Aurora Over a Dead World

Chapter 36: A Bug

"...Are you trying to trick me? T-That’s not cool!" She gets angry at what I said, and it makes sense for Ashlyn to think I’m lying — if medicines, drugs, and even vector powers couldn’t make her sleep, someone claiming they can sounds fake.

"It’s not a lie, I really am capable of making you sleep." I can do it, not because I know some miracle medicine, but because I know how to do something only Nadir and I know, since we were the only ones crazy enough to try it.

"..." Ashlyn stares at me coldly. She’s clearly filled with enormous distrust toward me.

"What do you want?" Her distrust still lingers, but the desperation in her question shows how badly she wants to sleep, and even though she doesn’t seem hopeful, she seems willing to give it a try.

"..." I pick up the papers from the table, the work she did so carefully, and I look at it more properly. There are a few small mistakes here and there, but they’re errors that exist in the study books themselves, so it’s not Ashlyn’s fault.

"I really don’t want much, just that you put in the effort during class." For now I’m doing everything I can to hold the attention of these rebellious students. If they decide to do nothing, they’ll disrupt the others, disrupt themselves, and worst of all, they’ll disrupt me.

So I need all of them to cooperate. For now they’re all cooperating more because they’re being forced to than out of genuine cooperation. I’ll have to slowly start making each one decide to cooperate with me. And Ashlyn, as long as she can sleep, would probably accept anything.

’That’s right... just take advantage of her desperation...’ I feel uncomfortable taking advantage of her desperation, but that’s just how life is. As long as she participates in class without trying to leave or refusing to take part, I don’t mind helping her sleep every day.

"That’s it?" she asks, confused.

"Yes, just participate in class and do what I ask without acting rebellious like your classmates. I don’t want anything more than that... however, you’ll only sleep for a few hours and then wake up, so whenever you want to sleep you’ll have to come talk to me. Do you accept that? It’s not a cure, it’s just something temporary." She seems to think for a few seconds.

"I don’t care, if I can s-sleep..." She just accepts it. She’s more desperate than I expected.

"...You’re very foolish..." This is really dangerous. If she’s this desperate to sleep, someone could take advantage of that to make her do terrible things, get involved in crimes, among other things.

’Astrid, you idiot, why did you let it get like this?’ It’s so risky. I thought Ashlyn would refuse, not just accept it outright.

"You have a very weak mind, girl. But fine, I’ll help you sleep, though not all the time, and not every day. I have my own things to do."

"A-Alright, as long as I can sleep a little."

"..."

"Sit on the floor. You’ll probably wake up with a headache, but nothing that’ll kill you... I think." It’s been a while since I’ve done this, but Ashlyn practically ignores the risks and sits on the floor.

’...’ I take a deep breath. What I’m about to do is actually quite simple. I glance at the window and see it’s still daytime, so I can do it.

What keeps Ashlyn awake is the core inside her body, so it’s obvious that medicines wouldn’t work and vector powers wouldn’t affect her in a way that would make her sleep. However, there’s a trick I discovered in the past.

During a mission, there was this arrogant idiot who messed everything up and almost got me, Nadir, and himself killed. In a moment of stress, I shocked the idiot in the head.

Nadir and I got a little tense thinking he’d died, but the reality was that all that happened was his brain and the chip inside his brain shut down, entering a state similar to "rebooting."

After that, I ran several tests and discovered I only didn’t kill that idiot out of sheer luck. It has to be a very specific voltage to shut down the core without damaging the brain or the core itself.

I even used it on myself and Nadir a few times during moments when we really needed to appear dead or get urgent rest without a single second of delay.

Obviously, it’s not something only I can do. Anyone with electrical powers could pull it off, but I would never tell anyone it’s possible, since it’s a "bug" in the equipment and it would be awful to have someone exploiting that bug.

"..." I touch Ashlyn’s head, reminding myself of the exact voltage that affects the core, since it’s different from the voltage that affects the chip, and then I deliver an electric discharge to her head.

Ashlyn’s body stiffens and convulses for a second before she simply passes out, her core being temporarily "shut down," allowing her to rest for the first time.

"...Looks like I haven’t lost my touch." Ashlyn has a slight nosebleed, but that’s normal. After all, it was a shock directed at the brain, at a voltage that would kill a normal person, and one she only endures because she has a vector weapon jammed inside her brain.

"Hmmm... you have excellent observations," I say to the unconscious Ashlyn. I’d love to go home now, but I can’t just leave her there, so I start talking to her.

"If you had used that reasoning ability against Nemesis in the simulator, you all would have performed a little better... you should stop being so quiet. Quiet people aren’t heard enough, regardless of their talents."

"After all, no one cares about the ghost in the corner of the table, even if they know something important." I’ve seen many things fail while someone who knew what to do was ignored because they didn’t know how to assert themselves and get attention.

"Unfortunately, Tanya has the best kind of personality for talking to others. She’s loud and confrontational, and that, when you know what you’re talking about, matters far more than staying quiet." I’ve fought with many superiors over decisions I knew were the best ones.

I’ve even fought with Astrid. Obviously, I know not everything I say will be right, but there have been situations where I was right and I needed to fight for it.

"You know, it’s curious. I’ve never met many people with powers that affect the mind. That’s easily one of the most complicated vectors to understand because it deals with something as abstract as the human mind." No matter the current level of technology,

the human mind is still a mystery we don’t have time to fully investigate because we’re all too busy manufacturing increasingly powerful weapons to kill monsters that keep getting stronger.

"If it weren’t for this academy, I have no doubt that you, Ashlyn, would end up a lab rat because of your ability to control vectors involving the human mind, even if they’re vectors of something more basic like dreams."

"There really are a lot of crazy people out there. You’d be surprised." There are plenty of fanatical lunatics who create laboratories unaffiliated with the government to study the strength of monsters and Kairas.

Some of them carry out experiments that not even the government performs. Not that the government doesn’t want to, but because it goes against any and all forms of human ethics, and the government has to maintain at least a minimum of ethics to prevent society from collapsing.

So although the government treats Kairas as weapons and runs tests on them, none cross boundaries as severe as those of these clandestine labs.

Plus, many times the government just steals the data from those fools after destroying them, so the government always wins.

"Edith is a lesbian because of that, isn’t she? Apparently, she was some lunatic’s lab rat and that’s why she turned misandrist. It’s kind of sad, but not uncommon." I’ve been avoiding Edith and her questions.

And because of that, she’s been trying more insistently to talk to me. I think she’s frustrated because she can’t even get my attention.

"..." I sit down next to Ashlyn, talking to her while I scribble things on her work with a pen — my personal observations, points where she needs to improve, and a few corrections of wrong information that the academy’s books contain.

Since the academy hides a lot of relevant information that shouldn’t be widely disclosed.

Ashlyn’s work is so good that I spend several hours taking notes. Honestly, I wouldn’t have done something this good when I was her age. Of course, I never had proper education either, so I wouldn’t have been able to even if I tried very hard.

But I won’t downplay her abilities. I think even if I had an education, I’d still struggle to detail things this well. However, that’s a mistake. The excess of detail is something I criticize in her notes.

There’s a lot that could be cut down to one or two lines. And after a few hours, Ashlyn wakes up. She actually wakes up faster than I expected, showing how quickly the core re-stabilizes itself.

"..." I look at Ashlyn as she opens her eyes heavily. She seems disoriented while I help her up.

"?" She looks at me, confused, but for the first time, her eyes look more rested.

"Ashlyn, it’s late in the evening, so I’m heading home. Take your notes. They’re very good, but there are things to fix and improve." I hand her the papers while she, still disoriented, stares at me without understanding, as if something incomprehensible had happened.

"W-What? W-Wait," she stops me before I walk out the door.

"Is there a problem?"

"Y-You’re just leaving?! A-After you made me sleep? Y-You actually did it!!" she asks incredulously, but even her tone of voice seems better.

"Yes. It’s not like I did anything special, besides, it’s more like making you unconscious than actually sleeping." This could have literally killed her. I don’t think it’s something deserving of special thanks or so much surprise.

"..." She seems like she wants to say more, but I leave, not wanting to deal with questions, thanks, complaints, or anything else. If she feels grateful, she can repay it by not causing me problems, and if she has complaints, she can keep them to herself.