The white haired woman sat in front of Marcus, confidently grinning as the four had now gathered around the conference table.
"So? What strategy have you come up with this time?"
Her words were contagious, and her snide attitude quickly spread to the businessman who sat at the head, at which he merely laughed to himself.
"You overestimate me, Eclaire."
Pushing off her assertion, the man waved off her question.
"I'm not the mastermind you believe me to be. I myself am struggling just to find out the scenario around me."
"Do you really think that?"
Closing her eyes, the woman leaned forward as she gazed into the eyes of the man.
"I've witnessed plots that even you yourself have no memory of."
"What do you mean by that?"
Sylvia spoke up at this assertion, to which Eclaire merely chuckled.
"Haha... you should know my ability, shouldn't you? Ah... no, I suppose only Marcus knows. Marcus, let me let you in on something. Something that will only make sense to you, since you understand my ability."
With strange words, Sylvia could do no more than listen as the woman implied things that she couldn't possibly understand.
"You've met me before."
At this statement, Marcus' eyes went wide, to which he immediately fell into thought.
"I've... met you before... oh... is that so? So you're telling me that even before we attacked this place..."
"That's right."
Nodding her head, Eclaire looked at the man with a sinister grin.
"I was on your side even before you ever knew me."
"I see... that does make sense. Haha... I have to hand it to myself... I didn't know that I was able to pull off such a thing."
Nodding quietly, the man then focused his attention on the board in front of him.
"Then, your abilities will certainly be useful in this next battle. Sylvia. I was going to keep all of the abilities to myself in an attempt to minimize security breaches, but I believe it's time to change up that strategy. It is necessary that you understand everything as well."
With these words, the man looked to Eclaire, who nodded in acceptance of this decision.
"I see. So you are going to let her in on it. Very well. I'll tell you my ability."
Suddenly, the woman's expression became bitter, and she said the name of her ability with a pained tone.
"Retry."
----
"So... you've seen many universes that haven't come to pass. You've died many times, and you've failed even more times - and yet in all of this, you yourself are completely powerless - except to try again."
Sylvia summarized the ability in a brutal manner, to which Eclaire nodded.
"That's correct."
Motioning for the two to follow her, Eclaire stood up.
"Come with me. I'd like to show you something."
The two looked at her strangely, unable to understand her actions, but they complied with the request of the woman.
Standing up, the three were led out of the conference room, down the halls and over to the executive quarters - more particularly, Eclaire's room.
"You're free to come in. Just don't touch anything."
At her invitation, Eclaire went inside first, followed by the other three who entered to witness a relatively normal room for a high ranked executive.
The furniture was high class, but there was not much personalization. The room was relatively plain.
"Take a look at this mirror. It's not broken, is it?"
Motioning to the mirror above her dresser, Eclaire pointed out the furniture with a sad expression.
"It isn't.", Marcus replied.
"Indeed... in this timeline, it isn't broken. But the amount of times I've smashed this thing to pieces... even I've forgotten."
Removing the mirror from its stand, the woman revealed something horrible.
The wall was tainted in blood and scratch marks - tallies which had been furiously drawn as if made by a madman.
Or in this case, a madwoman.
"What... is this?", Marcus asked.
As he bore witness to the disturbing display, Eclaire could do nothing more than laugh, her wicked giggling piercing the ears of the two.
"Ah.... hahaha... this?"
Caressing her hand over the wall, the woman felt each of the scratch marks, affectionately counting them with a demented grin.
"This is the count... of how many times I've retried."
----
Marcus was unsure how to even respond.
He himself had died more times than he could count on his two hands. And each and every one of them was a horrifying experience unlike anything he could have ever imagined.
He knew well the insanity that death had caused - and this woman had experienced more than 10 times as much death as he had.
'Then, she must be at least 10 times more insane.'
"Eclaire."
Suddenly, Marcus spoke up - a serious tone overcoming his voice.
"Have you died since we took over this place?"
And with this question, the woman cackled to herself.
"Ah... you want to know that, do you?"
Reaching into her drawer, the woman revealed an object - a screwdriver.
Taking the object into her hands, the woman began to underline the most recent 3 sets of tallies - for a total of 15.
"These... these are the deaths that I tried to kill you or one of your subordinates."
"And what did you determine?"
"I determined two things."
Without hiding her own betrayal for a moment, the woman spoke proudly and confidently, not hiding a thing.
For perhaps even this was just an experiment to witness how Marcus would react - one that she could retry at any moment if something went wrong.
"One - there is no way I can possibly go against you - or the monster within you."
And with this bombshell, Marcus clenched his own heart - smiling all the more at the information gathering capabilities that this woman held.
He had been completely read - everything about him was known. His deepest secrets, his most wretched abilities - and particularly - the creature within him.
"Two - I have no need to do so."
However the second item that the woman listed off made Marcus tilt his head in confusion - for surely, he was someone that she should want to remove from this universe.
"Why is that?"
Posing this question to the woman, he was faced with a smile, at which she revealed something that even Seven himself was unaware.
"I wouldn't want to eliminate one of my own kind, now would I?"
The implications of her words froze both Marcus and Sylvia, who stood with wide eyes at these words.
"Nice to meet you, Host Number Seven, and Host Number One. I am Eclaire Armstrong - but you might also refer to me as Host Number Four."
----
[Experiment Number Four... eh?]
'Seven. You never so much as mentioned this. Did you know the entire time?'
[How could I have?]
'Are you not capable of communicating telepathically with the other experiments? Or at least recognizing when someone is hosting an experiment?'
[I am... but this is Number Four we're talking about.]
'Hm? Is there something special about Number Four?'
[Well of course.]
[Number Four, unlike most of us, was not specialized in direct combat.]
[Experiment Number Four was the Spy.]
----
Immediately, the whites of both Marcus and Sylvia's eyes turned black.
The same occurred with Eclaire, and suddenly, three completely different people were standing in that room.
[I told her not to tell anyone about me, and she went ahead and did it.]
[Haha... clumsy as always, Four. But you've certainly picked an interesting host. You've been molding her behind the scenes then?], Seven chuckled.
[What else did you think I was doing? I don't particularly like taking the spotlight, you know. I was hoping to just sit back and watch to see what this one does. Now she's gone and revealed me to you.], Four responded.
[I see. In that case, there are no issues. Incidentally, I believe Two was headed to retrieve Five. That leaves only Six. Do you know where he is?]
Approaching Four with this question, Seven looked intently at her, to which she shrugged her shoulders.
[I haven't heard anything at all about Six. He might be in a different country for all I know. He... well, you know him. He probably is holed up somewhere.]
[Hmm... we'll have to keep an eye out for him. If Five was awake, then perhaps we could establish communication again, but I don't think that will be possible for now. Even communicating among each other without Five is troublesome. We'll have to wait for Two then.]
[You don't have any plans to impede Seven's plan, do you Four?]
Barging in on the conversation, One looked at the white haired woman with a combative tone.
[Not at all. I'll be returning to hiding. I don't really plan on doing anything right now, so I'm going to be taking a passive role.]
[If I do need your services, I'll let you know.]
With this statement, Seven and One retracted, and at the same time, Marcus, Sylvia, and Eclaire all regained their consciousness.
"Ah... they should warn us when they take over like that."
"It's dizzying, isn't it?"
Muttering to themselves, Marcus and Sylvia seemed to nod in agreement.
"So that was Seven and One... I see."
Eclaire seemed to look at the two with a bitter expression.
"You two have been dealing with some difficult parasites, haven't you?"
"Unlike yours, ours like to mess with things quite often. They don't exactly take a passive role.", Sylvia stated.
Noticing that things were getting off topic, Marcus motioned for the others to follow him.
"Let's return to the office, shall we? We have more to discuss regarding the Street Rats."
----
"Let us begin."
Setting a folder of documents onto the conference table, Marcus opened to the first page - one which showed a picture of a particular man.
"Donovan Stirling. The leader of the first branch. The second son of the family, but also considered to be the 'Young Master' and the heir to the organization. Melissa has personally had an experience with this man, so we know quite a bit about him.
As he spouted off information, the other two patiently listened, as if they truly were employees attending a meeting.
"Based on Melissa's testimony, this man was a scammer above all. He had forced his way into her father's business and used underhanded tactics to convince him to sign a contract that effectively resigned all his assets to this man."
"What?"
Sylvia looked to Marcus with surprise, unable to comprehend the magnitude of such an endeavor.
"All his assets? That's more than just being scammed. Isn't there some insurance or something that could cover something like that?"
"It isn't the fact that the man merely got scammed - it was that he was pressured into simply accepting such a thing."
Lowering his tone, Marcus thinned his eyes as he glanced down at the picture.
"To put it simply, he was cornered to the point where he couldn't even fight back."
"So his opponent was more like a business taking down another business than a simple scammer. But when the mafia gets involved, even that..."
"Exactly. This is the mafia we're talking about, so no means are out of the question. Well, according to Melissa, he is someone who uses both charisma to engage and manipulate people, while simultaneously using violent threats and other nasty methods as necessary. He is a man who won't be easily outsmarted."
"But you have a plan for even this man, don't you?"
"That all depends on his abilities, and how many reawakened he has gathered underneath him. Gerard was able to gather five reawakened subordinates, and all of these were people of high status. Do you understand what this means?"
Glancing around him, the man lowered his tone as he spoke.
"I have reason to believe that whether a person was chosen by one of the reawakenings has something to do with how important they are, or how extreme their character is. People at the top tend to be much more extreme than the average person who is simply trying to get by."
"Were you not just an average person, Marcus? You were chosen, weren't you?"
"Only because Seven personally chose me. And even before that, as you know, I did have a particular outburst. But what of those who we have seen thus far?"
Thinking back on it, Eclaire recalled that only those of high positions had been reawakened.
It wasn't necessarily a guaranteed criteria, but perhaps there was some sort of correlation.
"At any rate, it would be best to assume for now that these men are reawakened. Also, Bradley and George confirmed that they had met this man in the Shortenmire Jail, and that he was gathering criminals to serve him at the beginning of the Calamity. Bradley had refused and left with George."
"So he's definitely alive.", Sylvia commented.
"Indeed. The next one... is a bit of a strange man. As a matter of fact... I've been killed by him before."
Flipping the page, Marcus revealed the face of a particular man, at which Sylvia immediately recognized him.
"Ah. That's the guy with the revolvers."
"You two have met him before as well? So he's also alive, that's for sure.", Eclaire commented.
"Hm? You act as if you know him. Celia had told us about him, as she lost a gamble that he oversaw and that was the reason she was here in this place."
"Well, of course I'd know him..."
Eclaire seemed to bite her lip as she gazed upon the man, picking up the paper with a torrent of emotions in her expression.
"He's the reason I had to become a prostitute here in the first place."
"So you lost to this man as well?"
Inquiring the woman further, Marcus leaned in with interest.
"If you don't mind, could you tell us everything you know?"
"Sigh... this isn't exactly something that I wanted to bring up. But... I guess that's fine. Ah... but isn't there a way..."
Closing her eyes, Eclaire stuck a hand out.
Touching the foreheads of both Marcus and Sylvia, the two immediately recognized what the woman was trying to do.
"Ah... that's right. It would be easier to show us, wouldn't it?"
----
"I loooove that new cafe down the road. We should totally go there sometime."
"Same! I love the frappes there. Eclaire, you HAVE to go there at some point."
"Oh? Is that so. I guess we can try it then."
Three girls walked down a brightly lit street.
These girls were dressed in a flashy manner, wearing clothes that would stand out to any passerbys. It was obvious to anyone who gazed upon them that they were college students - and that they were most likely headed to a party.
"So you know what I heard? There are going to be like, sooo many guys at this party."
"Well, duh. Isn't that like, the whole reason we're going there? It's obvious we're gonna get laid tonight. All I care about is finding a guy who isn't like, completely uggo. There's like, so many creeps who will try to get with you, you know?"
"Is... is that the reason we're headed there?"
As two of the girls discussed with one another, the white haired girl seemed to tilt her head, slightly confused at their words.
"Omg, Eclaire - don't tell me you didn't know that! Isn't that obvious!? Why do you think we dressed up like this? For fun?"
"Well, I thought it would be nice to dress up..."
"You're hopeless! Ah... but that actually helps me. It's nice to have someone with a plain face around."
As one of the girls whipped out a pocket mirror, she started doing her makeup even as the three walked along the streets together.
"Mmm... I see. I'm not really looking to hook up with anyone tonight though... I mean, maybe if I met someone I could exchange information and see if it goes anywhere, but-"
"Eclaire, are you living in the last century? Nobody 'exchanges information and sees where it goes'. That's not what anyone is there for. One night of fun. That's all anyone cares about."
The two friends that Eclaire walked alongside seemed to look at her as if she were crazy, but Eclaire merely laughed quietly at the whole thing.
"Haha... well, I mean... I don't think I'm ready for anything like that. I mean... with someone I just met? I..."
"Eclaire, are you a virgin?"
As Eclaire seemed to hesitate, one of the girls posed this sudden question, to which Eclaire lightly smiled.
"Well... yeah. I'm not going to give that up unless it's someone really special."
"PFFT!!!"
"AHAHA! My sides! HAHAHA!"
As Eclaire made this shy declaration, the two girls seemed to immediately burst out in laughter, which only furthered the girl's confusion.
"What are you two laughing about?"
"Someone special... pfft! Ahaha... Eclaire, you really are funny. Everyone always says that. Someone special. Someone special. If you wait around for someone special, then nobody will ever come. And if you think you've found that special someone, they'll abandon you before the dawn breaks."
As the girl made this statement, Eclaire furrowed her brows slightly.
"Do you really believe that?"
"Of course I do. Why wouldn't I? Men are all shit. The best you can do is find one that at least looks good and has a shitty heart."
"I... I don't think that's true. I think if you're patient and careful, then you'll eventually find someone-"
"And has that worked for you so far?"
The other girl spoke up with a serious expression, glaring down at Eclaire.
"Er... well, no... but I haven't really been looking-"
"You'll find out soon enough. You haven't been to any of these parties before, have you?"
"No... but I don't think that I'll give up so easily even if I don't find someone. I mean, isn't that just a sign of how weak you are as a person?"
Suddenly, the words of Eclaire caused the two girls to jerk their heads, her strangely harsh yet innocent works striking a chord with them.
"If you give up after just a few failures, then I don't really see why you could complain. You've gotta keep trying! I think that if I keep on trying, eventually the right one will come."
"You don't know what you're talking about. Sure, you might be able to say that now, but you won't be able to say that once a guy crushes your heart."
Brushing off Eclaire's assessment with crass words, one of the girls merely flipped her hair with a tinge of denial in her tone.
"A-anyways... let's get to the party. I wonder what drinks they'll have? How much are you going to drink tonight?"
"Hmm... depends on how good the guy looks."
As the two continued their conversation, Eclaire fell slightly behind them, as if they had shunned her off.
She opened her mouth to say something, yet decided not to as she closed her mouth once more.
'Did I say something wrong?'
Closing her eyes, Eclaire nodded her head as she picked herself up once more, a bright look in her eyes.
'No. I didn't say anything wrong. If you get knocked down, you've gotta stand up and try again. No matter how many times you're defeated, the one who loses in the end is always the one who refuses to retry.'
----