Atlus Academy

Old Chapter 4

You could hear the sounds of the lively people out in the streets. I wasn't sure what time it was, but I know it was a little early. I woke up from the bench to find a frightened Lisa holding an axe. I guess my appearance scared her. She had to get used to it eventually, but I guess I had to calm her down for now.

"Calm down Lisa."

"Who are you?! And how do you know who I am?"

I took off my mask and her face instantly changed. She brought the axe back and swung at me. I ducked under the swing and got behind in a swift motion. I slapped her hand and knocked the axe out of it and sat her down in a chair. I knew she was shocked that the strange man sleeping on her bench was me, but she didn't have to swing at me with an axe.

"Why did you swing your axe at me?"

"Why? Well why not. You would have been fine."

"That doesn't answer my question, but I guess that doesn't matter. Anyways, how are you feeling? Does anything hurt?"

"I feel fine Besides the occasional pain in my leg I'm good. I feel like I can take on the world."

"Well that's good to hear. Now, I went to go see Nikolai last night."

As soon as I said that she didn't look so happy. I knew there was a lot she didn't want to talk about, but it was too late. Too much had already happened for her to just keep quite about it. So I decided to start the conversation first.

"I went to the store and had a look inside. The store was very big and had a lot of room to display different types of weapons, but the quality of the work wasn't that good."

"What do you mean? Compared to my work, it's a lot better. I can't even begin to compare to someone with years worth of experience."

"Well that's not really the case. Nikolai himself inspected the sword you gave me and said that it was a lot better than any of the weapons made there."

"That can't be right. He would never say that."

"When a young girl is doing better in a business that he's spent years in, I think he would cut you down and make you believe that. Isn't that how your fall into debt started?"

"I won't lie and say I was discouraged, but that only made me want to try harder."

"Well, you were getting in the way of his business. And because of that, he made you owe him a lot of money. To the point that you wouldn't be able to recover by yourself."

"That can't be right. He sincerely helped me."

"You can't possibly believe that. And not to mention he methods he used to... to kill your grandfather."

"What did you say?"

I knew that something was off. If she new her grandfather was killed, she wouldn't be holed up in this small little alley. And she wouldn't be in a slump like this. She would be trying to fight back no matter how powerless she is.

"I'll put it more clearly. Nikolai had your grandfather killed. probably because just like you, he was getting in the way of his business."

"Why that evil son of a-"

"Wait a minute. I know your mad, but there's a better way to deal with him."

"And how do you suppose we do that?"

"We tear down his business. I mean he did steal the money I gave to you. So it's only right that I go and get it back."

"You don't expect me to believe that some kid is going to waltz in a business and attempt to destroy it do you?"