating disk having blue lights running underneath the bottom. The room was silent other than the music that pumped through, but it wasn't empty.

Around each disk stood a person on the inside speaking to either one or more people standing around them. However, there were barriers surrounding each disk, silencing the voices from escaping. Ciel could only walk around.

She'd been celebrating with her team after winning the event -- something they all took credit for but was entirely done by Ash -- when Ciel was ejected from her pod.

It was traumatizing.

A giant abyss had come out of nowhere and sucked her into it -- something that was becoming a common theme. Next thing she knew the fairy that had greeted her was looking at her in disappointment. And then she was physically repelled from her pod, crashing to the floor. In the end, she'd closed the pod neatly and checked her messages.

Leonard had told her that he couldn't make it over to the Virtual World for the time being and when she was done to come to the Information Center where he'd be waiting.

And that was how she'd ended up here.

Making her way through the room, on the far end, she could make out a disk that had something of a bar set up. A circular rack was placed inside the disk, and in it were bottles of different sizes and colors. The rack also created something of a secret room behind all the glass bottles. But she wasn't interested in that; what Ciel was interested in was the man with the alligator head standing inside.

Walking over, Ciel waved from the other side of the barrier. A message popped up on her dashboard.

"It's open, you can just walk through."

As Ciel walked through, she realized that Leonard's previously tidy appearance had changed. There were burns on the cuffs of his shirt and his clothes had grown wrinkled.

"Hello Ciel, so we finally meet in person," Leonard said with his toothy grin. "Welcome to the Voyager Association checkpoint."

The Voyager Association, Blaine's words rung through her mind.

But Ciel didn't think too much when she took a seat. She'd already come to the conclusion that Leonard's identity wasn't simple when he could check her citizenship information so easily, and him being able to take her into the Technoid Shop had only reaffirmed this.

"Why did you really decide to become my tour guide?" Ciel asked.

Leonard didn't answer her immediately. Instead, he took out a can and poured it into a wine glass. Then, he handed it to her.

"Here, have my special, I call it An Apple Delight."

Ciel took a sip. She had a feeling that if this man intended to harm her she'd long be dead. And she was right, what he'd given her was just apple juice. She gave him a weird look, which he decidedly ignored.

"In the beginning, I was just curious about your citizenship status. That's why I showed you around at first. But then I remembered that the killing intent even my holographic form had was much stronger than any normal citizen could first undergo. Especially a ten-year-old girl who'd just entered the Community Center. But contrary to my beliefs you actually just thought I was suspicious," he laughed, "that's not something that happens often.

So I took you to the Arena and turned off all settings limiting killing intent; rather, I increased it, and you didn't even notice! You didn't notice the killing intent in the Technoid Shop either.

But the most interesting, was that when you met the fairy in the Virtual World, they classified you as an S-level customer since I was next to you. You should've been throwing money, but instead you just barely felt the itch for it."

Leonard poured himself a cup of Vodka, "So I have a proposal to make you.

Since your citizenship status is incredibly suspicious, I recommend that you become a Void."

"A Void?"

"Yes. Not many people know why Voids are named what they're named, but there's a reason. When you become a Void, your citizenship in any and all places you hold status immediately becomes void. You don't exist. But what you do exist for is missions.

Based on the mission assigned you'll gain an identity, of which you may do whatever you please as long as you complete the mission assigned for it. That's why when you become a Void you also have to complete a trial mission. It's to give you a default identity. It's also why many celebrities are also Voids. They can gain citizenship wherever they want to and do their dirty business as any Joe in the street. All in all, being a Void is a very lucrative business.

And it seems to be necessary for you if you want to continue surviving here. I don't know who put in your information, but they only put in the basics. I can edit it, but not to a believable extent. You pretty much just spawned into existence."

He'd raised a good point. Effectively, Ciel didn't exist and hadn't for the last ten years. And if Ciel didn't exist, how could she continue to exist? She would probably be considered a spy at best. But a question nagged in the back of her mind.

"And why do you want to help me?" Ciel asked.

Leonard didn't hesitate, "Because I think you're quite interesting. I'm interested in what you'll do with your time here." He wasn't forcing her to become on if she didn't want to.

Ciel raised the pros and cons. On one hand, becoming a Void risked losing her life -- something she'd only just gotten back -- but on the other, if she said no to this offer, would she really be living? Would she even be allowed to live?

She'd made her decision.

"Alright, what do I need to do."

----

Becoming a Void wasn't an easy task. It in itself was practically a get-rich-quick scheme. Money and power through the use of identities; the possibilities were practically endless.

Another consideration was that Ciel was currently a minor. This could make things easier or harder for her. She wouldn't have to get in the way adults did -- by beating the Voyager Manager at her nearest community center; which, Ciel found out, was the reason for Leonard's new collection of burnt clothes -- but she would have to compete with other kids her age.

She wasn't facing just one; no, she was facing all of them.

"To be eligible to become a Void as a minor you will have to attend a school that is in partnership with the Voyager Association and register as an Ante, which is someone who specializes in the use of Technoids. Unfortunately for you, there are currently only three in the galaxy. And since we only partner with the best, that'll be a challenge."

"Is becoming an Ante a popular profession?"

"It's been rated the most popular for the last five years."

Ciel felt her hopes fall.

"One of the schools is specifically for Antes, the other is a military feeder school, and the last goes for more of an open reign on whatever you want to do. Ante is just an option. These three, and one specifically for rich kids -- which of you are not, are the only schools that allow for a student to become an Ante. This is because everyone wants to be one but other jobs must get done. The welfare of this country rests on the variety of jobs for the people, after all."

"I'll have to go with the last because I want to learn magical engineering," Ciel said. She'd lived for mechanics in the past, and if she had to become an Ante to survive, becoming a mechanic was necessary to fulfill her will to pull through.

If she didn't have mechanics, why would she need to survive?

"Alright, well that's the top school in the Galaxy," Leonard said. "Now we're at the part where we have to get you in."

The Virtual World wasn't known as a necessary part of every Galactic Citizen's life for no reason. Its scope was practically endless. If you wanted to fight, they'd make it happen, and if you wanted to learn the history of the last one thousand years, they could make that happen too.

Ciel had enough trust in her intelligence; she would've ended up in the hands of researchers or enemy forces in her past life if she hadn't. On top of that, over the years, in order to delay her descent to total mania, she'd adapted her mental state as well. In the end, she hadn't managed to catch up, but if she wanted to beat a bunch of ten-year-olds in an intelligence competition she wouldn't be at a disadvantage. It could be said that her knowledge foundation was extensive.

But at the mention of the Virtual World, a familiar fairy floated into the back of her mind, and her wallet felt particularly empty.

"I can't currently afford the trial fee," Ciel told Leonard.

After giving her a look that said "no shit, Sherlock," he turned around and walked into the secret room behind the alcohol set. When he returned, he held a stack of paper in his hands. He placed them down in front of her.

"As it so happens, the Voyager Association doesn't only work for Voids. It's also a place where people can send us odd jobs for the general public to take on. Why don't you flip through these and see if any seem suitable. If there aren't any, you can go to the general job search, but I'd take a look at these first since you can get a lot more benefits doing these than most other jobs."

Ciel flipped through the pages.

Most jobs offered required having the person who accepted them have some knowledge of magic circuits, but as Ciel hadn't been alive when magic circuits were created, she couldn't accept them. As Ciel began to lose hope, her hand paused.

The job offered on the document was also mechanical, but instead of someone who had knowledge of magic circuits, it asked for someone who had knowledge of ancient circuitry and wiring. They needed an assistant to help create something that could work with or without magic for a client.

"Oh I know him," Leonard said, peering over the document in Ciel's hand, "he's been looking for someone who knows something about ancient wiring for a while now, so if you know anything I'd recommend going with him. You'd be able to negotiate for practically anything."

Ciel nodded.

"I don't have much knowledge of magic circuitry, but I do know a thing or two about ancient mechanics."

"Alright, I'll give him a call."