The Ring (before battle)

If I might just add one more thing - you needn't try to comfort us over our conversation, Manager Saude. Consider this nothing more than harmless, humorous banter among us researchers.

It appears to me that if anyone needs comfort, it'd be him.

.......

... All those Golden Boughs we've gone through so much to collect... gone. We've lost people, too. Even worse, we're separated from our manager... so we can't even immediately know how the others are doing.

This isn't the first time we've been in this much danger, but... every time it happens, I can't help but -

- get nervous, right? Anxious, even.

... Yeah.

Do you guys... ever get this nervous, too...? Like I do?

Well...

I like to talk big and try to project confidence, but honestly... I still get anxious like everyone else.

We've still got a lot of people in the LCB who don't know where they're going in life, don't we? Like how I used to be.

You know, with how Dante seems to feel a lot of pressure over their responsibilities, I guess you could say that I've sorta committed myself to sharing a bit of their load and helping the team navigate through the trials of our journey and... you know, all that stuff...

So, I'm just trying to put on a brave face, at the end of the day. Someone needs to, right? To reassure everyone that it's all going to be okay.

... I... see.

Ha... Outis'd give me a really harsh dressing-down if she heard me say all that. Just thinking about it hurts my ears...

While there is no doubt that Faust does indeed know it all...

... there were times when I also found myself grasping at straws,

unable to make even the simplest decisions - whether I should move forward, whether I should stop, or whether I should go back the way I came.

And that made me realize anew...

... Faust is but a name that may leave at any time.

.......

... Well, I suppose it is my turn in this heart-to-heart roundtable. I'm not quite fond of these last-minute barings of one's soul as though we're walking to our collective death, but... if this should help raise the chance of our success by alleviating some of your concerns, then I see no reason not to participate.

My superiors have... repeatedly refused to authorize the plan that includes me as a combatant for this mission.

I understand their logic.

Sending a research-specialized employee to near-certain death would indeed be an inefficient management of human resources, from the corporate perspective.

Instead of accepting my request, they suggested that I take some time off. 3 months, give or take.

They said everything will have returned to normal by the time I sauntered back into the office; that the LCE's job was to find normalcy again while LCA or LCB dealt with the consequences.

It was a tempting offer, I must admit. Research was indeed an endeavor in which l could lose myself while the rest of the world slipped by.

I would take the 3-month vacation, return to the lab and bury myself in research after research, and... eventually, it'd really have been like nothing had happened.

New employees would be hired to fill the vacancies with remarkable immediacy as though there had never been any loss of personnel in the first place.

So yesterday, as I was arranging the office for my absence, I opened one of my desk drawers, and -

Oh. You really were gonna go on a vacation...

... And I saw our next year's research proposal peeking out from the middle of the paper pile.

It's a funny thing, the way that corporate planning works.

No one knows what the future holds, but they expect us to plan months ahead in our proposals.

When I'd written that research proposal, I'd planned it to be a collaborative research between me, Marton, and Alyssa.

And now, I'll have to erase Marton's name, one by one, from dozens of its pages.

So... How did you manage to convince the higher-ups?

My third request to have me included in this mission was accompanied by a resignation letter. A binary option, if you will - they had to choose one over the other.

Uh... you can do that?

Who's to say that I can't?

That last subject wasn't much about anxiety at all, but... has that helped calm your nerves at least, Sinclair?

... I'm a bit better, I think.

That's good. Then let's all take a deep breath, and... commence operation.

Enemy incoming.

Sorry I'm late. Fascia was enjoying a nice nap, so I had to wake her up first.

She was heartbroken by how far behind schedule we were in her completion.

It's because of Zenon's Tortoise Spiral.

People struck with that weapon often end up with, quite literally, broken hearts... depriving us of the core ingredient.

So, I'm glad we're able to meet here. None of you have replaced yourself with a prosthetic body... and I won't be using the Spiral.

... You knew we'd be coming?

Mmhm. The Maestro asked me to go out and receive our guests.

Do you know of the Maestro's shattered child? She would've been a wonderful big sister for Fascia. I'm yet to reach that level of creation, unfortunately. You see, collecting ingredients without damaging them is still a bit tough for me.

So, I hoped to get some practice and started by cutting off my own arm. After all, whose body do we know better than our very own?

But the corpus of others is still so challenging to work with. Which finger do they put the most pressure on when using their arms? Do they let their wrists handle much of the pressure, or their entire arm? Do they have any preexisting defects that may change how I interact with the medium? So, so many things to take into account before getting to the actual work.

... Speaking of which, would you be so kind as to hear my request?

How about we spend some time to get to know each other... and become friends?

Friends?

Mhm.

It's not so hard to become friends.

Sora told me that becoming friends is as simple as sharing the things we love, our hobbies, our dreams... Though I didn't become friends with her, as I wasn't planning on using Sora as an ingredient for Fascia.

So... Ah, I know where to begin. Would you share something you love with me, everyone?

.......

Don't hesitate to ask me anything you'd like to know about me, either. Ever since I fed a few slices of my brain to Fascia, I've become a very, very bad liar.

... What makes you think... we're going to tell you any of that?

Okay, then me first. My name is Albina. I'm learning Corporism art under Maestro Callisto's tutelage with my beloved Fascia.