Honesty is the Best Policy {Comic Edition}

Chapter 28: Thinking Impossibly Hard about Anything and Everything

(Originally published on June 10th, 2022)

They couldn't even get to school before Shadow got a similar call from GUN.

Honest was now sitting on the concrete next to the steps, locked in a mental battle of trying to decide what to do next. Akane and Dina had left and so had Silver, seeing Blaze at the gate and completely forgetting about Honest as he ran to greet her. It was fine, though. She needed to be alone, right?

Wrong, because as soon as Honest felt like she was arriving at an idea of where to go next, a shadow fell over her.

"Good morning, cat."

Mephiles was behind her on the steps and leaning over the handrails, blocking the sunlight from reaching her. Honest rolled her eyes and made an annoyed expression, eyes narrowed to slits. "What do you want, Mephy?" A drip of black goop fell on Honest's head, causing her ears to go back in pure disgust.

"You'd love to know that, wouldn't you?" Mephiles rested an arm on the metal rail, his dark aura growing. "Am I correct to assume that Shadow is no longer with us?"

Honest's scowl let up a bit. That sounded like he was implying Shadow was dead. "He's just been called to headquarters."

"Of course he has." Mephiles looked around before slipping through the bars and landing beside her. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure," Honest said.

"Where has my ex-favorite, faithful servant, Infinite, gone off to?"

Honest didn't respond.

"You can't say, can you?" He stood up and looked down at her again as he spoke. "Are you really okay with what you've done? Is your little conscience strong enough to bear the weight of sacrificing one of your own like that?"

"I didn't sacrifice anyone."

"Oh, but your minion did, and isn't that the same thing?"

Honest was going to tell Infinite what she had done. Honesty was going to see to it that he forgave her in his tsundere way. Honesty always worked on people like Infinite the best. Could Mephiles really not see that? Maybe he didn't completely understand Honesty yet. Honest thought back to chapter 17 of {Café Edition}.

"You always seem to say the most alluring of things in the most fascinating of manners," [Mephiles] said. Honest was speechless for a moment, but eventually she found her words.

"You know, I was trying not to break any walls today, but now it seems somebody else is commenting on my writing style," Honest said.

"I wasn't talking about the way you write. I was talking about the way you speak."

Perhaps (ugh, there was that word again) Mephiles had been taking "Honesty" in the literal sense-- straightforwardness-- this whole time. It made sense. He had no reason to take it any other way. Anyway, there was no way Honest was going to sit down and explain it to him. If he didn't know everything, Honest had at least one possible method of manipulating him. Those were becoming increasingly difficult to come by in this day in age, at a time when most every character has been exposed to Honest in some way or another and has come into the possession of at least some knowledge of what she was like.

"Are you worried that I might be doing something I don't align with?" Mephiles looked confused as if that wasn't what he was doing. "You don't have to. I'm perfectly capable of doing anything I want." Honest then paused to think a little. "At least with Infinite, or, to Infinite. You act like he was the Ultimate Do-Gooder rather than the Ultimate Mercenary. I think he owes us this, don't you?" When Mephiles just continued to stare at her, Honest scoffed and continued. "You didn't nag me like this any of those times I had Rosy attack Scourge, and I bet you don't even know about what I've been doing with Eggman and Finitevus lately."