See No Evil [Work Thread]

The wafting scent of ancient and dusty papers was immediately apparent as Cecilia boldly flung the door to the office open. A blinding light shot through the windows behind the man in black who sat in front of her and she found herself instinctively raising her arm up to shield her retinas from the harsh rays that lunged at them, but she'd slowly lower it as her eyes adjusted to the room and then proceeded to analyze its almost suffocatingly mundane contents. Practically speaking, the whole place was just one giant container for paperwork, and beyond archaic arrangements of clocks, knick-knacks, and the occasional novella that was all there was to this place. Well, that is, all there was other than the man himself and the desk up ahead. She couldn't say she'd met Mr. Pucalet before -- in fact, in spite of the fact that he apparently taught at Seven Stars and that he had this office right inside Class Zero, she hadn't been aware of his existence until recently when she was instructed by one of her superiors to report to him for a confidential mission. It was easy to tell why. Monochrome in color and monotonous in essence, she was instantly aware of his unassuming nature as an individual from the second she laid eyes on him... It wasn't so much dust that this room reeked of as it was the overpowering stench of bureaucracy.


Hopefully, this would be over with soon. Her place was on the field where she could make a difference, not cramped up in a stuffy room like this. That wasn't to imply she didn't have a modicum of respect for the man (or perhaps more accurately respect for what he did) -- all within society served a valuable place -- but she knew for a fact that this guy's style wasn't the type to mix well with hers. Maybe if he was actually a comrade she could abide being lectured by him, but he was just any old government servant as far as she was aware... though considering how little she knew about him, maybe it was possible that he was a part of Class Zero? There was no point in delaying things with idle speculation though. Cecilia did as asked and slumped down in the sooty wooden chair prepared for her, however, regardless of her getting to the point he'd draw the time out nonetheless with an abnormally long sip of coffee from his plain looking beige mug.


And then he set it down.


...and picked it back up and took another sip.



...and another.


It took a few seconds, but thankfully he appeared to be finished. Setting down the cup again, he----"sweet fucking isla no stop it man come on." The slip of tongue seemed to catch his attention thankfully. She was a bit worried he'd be enraged at the abrupt interruption, but the man in black simply placed the coffee down on the desk and folded his hands together, seeming to abide by her rather uncouth request. She was starting to feel somewhat optimistic now admittedly, however, the fact that he didn't stand his ground also rubbed her the wrong way. Were she in his shoes, she certainly wouldn't have let that pass without even directing so much as a word at the remark. "You're certainly as spirited as I was informed. Let's get down to business then: you know why I called you here, correct?" He began with a wave of his hand. She wasn't entirely sure what he was expecting, but she at least knew that he had been tasked with delivering some sort of mission to her, though the greater specific details of what it entailed eluded her thanks to their exclusion from the message. It had been her assumption that he'd be explaining it more in depth to her once she arrived and judging from the fact that he didn't wait for a response that was presumably the case.

"Not everyone has the potential, so every volunteer we get to join the Cadets is a valuable one. This is something that all familiar with the supernatural know... unfortunately. We've recently been having a string of unusual cases crop up. People who've openly expressed a desire to join Class Zero or the Cadets on the Outer Rim are being targetted by someone -- not murdered, but they haven't come out exactly unscathed either. The exact damages vary; sometimes the victim's just intimidated and maybe roughed up, others they might be hospitalized for a short duration, maybe even have limbs broken in extreme cases. Normally we would have cracked down on this sooner, however, we've only recently had witnesses speak up about their experiences. Before this, there weren't any reports coming in about it all, though it's impossible to say right now whether that's because the incidents only began a few weeks ago or if they've been going on longer. I'm leaning toward the latter myself. The testimonies seem to imply that intimidation was the motive and I'm not sure what other reasons a Psyche Terrorist could have for non-lethally targetting individual civilians with only one common link between them."


"You're stating the obvious, but yes. See no evil: if we never caught onto it then there wouldn't be anyone who could stop them. Though at the same time, in many of the more drastic cases they don't seem to have used their Persona at all offensively. Like I said earlier, more than a handful of their victims have been put out of commission by injuries inflicted on the body. There's little benefit to bombarding the soul if their intention was to lay low and strike at would-be recruits without offing them in the process. In fact, more than a few of these were under police jurisdiction prior to the supernatural involvement coming to light."

"So how do we stop them? Do they have a domain?"

"None that any of us are aware of. They're also forcing us to act more covertly than we normally would; if their goal is to browbeat people into giving up on joining then causing a ruckus about this and drawing attention to them would only do their work for them. That's why we're only gathering a small task force for this mission and the fact that the odds are stacked against us made me cautious enough to suggest limiting that group to the ranks of Class Two and above. All that said, you and your teammates for this will be shadowing a plant we've set up. I trust you're familiar with the Helper Sorority?"

"Yeah. I'm actually a member." She hadn't been attending meetings that lately. It was mainly due to her newfound duties as a soldier being more plentiful than she had expected, but also... Well, it wasn't like that mattered much, so there was no point in thinking about it. Such reservations were irrelevant to the situation at hand and they on their own weren't enough to stop her from attending considering the purpose of the club.

"Good. Then you're already familiar with many of the members' desire to be inducted into Class Zero. While you were dealing with the Painter yesterday we had one of them undergo the ritual and welcomed them into the ranks. Their status isn't currently known yet, so thanks to their vocality about their intentions prior to the awakening we've decided to make this their first assignment. They'll act as the bait. It's risky given that they're the only new Cadet amongst the rest of you, but it's better than sending someone with no potential at all in. Anyway, what I've said should suffice. They and the others should be able to fill you in on the strategy for the night. You'll all be meeting here at Class Zero at..." Her focus slowly faded as she nodded her head a couple of times in false attentiveness while thinking the situation over. It was quite an odd one compared to her last few tasks, but it also sounded simpler in that sense, less dangerous than clawing through hordes of demons to fight a terrorist in their own turf. She wouldn't know fully what to expect until they sorted out the details, but for now, it seemed her assessment while heading here was correct. After he finished the last menial scraps of his spiel and they said their goodbyes, Cecilia would depart from the office and head out. Whoever the terrorist was, they'd bring them to justice, just like they had with all the rest.