Arc’s eyes widened as he stared at the girl in front of him. What just happened? Did she really just speak... spanish? It’s been a while since he heard soone else speak it, but she said, ¡Soy Jane! ¡Soy de la Tierra, como tú!, aning... I’m Jane! I’m from Earth, like you!
"What kind of language is that supposed to be?" he laughed, of course just trying to play it off. He wasn’t going to fall for a trap so easily. But the girl just turned her head slightly to the side.
""Tú eres ’Arc’, ¿verdad? ¡Tu padre habló de ti! (You’re ’Arc’, right? Your father told about you!)" she said.
Arc’s face dropped slightly for a mont. The fact that Eiro told others about his secrets wasn’t expected, though in this case it was understandable. Well, not that Arc cared too much. It was just a bit surprising. But... from her accent and the way she was carrying herself, she sounded genuine. This wasn’t so kind of trap set to find otherworlders.
"¿Eres la persona que mi papá quería que conociera?" he replied, finally just giving up. The girl’s slightly worried expression imdiately lit back up.
"¡Sí! ¡Estoy seguro de que soy yo! (Yes! I’m sure that’s !)" Jane said excitedly, nodding her head hurriedly. Arc sighed, turning to his siblings.
"Sorry, looks like this is the girl dad wanted to et later. I’ll... talk to her about sothing real quick."
"Sure..." Sammy replied, frowning lightly, "What kind of language was it, though? You sound pretty fluent in it."
"... It’s the language of the Nunya," Arc explained, making a nervous expression. Clentine’s eyes widened imdiately.
"Nunya? What’s that?" she wondered curiously. Rudy was too late to stop her.
"None-of-ya business," Arc quickly turned away, trying to push Jane toward an alley to talk to her in peace. But Jane imdiately jumped away, shaking her head. She rushed to the alley ahead of Arc, and so, he just followed.
"¡Esto es tan emocionante! ¿De dónde eras en el pasado? ¿Eras tú–? (This is so exciting! Where were you from in the past? Were you-)"
Before Jane could finish her question, Arc interrupted her, "Sorry, uh, do you mind if we speak common? Spanish was, like, my third language, so I didn’t speak it that well. And I’m 17 now, so it’s been basically two decades since I actually used it in conversation."
The girl’s smile dropped, "Oh... yeah, that’s fine," she replied. Her voice sounded pretty different like this, though Arc knew how that was like. He tended to act slightly differently in whatever language he spoke on earth.
"But... you asked where I was from, right? Technically france, but we moved to arica when I was, like, two? California. LA, specifically. What about you?"
"I was from spain, Talavera de la Reina. It’s in Toledo, if you know it."
"Oh yeah, spain. Should’ve guessed from the spanish. Also, I guess I should stop doubting you now... Talavera de la Reina doesn’t sound like the kind of town na an Inquisitor would know," Arc laughed, and the girl tilted her head to the side.
"Inquisitor? What’s that?"
"Well, an Inquisitor. You know, from the Holy Empire and stuff. Actively try to eradicate every single otherworlder from this planet?"
The girl’s face went pale, "Those are a thing? But why would they want to do that?"
"Otherworlders can be pretty dangerous. We tend to get special abilities when we’re brought here, you know?"
"Oh... your father ntioned that, I think..."
"What, did you never read any webnovels? Manga? Webtoons? That kinda thing?"
"Uh... I think I heard of manga before, but what are ’web’-novels? And cartoons?"
Arc furrowed his brow curiously, "Sorry if this is too much, but when did you die exactly?"
Jane thought about it for a mont, "It should have been... 1987?"
The young man’s eyes widened in surprise, "Oh! That’s interesting. I died in 2019. And I’m sohow... older than you? Did you live another life inbetween?"
Jane shook her head, and Arc just shrugged, "Well, if we can move across worlds, our tilines being a little different isn’t that shocking."
He noticed that Jane was looking at him a bit taken aback, "You’re taking all this pretty well... How do you do that? Isn’t this world super scary?"
"Oh, it is, I’m consciously aware of all that. I just don’t feel fear. Or sadness, or anger, or... well, any other emotion that would be considered ’negative’. So more complex emotions are blocked just partially, like... sha, for example. Cause sha feels bad, but I never really thought about it as too big a deal? Oh, and confusion is also blocked a bit, apparently."
"That was your unique skill?"
"Mhm. It’s pretty useful if you don’t want to worry about an order of maniacs whose whole goal it is to kill you, you know?" Arc laughed a bit, though when he saw Jane’s expression, he slowed down to just a smile, rather than a laugh, "Sorry, it’s just hard to be appropriate when you’re always ’happy’."
"... I’m quite jealous of that ability."
"Don’t be. It’s the most miserable thing in the world," he said, smiling from ear to ear, "I’m not scared of anything, which isn’t a great mix with my skill that blocks pain, cause I keep doing reckless shit. But hey, I don’t even feel really guilty about the trouble I cause my family, which I can recognize as horrible on a conscious level, but again... I don’t care. When my birth parents sold into slavery after my unique skills were found, I just waved at them with a smile on my face, whistling a tune. Hell, if one of my siblings died, I wouldn’t be able to feel grief. I hate this. Which, of course I don’t, because I can’t actually hate anything. I just... know I would be happier if I could be sad sotis. Does that make sense?"
"No?"
"h, whatever, that’s fine. Lucky for you, I can’t get annoyed, either," he explained with a smile, placing his arms behind his back, "So, what about you? What are your skills? I’m guessing it’s got sothing to do with touch. Probably sothing you can’t quite control. But... it’s not a destructive ability. With how jittery and jumpy you are about tiny things already, it’s probably just an ability that affects you negatively. Otherwise you wouldn’t dare co into the middle of town so haphazardly. So kind of copy ability? Maybe insight?"
Arc read the twists and twitches on Jane’s face as he spoke, but the girl wasn’t really hiding her surprise either.
"Whoa! That’s so cool, you sound just like your father!"
His smile only grew larger at that, "Oh, thank you! That’s really nice of you to say! So, insight, then? Sothing overwhelming for you, so... you get a ton of information at once?"
Jane nodded her head, as if this had suddenly turned into a guessing-ga, "Yes! Exactly!"
"So? I don’t think I’ve got enough info to guess the rest. What’s your ability?"
Though she seed a little disappointed for a mont, Jane slowly cleared her throat, "My skill is ’The Eye of Ti’. I can see a short amount into the future when sothing a little notable happens... like, soone tripping, or sothing breaking, things like that. Or well, I have to see into the future. And then on the other side... when I touch an object, I see its mories, or rather it’s ’past’."
"Shit, alright. That sounds actually really damn useful... I keep feeling like I drew the short end of the stick," Arc briefly sighed, "But seriously, that sounds really cool. Do you know what you’re planning on doing with that ability?"
Jane quickly shook her head, "No... my class right now is called ’Tiless Child’. It just helps use my skills better... I’m still thinking about what I could do to help."
"Fair enough, yeah. You’ve got ti. Either way, no matter what you pick, it sounds like you’d co in useful."
"Thank you! What are you doing? Or planning?"
"Right now I attend Skyhart’s Academy. My dad actually teaches there, so if he’s guiding you, you’re in pretty good hands," he pointed out. Jane already seed incredibly curious, though Arc quickly continued, "But... after that? I’ll be finishing my first year in two or three months, so I should be done with my tracks when I’m 19? At that point, if I’m strong enough, I’ll just get into adventuring."
"Adventuring? Isn’t that dangerous?"
"Sure, but rember... no fear. Plus, I’m basically just trying to make up for things I couldn’t do in my last life. I was really, really sick the last few years of my life, and even before then, I was pretty weak and got sick often. So we were never able to travel a ton. We went to visit my grandparents in france a couple tis, but then they died, so... that stopped. So I’m thinking about catching up on that, and being an adventurer is sort of the best way to do that for . What about you, is there anything that you always wanted to do in your past life?"
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