Sheena

19 1 0
                                    

"Amaya? Amaya!"

Hearing her body's name and feeling someone shaking her shoulders, Hiraiah shook her head awake. "Wh-what...?" she groggily replied with her eyes half-opened, showing no signs of getting up.

"Amaya, get up. I applied a day leave for you and me when I found you unconscious. I'm glad I immediately went here when you didn't pick up my call!" A woman in front of her, although frowning, enthusiastically said. "Well, from what I've seen all these years, you are eccentric enough for me not to question why you are unconscious in your bathroom floor. Well, at least you didn't catch anything bad---I hope---but I think you need to take a break. So go on and rest, I know it's Show-and-Tell day today and it's not a good day for you, so I figured to just book for a leave. Haiya, I'm such a great friend, am I not?" she said in between breaths, and Hiraiah barely picked up anything on what she heard.

"Oh yeah! By the way---"

"Shhh. Shush, please." Hiraiah interrupted, mildly irritated.

She slowly got up, walked to her bed, and lied down without care. "You didn't even drag me to my bed? My back hurts,"

The woman in front of her stuttered as she tried to explain. "W-well, you're sc-scary wh-whenever something wakes y-you up. Anyways, y-you know that! So it's not my fault your back hurts,"

Hiraiah deadpanned. Right. Amaya might be a "vase" in the eyes of everyone but no one really dares to say that in front of her face. Her built-in cold expression intimidates people and no one would attempt to wake her up even if she falls asleep on her desk within work hours. Not that she's a slacker to ever fall asleep and not having her work done, though.

Seriously, there are so many plot holes in this world. What does Amaya mean by "Expose Mara's true identity" as one of her death wishes?  Hiraiah thought to herself, while still settling her brain to work and wake up.

The system explained earlier that usually, the missions could be the host's death wishes, or ordained by the current deity heading their headquarters. On rare occasions, it could be the commands of the Supreme Deity Himself.

Hiraiah ruled the possibilities out and concluded that it must be Amaya's death wish to expose Mara. If so, then Mara must have something sinister to hide.

She thinks that that may be so since Amaya is actually a gray character, which Hiraiah likes. There's more to her than the cannon fodder who became the catalyst of a major event, and she's gonna find that out.

Main protagonists are supposed to be somewhat lotus mary sue characters, even if some have seemingly dark personalities on the surface. They represent the good in a cruel world---it's an ordained fate for them, so no protagonists would destroy the reality they are in with their whims. They are for the common good for a reason. If not, then they wouldn't be protagonists---more so for the main protagonist of every world.

Anyways, back to the current matter on hand, she internally said while finally looking at the hyper woman-child in the room with her.

Sheena Mari, Amaya's only friend ever since she came in the government faction. They are both of the same batch, year Z000. The thing is, Amaya wouldn't necessarily call her a friend---she's too passive and [1]tsundere of a person to have actual friends. At most, to her Sheena is the only person who actually cares for her well-being and maybe, Amaya would give it a thought to help her out if ever the other needs it. On the contrary, Sheena, an overly-enthusiastic, positive, and optimistic person, calls Amaya her bestfriend openly despite the looks she gets in the faction.

This poor girl has a tragic fate, 404 casually comments, interrupting Hiraiah's thoughts.

"I know," she mentally replied.

Sheena died defending Amaya's innocence, and she suffered at the hands of Datu Black.

To say that she got it worse than Amaya is an understatement. The most unfortunate thing is that Amaya never knew what Sheena did for her.

Well, this time things would be different because I'm here, Hiraiah strongly resolved, finally awake. I gotta do my own things and definitely stay away from that Datu Black.

"Sheena, what's the date today?" she nonchalantly asked, keeping Amaya's demeanor.

"It's Trois 27, Z004. Why?" Sheena answered carefully, not making eye contact just in case Amaya decides to look at her with chilling eyes---her usual look every time she's in a bad mood, which is her mood all the time.

"Time?"

"5 in the afternoon,"

"Hmmm."

"Hmmm?"

"I'm going to go back to the faction tomorrow. Thank you for applying a leave for me today. Send yourself out, I'm going back to sleep," Hiraiah stated, deciding to prepare herself for this world.

"Wow, that's the 44th 'thank you' I've heard from---"

"Sheena."

"Y-yes, yes, take care and don't mull over Show-and-Tell day too much!" Sheena managed to say as she gulped at Amaya's usual gloomy and thundery self, and then clumsily shut the door on her way out after leaving a cute wave towards Hiraiah.

When she finally left, Hiraiah let out a huge, relieved sigh.

Whew, I almost went out of character there, she thought. Note to self: Amaya seldom says thanks but instead gives something back to Sheena silently, sometimes secretly. Hiraiah snickered. What a tsundere.

Host, you can't act OOC (out of character) suddenly. There are no particular rules about it, but a normal person doesn't change overnight unless there's a huge life-changing event that happened to him. Suspicions would be lesser and you would more likely succeed if you gradually went out of character within years, 404 reminded her.

"Yes, yes," Hiraiah internally replied, rolling her eyes. "What's the big deal anyways if I fail a world?"

Well, it's different for every host. In your situation, you'd lose a memory from your real world, the system nonchalantly replied. So you better not be lazy.

Hiraiah was astounded. "What?! Ya, I didn't sign up for this. Bring me back," she demanded.

You already accepted the downpayment, dear host, 404 kindly replied. Now all you have to do is complete all the missions in every world, then no amnesia in your original world. Nice, right?

"You think you're being a genius, eh? Watch me," Hiraiah sarcastically said. "You think I don't read enough system novels?"

If 404 was a person, he would've definitely gulped his pride. No, I don't know what you're talking about, he blankly said. I just remembered I'm supposed to update. Goodbye, I'll be back in 10 hours.

Yes, run away while you can, Hiraiah thought to herself, planning of the million ways she's gonna mess up their headquarters and whoever are behind this that ruined her peaceful life. Anyways, I better get into character.

Hiraiah spent all the remaining day familiarizing herself with Amaya's house and everything in it, including all the hidden nooks and storage rooms.

Reading all Amaya's notes worth 4 years of researching and failing at her AI body, Hiraiah discovered something ground-breaking. She went through all the pages again of the black notebooks Amaya owns, and she feels like she found out something she shouldn't.

What's this? Isn't this Mara's supposed to be award-winning discovery that was a step forward for all mankind? Why is it in Amaya's possession?

"Wait...could it be?"

Confused but excited, Hiraiah compared the handwriting in the black notebooks to the rest of Amaya's handwriting found everywhere in the house, including the sticky notes in the fridge.

After a few hours, Hiraiah smirked as she concluded the rest of her thoughts.

[1]A Japanese term used on people who have a tough exterior, but has a soft interior. Basically a person who doesn't like to show affection but is one...when no one is around. It is rare for them to be openly affectionate with people, or even admit they are friends with a person/like that person.

Quick Transmigration: Forgetting Zoren Where stories live. Discover now