John frowned as he slowly regained consciousness, blinking a few times to clear his vision. His mouth felt incredibly dry. On instinct, he tried to swing his legs off his bed, only to realize he was chained.

That got him awake instantly. He wasn't in his room. Where was he? His surroundings were dark, enough that he couldn't see anything. He'd been walking outside, thinking about the situation with Scholaris, and then—

"It's Sofya."

Right, he'd been kidnapped. Shit. Normally, he wouldn't have cared that much, but Danjo had yet to make the tracking device they'd been planning on using. Without it…

"The system," John muttered.

He could send Prota a message to come and find him. It'd worked in the past. His heart beating fast, he opened up the messaging system only to be greeted with a rather disappointing message:

[For the sake of the [Plot], functions that trivialize the current situation have been disabled.]

"You piece of shit," John cursed, closing his system.

Great. Sofya had kidnapped him, and there was nothing he could do about it. In hindsight, he should've seen this coming. There was a precedent for this, given that he was removed from the equation in the Town of Beginnings. It wasn't all that surprising that the [Author] didn't want him to make things easy this time, either.

Moreover, he'd been asking about Sofya's weaknesses. He'd always considered her as a potential threat. Why had he been so lax?

"I see you're awake," a voice called out.

John flinched, then squinted as a door opened. Now that there was light, he could see he was in a single cell, a surprisingly clean one. There was a jug of water in the corner, and the floor was swept and smooth.

"Sofya," John called back, trying to stay calm.

"So you knew," the dragon said.

She drew up a chair from the corner of the room, sitting in front of the cell to get a good look at John.

"No, I didn't know. Not until you knocked me out," John grumbled.

"I apologize, but I felt you were getting too close to discovering my little project," Sofya said, her tone polite as always. "You're a little too clever. I have no intentions to harm you. As soon as I am finished, I will let you go."

"You're not afraid that I'll talk?"

"About what?"

"The students you killed. You're a cultist, aren't you?"

To John's surprise, Sofya laughed.

"A cultist? No, far from it. I am an ally of Celeste's people. I abhor the demons. I founded Scholaris for the purpose of raising new generations of talent. Why would I tear down what I worked so hard to build?"

"What's the point in lying?" John sighed. "You've got me exactly where you want me. I can't tell anyone anything. Seriously."

"But I have yet to tell a lie. It is the truth. I simply needed some students to verify something. They are all still alive and well. Asleep, perhaps, but unharmed and unchanged. As soon as I am done, I will wipe their memories and send them back."

"Proof?"

Sofya sighed, snapping her fingers. The chains around John's wrists and ankles lifted up, carrying him along as Sofya stepped out. They moved into a large room with various tables, ingredients and notes. Most notable, however, was the circle of sleeping students taking up a majority of the place.

"...they're alive." John frowned. "That's… you know that doesn't mean shit, right?"

"You are incorrigible," Sofya sighed again. "Why must you be so stubborn?"

"Look, you can't just put out an incredibly obvious alibi and say that you're innocent. Do you know how stupid that looks? That's not how [Sto]- that's not how things work."

"Very well," Sofya said, shaking her head. "Then I suppose I cannot convince you of anything more. Not that I need to. I simply require you to stay put until I am done. I thought that, as a unique existence, you might understand, but I will simply wipe your memories and put you back as well. You will see. I do not intend to harm anybody. I simply wish to fulfill one of my greatest desires."

"Like revenge?"

Sofya stared John in the eyes. "No. I wish to fix a mistake I made long ago."

With that, she sent him back into the cell.

John groaned as the door closed on him. He didn't hate the dark, but he was now incredibly bored. There was nothing to do here. Well, it was better than being stuck in Doctor's sick experiments. Boredom was the least of his concerns at the moment.

"How are they gonna find me?" John muttered, holding his head in his hands. "I don't… no, Destiny will… no, he won't. I didn't figure it out. There's nothing to go off of. How?"

"I mean, you could send him your insane planning chart."

John nearly jumped. He hadn't been expecting anybody to actually reply.

"Zero? What are you doing here?"

"What? Can't I be here?"

"You never help during these moments."

"Well… I will admit, it's looking pretty grim for you. So, if you just go into your system…"

~~~

"What? He's missing?"

Destiny couldn't believe his ears. How had this happened?

He'd been getting ready to go to bed when someone had knocked on the door. Neither he nor Danjo were expecting anybody, but it wasn't like there was any source of danger, so Destiny went to open it.

Standing there was Prota, quivering ever so slightly.

"John… missing…"

"How? Are you sure he didn't just go off to do something?" Destiny frowned.

Prota shook her head. She didn't know how to explain her knowledge.

In the first place, she could only confirm her statement due to the fact that her messaging system was down. When John hadn't returned, she went to check the map, only to find it was disabled. This was worrying, but she didn't know enough about the system to be sure that this was an emergency. So, going to the messaging system to ask John, she was greeted with the same message John had seen.

[For the sake of the [Plot], functions that trivialize the current situation have been disabled.]

That meant John had been taken. But she couldn't say any of that.

"John is… missing," Prota said again, her voice a little quieter.

Destiny grimaced. If she was being insistent about this, that meant she was telling the truth. If she had any doubts, she would've reconsidered.

"But this is the worst case scenario, then," Destiny frowned. "We don't know where he went, and without him…"

Prota looked up anxiously. She'd come to Destiny because she didn't know who else to turn to, but it seemed the hero had no answers, either.

"I'll tell you if I figure anything out," Destiny sighed. "For now, try to get some sleep. If we need to fight, we'll need you in top shape. This is giving me a bad feeling."

Prota nodded, turning to head back to her room. As the door closed behind her, she could hear Danjo yelling, but she didn't pay any attention to the words being said. She flopped onto her bed, closing her eyes, but rest eluded her.

She wanted to blame herself, but she found she couldn't find any logical reasons as to how this was her fault.

Prota blamed herself for a lot of things, and there wasn't always a good reason for it. However, the point was that she had some kind of reason. Even if it was unrealistic, her mind would come up with things she could've done to make the problem better.

This time, though, she didn't know what she could've done. Was she supposed to stick with John all day, every hour of the day? Even she wasn't delusional enough to believe John would want that. If anything, it would just push him away even more.. Was she supposed to predict the future? At this point, the only things she could have done to fix this mistake would be to be some kind of omniscient or omnipotent being.

She took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself down.

John would be ok, though. He was resourceful. John was the brother she looked up to, the brother she was inspired by. In her eyes, there wasn't a single existence above him. He wouldn't fall this easily, right?

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She didn't know.

At some point, she must've fallen asleep because she opened her eyes to a room lit with sunlight. She blinked, rubbing her eyes to clear her vision, letting out a little yawn. Right, she had to find John. But how?

Suddenly, something caught her attention. There was something she hadn't seen before, just in the corner of her vision.

"Um… notifi… cation?"

Curious, she clicked on it. What appeared wasn't a message from John or a map, like she'd hoped. Instead, it was an almost unintelligible board of scribbles, words and arrows. She was about to dismiss it when a few words caught her attention.

Sofya. Lupin. Leora. Destiny. Arthur. Aurora.

The more she looked, the more she began to understand what was going on. This was John's handwriting. The little notes he left were similar to the way he spoke, further confirming this was something that had belonged to John.

"Sofya… potential?" Prota muttered, staring.

John had been suspecting her teacher as the culprit behind all these kidnappings. Why? How did that even make sense?

She didn't know. But someone else could make sense of this.

Prota quickly grabbed a piece of paper and a pen, then rushed to copy down every single thing she could read.

~~~

"Why are you here?" John groaned.

Sofya had come into the cell again. Exactly five hours later, according to John's clock. That shouldn't have been enough time for Sofya to finish, right?

"I find you interesting. Is it so bad to have a conversation?" Sofya said, pulling up her chair. "You know what I am, yet you show no fear. Indeed, you seem almost bored."

"I'm locked up in a cell with nothing to do," John pointed out. "Why wouldn't I be bored?"

The dragon let out a little laugh. "Indeed, you are truly unique. So straightforward. So… hm. I do not know how to describe you."

"Special?"

Sofya laughed again. "Perhaps, yes. Had we met in a different life, it may have been possible for us to become friends."

"Except for the fact that you're conducting experiments on students."

"Haa… I see you are still hung up on that idea," Sofya said, shaking her head. "Very well."

"Hey," John called out. "By any chance…"

Sofya turned back, curious.

"No. Never mind."

The dragon closed her eyes, a small smile forming on her lips.

"Very well. If you need anything, please call out. I should be able to hear you. I apologize for the circumstances you've been put in, but I cannot risk an unknown variable."

John frowned. "Unknown variable? Look, just because I'm from a different world doesn't mean-"

"That is not what I'm referring to. But." Sofya grinned, putting a finger to her lips. "Well, never mind."

With that, the door closed. Suddenly, a lantern lit the room up, allowing John to see his surroundings. Well, that at the very least was kind of her. Still, John wasn't going to give in to the mind games. Now that he had her pinned as an enemy, there was no way he was going to let himself be tricked.

The reasoning was simple: if she was telling the truth, there was no downside to doubting her. He wasn't in a position to kill or injure the headmaster, so it wasn't like he could make a grievous error such as that. All he could do was speculate, and speculation with no follow-up never hurt anybody.

Still, something she'd said made him doubt himself for just a bit.

"That is not what I'm referring to."

She knew something else. Something she wasn't letting on.

"What could it be…" John muttered, closing his eyes.

~~~

Destiny frowned as he looked at the piece of paper Prota handed him. Danjo was off to class, meaning it was just him and Prota in the room.

"Um… not to call you a liar or anything, but this is your handwriting, not John's."

Indeed, the writing on the paper was quite clean and well organized, unlike John's usual insane chicken scratch. Anyone who'd seen John's handwriting ever could easily tell this hadn't been made by him.

"Read," Prota said, shaking her head.

Destiny was a little hesitant. He was ok at reading Prota's emotions, but he still had a hard time deciphering what she meant. Still, she was glaring at him quite pointedly, so he felt he had no choice but to listen to her command.

Scanning through his, his brows furrowed more and more as he realized what he was looking at.

"This line of thought… definitely feels like something John would make. But… Arthur? Aurora? Really?" he frowned. "And… why are Mr Lupin and Ms Leora on this list? The headmaster?"

Destiny shook his head. It didn't make sense. But then again, since when were John's predictions rooted in logic?

Prota felt the same way. She didn't quite understand why any name at all was being written. The only thing that made sense was the word "cultists" circled over and over again, but from what was written, it seemed John had been avoiding pinning them as the culprits. That might've explained why he'd been so stressed the night he'd gone missing. If cultists were, in fact, not the culprit, it would make things infinitely harder to figure out.

Think in terms of [Story]. Think about the [Plot]. What would make sense?

Suddenly, Prota felt as if a jolt of electricity had run down her spine. No, she couldn't resort to that. John wouldn't want it.

But at the same time, it might help. It could help them—

"Well, if we had to pick the craziest option… that might be Arthur or Aurora?" Destiny said, rubbing his chin. "Although, for some reason, Lupin or Leora feel like something John would end up deciding on…"

Prota perked up at that. Right, there was no need to think like John. It was sufficient to try and guess how he would think. While there was little difference between the two, the most important thing was that it didn't require knowledge of the [Story] to do. Destiny could do it just fine.

So why couldn't she?

"Prota? What do you think?" Destiny asked, snapping her out of her thoughts. "I mean, for the culprit to be one of our friends is a little… but then again, Elfin was a spy, and none of us saw that coming, right? Wait, John didn't see it coming either…"

Destiny began to mutter, but Prota sank back into her thoughts. What would John do here? She ignored everything else and focused only on the list. Think only about what John would pick.

Unfortunately, this didn't do her any good. Even with John's habit of picking the least expected variable, the names on this list were simply too strange for there to be any one good option. Instead, she turned her mind to the various notes surrounding the names. Surely there would be something there.

"Oh, sorry," Destiny said as he looked up. "I've got to go to class. But I'll be back. And, well, you know. John can take care of himself for a bit, right?"

Looking at the hero's grin, Prota couldn't help but feel a little reassured.

~~~

"Enlighten me," Sofya said, sitting on her chair.

John didn't understand why this woman kept coming into the cell room. Doctor, at least, made some sense. That freak loved to stroke his ego, and what better way to do that than to talk to a manaless kid? Sofya, on the other hand, didn't feel like the kind of being to do such a thing.

That left only two options. Either she was still trying to get John to lower his guard, or…

Or she really didn't have any bad intentions.

But the second option wasn't any better. This entire mess was definitely something serious. If Sofya wasn't some kind of [Antagonist], then the real [Antagonist] had yet to show themselves. And if that was the case, then John was even more lost than he'd been before. No, for the sake of everything, Sofya had to be the villain.

But she was just so damn convincing.

"Enlighten you? About what?"

"I'm curious. You possess such power, yet you hide it so well. For what reason do you do this?"

John snorted in amusement. "Such power? Bullshit."

"The only 'bullshit,' as you put it, is coming from you. Come, you should understand by now that the little hints you leave are more than enough to decipher at least a few things."

"Yeah? Like what?"

Sofya crossed her legs, settling into a more comfortable position. Despite her whole charade of having something important to do, she didn't seem very pressed for time.

"Put it this way. If one creates a map of an area and draws all but one section of the land, we may not know what is there, but information can be deduced from the lack thereof. We may assume the area is dangerous, difficult to navigate, or has some kind of barrier that is otherwise unbreachable."

"Great analogy," John said, visibly bored. "What does that have to do with me?"

"Your acting skills are good, but they have a few holes. I am the mapper in this situation.. I've figured out quite a bit about you, but… those holes provide more information than you might think," Sofya smiled. "But I will not reveal my hand too early. Let us discuss something else."

John sighed. There was no getting out of this. He was chained to the wall, and there was literally nothing for him to do other than talk. Well, it was better than doing nothing at all, right?

"You could easily rule a nation," Sofya started. "But you choose not to. You could easily claim whatever you wanted, yet you do not. I am curious. Why?"

"What makes you think I'm capable of any of that?" John frowned. "Huh?"

"It isn't just a matter of power. Your wit, your skills, your knowledge, they are all refined to the point of a master. Even if you were incapable of physically forcing your way through, I have no doubt someone with your skill could achieve whatever they aspired to do. But then… what? What holds you back? Are you aiming higher? Or… is something holding you back?"

"You're saying too much," John said, shaking his head. "I don't get anything I aspire to do. It's just not for me."

"Hm… a sense of defeat? A fear of failure?"

"Mm… more like I know it's not gonna work out," John shrugged. "You're saying pointless things right now. You're not going to understand or figure anything out by questioning me, you know?"

"...ah."

Sofya smiled, but her expression seemed sad this time. Why? What had changed?

"I understand now."

John frowned. "What are you yapping about?"

"You cannot feel 'satisfied.' You are stuck at feeling content. You cannot feel despair, only disappointment. You cannot feel rage, only annoyance. I… have seen someone like you. Once."

At this point, John was thoroughly baffled. What in the world was Sofya saying?

"That look in your eyes. You can hide your facial expressions, but you cannot hide what is inside. You are empty. A hollow shell. But you have not given up on life. You carry on as if everything is normal. And you yourself do not consciously believe anything to be an issue. Or am I wrong?"

At this point, John was so stunned that he couldn't come up with an adequate excuse. She'd read him from the few interactions they'd had. How? What in the world?

"...sure, we can say that," John said hesitantly.

"I pity you. Those without emotions are those who have nothing to strive for."

"Hold on, what's this about emotions-"

"When was the last time you truly felt joy? When was the last time you could say you felt alive? I suppose it's happened once or twice, but it was a foreign feeling, was it not?"

John flinched.

"I am correct, am I not? But the way you act implies that you have not given up. You smile. You joke. You fight. And yet, at the end of each of your tasks, you do not care that it is over. You merely think, 'it's done. It is what it is.' You lack the ability to feel satisfied. You lack the ability to take responsibility for your actions, and as a result, you lack the ability to find your place."

John shook his head. "Look, I'm not here for a psychological analysis, alright?"

"You are not denying my claims."

John grimaced. Shit, she was right. If she'd been wrong, he would've sarcastically agreed or just shrugged it off, but he hadn't.

He didn't know if she was right or wrong. He'd never really thought about himself that way before. All he knew was that he couldn't feel emotions aside from a few occasions, and that his emotions were needed to activate [Infinity]. He was aware that this was a side effect of his knowledge of the world, but now that he thought about it, what was the point he'd become like this?

In his previous world? During his lessons with Zero? After arriving in this world? At what point had he let go of emotions? No, that wasn't an accurate description of how he felt.

Sofya was right. He could laugh at jokes or feel upset that something had failed. He'd smile or frown. But it was almost never deep. It was more like he understood that he should be happy or sad and reacted accordingly.

She was right. He was never truly satisfied. He just accepted whatever came his way because that was all he could do. Prota had changed that to some extent, but still…

"But, it is strange," Sofya muttered. "For a man capable of ruling the world, you still lack desire… or, perhaps, it is your infinite ability that removes your innate desire for anything?"

Her words snapped John out of his trance. What was she talking about?

"Hey, whoah, back up. What?"

"You may deny it. But as you remain firm in your belief that I am a villain, I, too, shall remain firm in this belief. You wield a power greater than mana, do you not? A power with the ability to bend reality itself."

Something felt off. For the first time, John looked into Sofya's eyes, and what was there almost made him flinch.

He should've expected this. Sofya's little scheme had never been part of the original [Plot], at least, not in this method.

This was once again a consequence of his existence.

Her eyes, normally blue, were now a bright red, and they stared into John's soul.

"You share the same energy I possess, do you not? An energy greater than anything we have ever known."

[John.]

Apparently, the messaging system between soul and body was still functioning. It didn't matter. John already knew what was going on, even without Zero's advice.

[Yeah. [Deus Ex Machina] energy. That's our third time seeing it in this world.]

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