Chapter Text
"Nobody survived."
I declared, but the words died in the gust of howling police sirens and the whistling wind that numbed my nose and ears with frost.
"The last shot was like an exclamation point that summed up everything that had led me here."
I continued, savoring how the tension that had gripped my body for hours slowly ebbed away.
"I took my finger off the trigger. And that's how it ended", I said, looking from the platform on the roof of one of the local skyscrapers.
Far down there lay the helicopter, wrecked by the radio tower I'd toppled.
A helicopter that a certain bitch lacking both scruples and common sense had tried to escape in. Idiot. She should've shot me in the head back at the mafia don's villa instead of messing around with drugging. Sorry, she should've shot him. I was just playing his role.
Pretty damn well at that, though living through it personally instead of on a computer screen wasn't something I'd want or suggest to anyone. Shame I was never given the chance to refuse. On the bright side, I don't have to drag anyone into this "fun." On the dark side, there's someone out there who does that all the time.
For what, you ask? For their own amusement and to have me amuse others. Luckily today that was it; at one patron's request, I was just supposed to play through this game and show my take on Max Payne's first adventure.
I closed my eyes and the dawn of cold wind, the sounds of police sirens, and the piercing frost vanished. I opened them again and the familiar black room with one door greeted me. From my side, huge end credits were rolling by, listing the creators of one of my favorite games. One thing I have to admit, it was nice to go through this game once more. It let me peek deeper into the mind of that poor bastard.
Dammit, Horne is one vile bitch. If just playing the game on the computer didn't make me feel contempt, then living it gave me more reasons why blasting her was just a pure formality that should've been done ages ago. But no point dwelling on her; let the fact that there's nothing good to say about her do the work. She's already gotten her reward.
My thoughts were interrupted by a loud chime and then the familiar voice of the narrator saying "Message, sir." I smiled; I knew who it was from.
With one thought I activated the interface that popped up in front of me like in some sci-fi. It was the interface tailored to me from the G.A.M.E.R. system. The expansion of that acronym was some typical bullshit just to form the right word. Such a joke from the creators of this system, not very funny, we might add.
With a few swipes to the left I pushed the whole info aside to reach the window I needed. As soon as I found that program I needed, I just tapped it with my index finger. After a moment, like a program hidden on the taskbar, it popped up and took over the entire "desktop" of the Gamer.
What was it? Well, that method thanks to which I can entertain, at my own expense of course, viewers and patrons. The main reason I can go through Max Payne and other games and other cultural works personally and not through indirect means like for example a computer. Without of course asking first if I'd be interested in the whole venture.
As you can guess, the creators of this fucking mess are some real assholes.
That program and this whole mess is called, as the more perceptive readers have already realized, S.T.R.E.A.M.E.R. very original, right? That's also some deranged acronym meant only to... how to put it, add mystery or something like that. Screw knows, I didn't have and don't have the desire to remember what exactly makes up that damn thing.
As you can already guess for everyone, it's a novel system that lets streamers interact with the depicted world of the titles they're playing to an unprecedented degree but not only that. Movies, books, comics and whatever the soul desires can also be presented in a pleasant form to the viewers watching through this program.
Want to become for example Frodo Baggins or at least the tenth member of the Fellowship of the Ring and then show live what you're up to? By all means, Streamer allows it.
That's more or less how that "exceptionally friendly" neighborhood employer presented it to me. As he called himself. To me it's just some twisted mad-as-a-hatter distant cousin of the damn G-Man.
He even speaks quite similarly to him!
Alright, never mind that. Mentioning that guy turns my guts inside out. Not a very pleasant personality.
Let's get back to more pleasant things, like the chat that kept sending me donates and messages while I "played." I glanced at the real-time comments from viewers across the multiverse who were watching today's stream. I was mildly surprised, a good chunk of them apparently came from beings who were seeing this in action for the first time in their lives. There were also quite a few saying they regretted only now discovering Max Payne.
I threw an eye at the viewer counter which announced there were over five hundred thousand people at once. For an average regular streamer that was a big number but for STREAMER it was below average. Noticeably below average, the biggest had numbers that only in the lower range entered the quadrillions.
What? The multiverse is literally infinite, just a handful from each universe and the sums do their thing. Anyway, what did that number mean for me? A noticeable promotion, earlier the max I had was barely three hundred thousand. It was both luck, since there were more donations thanks to it, and bad luck, since it increases the chance of... very unpleasant types but maybe about that some other time.
Only when I got a notion of what was happening did I let the message pop up on the screen and the speech synthesizer read its content aloud. Of course that voice was the aforementioned narrator or more precisely the scribe from a certain very old game.
"So you said it! I knew you'd do it, here's your reward as per the deal." wrote a certain user hiding under the nick FallencoP01. The sum he sent was over 5 thousand zlotys or at least for me it was zlotys. For him it was another currency, most likely dollars.
"Well." I started replying as the STREAMER systems translated me in real time into the language of each of my viewers. "Hard to say anything else, standing up there high on the roof of that damn corpo, I understood what Max meant back then. It was a long hard night, during which I sent to the dirt dozens of bad guys wanting to get me." as if on cue I yawned and seriously the fatigue from nonstop fights started catching up to me.
"And it all started from one, accurately aimed bullet. A bullet that tore the last thread thin as a hair connecting Max to the normal world. Then he decided he had enough of it, enough of the games, the constant flirting and leading by the nose. He just gave up on all that and then set off on his revenge cleaning New York of though a small part of the filth sitting in it. Brutal, fact but for a man who has nothing left to lose it didn't matter. One thing mattered, to get every guilty one in this matter and get rid of him for good. Which he ultimately did."
A longer moment passed, a moment during which I wondered if there's something to add before the chime rang once more and the scribe announced another message. That one went like this.
"Though the original did a decent job showing how broken Max's mind was, what I saw here was extremely creepy. It's astonishing what a miracle Max was capable of acting." said Monarch who sent about a hundred.
"Indeed" I agreed "it was unsettling already then. But to live it personally?" I shuddered "If just watching was scary for you, then believe me living it personally and feeling his emotions then. Complete madness."
Fragments of memories from Max's suffering mind which of course as part of "going through the plot" I had to see and experience. Because there's no option to turn it off, because that's not what the creators of this shit wanted. It was damn painful.
Painful for two reasons, first which is quite obvious, what he lived through was damn awful. Though I still had it better than the guys who for example decided to "go through" Re:Zero. One of my buddies decided to do it and oh screw. The guy went completely gray and he hadn't even turned 25 yet.
The second pain though is not obvious, but if you think you'll guess what it is. In short, you live personally someone else's emotions, behavior and thoughts. That clashes with your own feelings in that situation.
If you're not resilient enough or at least don't have the same emotions in that situation, you feel like you're splitting in two. I happen to be one of the first ones but even so it wasn't something I'd recommend to anyone.
Luckily that rule applies only to games like Payne where it's an integral part of the "gameplay."
After a moment another donate popped up, this time from a guy with the nick Onetruezajons. The sum he sent was solid, very solid. It was over a hundred thousand zlotys. I made big eyes stunned by the amount.
"Wow" I replied not knowing for a moment what to say. Luckily my scribe gave me something.
"Dude, you're either a fucking born lucky son of a bitch or a fucking terminator. I've seen many who were pretty good at this stuff but sooner or later they'd trip on something. I heard a bit about you, many guys recommended you to me and spoke of you in pure superlatives.” Amused, I rolled my eyes, giving a slight shake of my head.
„I thought they were bullshitting or pulling my leg. But fuck, I turn it on and look and can't believe my eyes. You tore those types apart without a shadow of a problem and it's fuck as I see, the highest specially overdone difficulty level, without a single death. How do you do it? PS, Here, you earned this cash."
Right after that a whole series of comments in similar style popped up. Many of them were just in similar style, someone told them there's this STREAMER who does everything on the hardest like it's some damn easy. They didn't believe but decided to check to their own positive surprise.
I smiled nervously and with my right hand tried to hide my smile. I didn't know what to say. Because how was I supposed to explain it? That I really don't even notice the difference?
After a moment I figured the best way to answer is as always, honestly.
"Honestly?" I replied pausing theatrically "I have no damn clue, it was set like that from the very beginning and considering I went through the "tutorial" game without a problem and that level has fucking awesome bonuses I figured. That screw it, let it stay at worst if there are problems I'll lower it."
After that answer a mass of expected emotes, comments and the like popped up. Those split into two groups, those who knew and said stuff like that's our Bartek. And those saying fucking lucky bastard or cheater. Of course the second was in jest, because the GAMER system is impossible to cheat unless it allows it itself.
Example? Well, I'll use something I often apply myself. Imagine you take the ODST armor set but add to it the exo from COD:AW and add a jump pack with the appropriate pilot skill from Titanfall.
Now toss that into some game that's completely not adapted to it like Wolfenstein, or simply for example into Halo 3:ODST. Effect? Total carnage. To make it funnier the STREAMER itself encourages such world-breaking.
No wonder anyway, to stand out among the countless Streamers you have to do something noticeably different. I of course didn't want to but I did it just to make my life easier. Because hey, no one forbids it.
Of course there were such "playthroughs" where I didn't do that like just Max Payne where I limited myself only to what that game has to offer.
The next half hour I spent answering various donates, because during the stream where I go through the game for my own peace they're turned off, you can only send a donation without a message. Exceptions are such worlds where you can simply stand calmly for a while, or where I can problem-free talk with the chat during action because it won't throw me off balance.
When I was already about to shut the whole thing down and head off for well-deserved rest and dinner/breakfast screw knows what time it is now, the last unusual donate popped up for me. It was a special donate which in exchange for consent to some action you could get payment.
That was received either after fulfilling the conditions or right away. Depending on the donor's will. What's worse, there are no rules what can be in them, you can ask for anything but luckily you can't force it on the Streamer.
Of course I received many such, after all I started Max Payne with one. What surprised me about that one was its short almost downright pleading form and the amount it offered.
"Can we meet? Please, I have a personal request about which I want to talk in four eyes." it came from someone hiding under the nick PGSC3020792. That person offered merely a tenner.
One of the things STREAMER allows in its special donates was a request for a personal meeting. It allows that, because if such a person turned out to be pushy, like for example a psycho fan.
You can without any trouble throw that person out and completely block their possibility of contacting you.
Luckily it's not that frequent and for people known for such approach there's set an automatic warning, informing about who that individual is.
Initially I wanted to refuse, I was really tired and had no desire for any such talks. From experience I knew those are often long discussions, which of course are pleasant meetings and often can form the seed of a very useful acquaintance.
Nonetheless, as I mentioned I didn't have the strength and when I don't have strength I usually have much less self-control over myself which leads to me being maliciously impolite or at least tactless.
But somehow my conscience when I only brought my finger to the button to refuse started telling me I'd regret it and not to do it. I hesitated and a quiet voice from behind begged me to give that person a chance.
I felt I was standing before a choice, bigger than ever before. Not the first time either, something told me to do this and not that.
What did I do in such situations? I said then... why not? It was the same in this situation. It lasted seconds but for me it was like eternity, before my hand moved on its own to the right and pressed the green consent button.
After a moment a blue flash rang out, announcing that the person wanting to meet had been transferred here from wherever she was. As soon as the light vanished a certain person appeared before my eyes.
An extremely familiar person, as the realization hit me who it was, immediately without goodbye with one thought I shut down STREAMER.
It was a young girl with light-blue hair. Above her head hovered a characteristic white halo with what seemed like a star's glow inside. She wore her characteristic white uniform which unfortunately was stained with blood.
The girl was on her knees when she appeared and with difficulty, as I noticed, propped herself with one hand, and with the other held her stomach.
Despite those difficulties she lifted her face known to me but at the same time alien and replied with a voice I'd heard countless times. Though noticeably with a lower tone. "Hello, Aramus Sensei."
And the smile didn't leave her face.
Immediately I pulled one of the chairs that stand in that place. Then I helped her sit on it. After which I proceeded to hasty examinations but she stopped me from that.
"No need Sensei, I won't need that. Never again, I suppose." she replied calmly but it couldn't be hidden the sadness in her voice as she said the last sentence.
"That's irresponsible, you know?" I replied a bit irritated by the recklessness and at the same time realizing what she meant.
"I know, I told you after all." she replied "You remember, right?"
I stopped, thinking about whom exactly she meant. "You mean..." I wanted to ask the question but the girl gave me the answer I was looking for.
"I don't mean you as Aramus, Sensei. But you as you, the one who isn't limited by someone else's vision."
"Oh..." I could only squeeze that out of myself. Then I realized something.
"Uno momento, por favor." I replied showing her with a gesture to hold for a moment in case she wanted to say something. "How do you know that I'm Aramus but not quite?"
Of course I knew that game worlds are very much real, hard to be surprised I myself ended up in many of them. Those were someone's homes, where people and other beings lived, fought and built their small world as they saw fit.
I always kept that in mind, so I avoided the common mistake that many GAMERs made who made playgrounds out of such places, of course the effects of that are easy to predict.
But for exactly this version of the universe, where there's an obvious self-insert character that I played in the game, to contact me I hadn't met yet. That is, I'd heard that something like that is possible but it's so rare that it passes for an urban legend.
She smiled but her smile expressed hidden pain "For the same reason for which I'm here, Aramus Sensei. Sorry, Bartłomiej Sensei. That's your real name, right?"
"Reason?" I replied, and something inside told me that what I'd hear wouldn't please me at all.
"After all as Aramus I made that second, better timeline. Since only such is available in the game! What happened?!" I added and the anger which I'd quite well hidden at first started spilling out during the response.
"So that's what you're really like Sensei." the intrigued girl replied. "You liked us, right?"
"Well yeah." I replied thrown off. "How could I not do it? Probably that's what the point of a good story in a gacha game is. For players to get attached to the characters and pay cash for things in the shop."
"But you never once paid, right?" she replied with a joking smirk.
"And why?" I replied "For such ripping things I'm Scrooge McDuck! Hard and honest work with no small cunning and not common scam!"
The girl giggled hearing the response. After a moment I joined the giggles. It took us a bit before we returned to the conversation.
"Thanks, it helped." I replied noticing how the accumulated anger evaporated in a flash.
"No problem, Sensei." the girl replied. "Alright, since we have that behind us I'll answer you." she added after a moment decidedly more seriously.
The atmosphere relaxed by the detour from the topic, tensed up again like a string in a piano. I already heard in my imagination, a very characteristic and extremely fitting fragment from the Blue Archive soundtrack turning on in such moments. I'm talking of course about Interface.
"You asked, what happened? I myself don't know to the end," she shook her head "one day everything seems like it should be thanks to Aramus's actions. The next suddenly Aramus Sensei disappears and disappears completely, as if such a person never existed. After which everything he did was undone, to then return to the state before everything both in the original and the better timeline. What's stranger, only I one remembered what happened."
I froze for a moment, before I made my characteristic face of irritation and pensiveness. Then I started circling around and asking questions.
"I guess that because of that, you had to repeat OTL from new, right?"
She nodded "That's right, but it was even worse."
"Meaning?" I asked but I expected the worst.
"Remember Sensei how I mentioned in the train about all that is my fault?" I nodded "One of the things I said, was that you were right from the beginning and I was too stupid to listen to you."
I made big eyes, and inside I felt fear. "Wait, you surely don't want to say..."
The sadness unfortunately on her face confirmed my fears. "Unfortunately Sensei, but I must. There was no you there in any form, I couldn't find you at all. And I searched far and wide."
I had only one thing to say. A simple and known worldwide curse. "Fuck." after a moment I reflected that there's a relatively young person here and it probably isn't appropriate. "Sorry."
"No need Sensei, you have the right to it. Here there aren't too many easy words for an answer." the understanding girl replied. And on her pretty face for the first time settled the suppressed inside fury. She clenched her hands tightly.
I waited a moment before she calmed down to continue the questions.
"Alright, you mentioned the reason thanks to which you're here and from where you know who Aramus really was. What is it?"
She sighed deeply. "I think you know him Sensei."
"Meaning?" I asked right away, before the thought illuminated me of whom exactly she speaks.
"Initially I thought it was some undiscovered yet member of Gematria, or that some disturbance happened and a new temporal anomaly appeared. But with time I guessed that he is someone more, though he disguised himself as one of Gematria it seemed to me an artificial mask. A sort of clothing he donned, so I wouldn't guess anything at the beginning."
My fears then underwent painful confirmation. It was him. That damn asshole who dragged me into all this.
"Unfortunately, my assumptions were correct." she continued the statement as if she didn't see what I think inside but a short glance at her, or more precisely at her worried blue eyes. They showed that she knew, hard to be surprised she probably got to know him from the same side as I myself.
"When everything ended, and the last shot was like an exclamation point which summed up everything that led me to the end." she continued, probably trying to make me at least slightly smile with her paraphrase of the ending quote from Max Payne.
"He introduced himself and asked if I enjoyed the show." It didn't escape my notice how quickly she tried to get through that sentence. She perfectly guessed my extremely negative reaction. What's more she skipped his name, probably wanting to avoid my outburst.
I smiled lightly seeing that despite everything she lived through, she tries to spare me nerves.
"I'll allow myself to skip my response to his greeting." she replied lightly but I saw that small spark of anger in her eyes. Oh, she surely gave him a piece of her mind good, shame only that for him it's everyday bread so he doesn't do anything with it.
"In response though he proposed a sort of apologies. He offered me the possibility of becoming a viewer in STREAMER and seeing my true Sensei." I snorted, that was in his style.
"In this way I realized who you really are, Sensei." I saw her sincere smile.
"He also told me that if I want, I can pull you here if I have the courage to ask you for help." I rolled my eyes, from what I knew she rather doesn't lack courage. "After which he gave me some small change for a donate and decided to leave. Surprised by his behavior I asked why he does this and he replied..."
"That he does it for greater entertainment of the viewers, right?" I cut her off.
"Yes" she nodded.
I sighed with irritation. The whole fucking him. To wreck someone's life, for the fun of people in interdimensional cable or some other system and then with non-apologizing apologies propose a way to fix it. Of course in such a way that it would be even funnier. For him of course.
"Alright, I understand I have two more questions." I added after a moment.
"What Sensei?" she asked surprised.
"First, how could you watch me? Did he give you something?" I asked because usually his gifts... have unwanted side features.
"No..." the girl replied slowly. "He just said I already have everything I need, he just showed me which hidden function in the Chest to turn on to make it possible."
"Phew..." I breathed a sigh of relief. So he just turned on one of the functions of that tablet. After which I pondered, that little thing, can do something like that? Cool. Then I smiled at her.
"Alright, so what did you watch for the first time? What Stream?"
She was surprised by the question, but decided to answer. It took her a moment before she gave the answer. During that time she made a cute pensive face. By the way I must add, it's pretty surreal to see a character from anime as a real person. Ironically, I must add, her drawings in the game, don't do her justice. She's really pretty, actually more pretty than in the game.
"I think it was that one where you were flying in the desert and fighting that..." she started snapping her fingers "Kaiser?" she added uncertainly.
I chuckled, technically she wasn't wrong. Caesar, should be pronounced Kaizar. Though all peoples twisted that word in all directions as they could. Funny that actually only the Germans were closest.
When I was already about to respond, she made an embarrassed face and started waving her hands trying to stop me from speaking.
"Sorry, sorry. I got it wrong! It was one of the later ones! I just remember it well." she replied quickly. And I raised my eyebrows, seeing her face. Something told me there's quite a good reason why she's so nervous like that. And if I found out I'd have a good laugh from it.
"Oki" I replied "so then which?" I asked with a big grin on my face.
"It's that one... you know." she started nervously tapping her fingers. I admit it's quite strange seeing that gesture from anime in reality.
"Where you fought with a certain guy with the surname Irons and spectacularly defeated him by throwing him off the roof saying at that..." and here she lowered her voice "Yes, Mr. Irons? Take it then." After which with a knife you cut off your prosthetic and that one screaming your real surname fell down into the fire."
I stiffened, that was... one of the earliest Streams I did. Back then I was just taking first steps. When was that? So long ago that I lost count. Wanting to make sure I added. "So you watched the recording, a bit boring for a start you couldn't react together with the chat."
"It was live, Sensei. I wrote a few comments, one you even read aloud between missions." she replied seriously.
Unfortunately, it confirmed certain of my fears. "Sorry, but how long have you been watching my Streams?"
"A few months Sensei. Unfortunately preparations took me some time." she replied slowly and her head slowly lowered so as not to see my gaze.
"You're planning to repeat the same as in the second, right?" I asked slowly.
"Yes" she nodded slowly.
So you're planning to disappear into the box where no one can find you, right?" I pressed.
"That's the price so you have the possibility to fix Kivotos and pull us out of the twisted fate that awaits us." she replied but with each next word I felt less certainty in it and more fear.
For a longer moment a dead silence fell, no wonder. Besides a few dead furniture, a wall on which like in a cinema hall you can play various things and our duo there was nothing that could make a sound.
"You're trying to trick me, right?" I finally spoke. "You don't have to become..." I tried to say but she interrupted me sharply.
"I must!" she shouted at the top of her lungs and tears flowed in her eyes.
"Sorry, Sensei." she added after a moment realizing what she did. "It's just..." her voice broke. The President of the General Student Council vanished and there appeared simply a girl broken by life. "simply... as long as I'm with you as me... You don't have enough authority nor possibilities to act as needed and what's worse..."
"Don't finish." I interjected "I understand." I added after a moment.
She looked straight into my eyes, and I saw something. Something that such a young person in such a peaceful place as Kivotos, shouldn't experience.
Despair.
"Alright" I started wanting to pull her out of that state "let's assume that I 'agree' to your stupid, irresponsible and shortsighted approach." she wanted to say something but I prevented her with a hand gesture ordering her to hold.
"I want to ask why me? After all I'm not the ideal 'Sensei' like the one from the game. I won't be bound by the scenario, actually I'll make a different decision in many places. What's more important I don't think that someone like me... would be a good example and teacher for others. I easily fall into anger, I prefer to think mainly about myself, I'm not retentive and I often fall."
The girl chuckled "That's one of your flaws which I managed to catch on Streams, Sensei." with a gentle smile she added "But appropriately kept in check, it constitutes one of your virtues."
"Which?" I replied incredulously.
"Humility." she replied honestly. Seeing my lack of conviction, she added "Though you have a tendency to excessive self-criticism, you know how to restrain yourself appropriately. Especially with help from others, thanks to that you know how to keep wisdom in appropriate situations and through that make the world better."
I rolled my eyes, yeah sure.
She shook her head lightly seeing my refusal. "Sensei." she spoke again and the President returned in place of the ordinary girl.
"It's true that you easily fall into anger, but your mercy is stronger than it. It's true that you behave egoistically and can make a fuss because of it, but your sense of duty is more powerful than that. It's true that you have a tendency to forgetting many things, but never important ones. And though you often fall, you always have enough wisdom and humility to get back up and in important matters they'd sooner tear you apart than you break."
Seeing that I don't intend to contradict she added.
"Therefore, forgive this bold request Sensei, but I ask you for help. You're the only person to whom I can trust. The only one who can free us from this twisted and cursed fate. Find a solution which will lead us there, where we should turn." she continued her reasoning.
"Therefore, please... help us all." she finished pleadingly and before me popped up a screen. A screen of special request, which every patron can issue. In the window though was a really symbolic sum, one zloty. Then I understood why she gave only a tenner earlier.
She spent almost everything on the patron.
I looked carefully at what she proposed to me, many duties and small reward. What's worse she knew a lot about STREAMER, saw its possibilities herself and yet asked me for help instead of looking for someone else.
Cold, cynical reason said I should refuse. But I didn't intend to listen to it, it almost never gave good advice in such important matters. I preferred to choose that quiet, almost incomprehensible voice saying one thing.
Accept.
I sighed for the last time, after which without hesitation I raised my hand. "You're absolutely sure, of this?" I asked for the last time, stopping my hand right above the button.
"Yes." she replied confidently.
"You know I'll do everything to pull you out?" I replied to her.
"I assume so, but I don't think it would be possible Sensei." she replied with a sad smile.
"Bet?" I asked her slyly.
"Bet." she agreed. "What do you bet?"
"Simple, if I manage to pull you out of the magic box then next I'll punish you for this stunt." I replied smiling with a smirk.
"With force?" she asked probably guessing what I alluded to.
"Indeed, I'll use force." I agreed.
"Truly, because reason is boring. Right Sensei?" she replied appropriately, smiling widely and showing her pretty white teeth.
"And indeed." I replied after which I pressed the button on consent. After a moment info popped up if I want to transfer to Kivotos right away. I pressed yes without hesitation. A warning appeared with showing time.
"I said I'd say something that you won't remember this, but you probably aren't affected by that, Bartłomiej Sensei." she replied jokingly referring to her words from the game.
"Bartek." I replied simply.
"Huh" she was astonished.
"Call me Bartek, Bartłomiej is only in official documents and in Offices." I explained.
She looked at me for a moment astonished before for the next and last time she smiled widely. "Understood, Sensei... No, Bartek." She repeated slowly, with noticeable problem pronouncing my name.
"Remember then one thing. We long for the wailing of Jericho. We bear the seven koans." she stopped for a moment after which she added "And apologize to Rinny for me, okay?"
"Alright, I'll remember... Arona." I replied after which the characteristic beeping rang on the last three numbers and when the last longer beep rang and the world flashed and we both disappeared.
To end up where we should find ourselves.