IF... [BOOK I]

IF... we take things back in time

She immediately chugged down on the water and gasped for air the moment after.

What a frantic one, she is

And tasty nee~

I told you to behave, Nero

Ugh! Nero know nee--

" -- I need your help. I lost it. It's gone!" continued her after able to form words properly.

Terry's brows tinted up as the result of her weird revelation.

"What do you mean by it's gone?"

"That is, you know I also have one, right, the same being rested behind you at the moment?"

"Uh, well, yeah"

"Th-- then! Won't you find it weird that it is nowhere to be found?!"

Huh? What does she mean by that?

"Diandra, I really start to wonder whether you're high at the moment" said Terry while taking another T-section and drove past several cars "But then, I realised that the only thing I see you drinking was that mineral water I offered you earlier. Are you on drugs?"

"Ugh! What do you mean-- "

"Nah, that seems not to be the case" mumbled him again while bringing his left palm closer to his clean chin.

What's with this guy?! I don't get him!

While Diandra was made confused by Terry incoherent speech, the car stopped in front of an apartment building.

"We're here"

"Ugh, where are we?!" murmured her while looking up through the car's window.

Oh, my apartment complex!

"I don't mind if you wanna go back to mine, but, I just wanna be a gentle man, that's all" whispered Terry in her ears "Or do you prefer the beast-me, after all?" 

Diandra twitched at the words spoken too close to her side face. She pushed open the car's door and swung the backpack to her back, while stuttering "N--no, thanks! Sorry to have you driven me back here. I'm so grateful!"

Terry chuckled on Diandra's overreaction. He let out a sigh to suppress the grin that was half alighted on his face.

"Hey, pink-cheek!" called Terry when Diandra readied herself back to her apartment "Let's talk again properly, soon. I'll call you"

Diandra did not say anything, but the blushing on her face was enough of an answer for Terry.

He closed the passenger seat's door and run his car toward the busy traffic. 

***

That flashback was three hours ago. At the moment, Terry was sitting on Dr. Larner's patient bed, inside the prodigy doctor's humble clinic.

He saw some medical records and awards hanged neatly on the nude-coloured wall surrounding him.

"When did it start behaving rowdy again?" questioned the doctor while pulling out a small amount of liquid from a medicine medium-size bottle with a syringe.

"I-- I do-- don't know, ma-- maybe around the afternoon, ugh!"

"I see" mumbled Dr. Larner, then bringing up the sharp needle until his eye level and flicking away the excess liquid gently with his middle finger "Does anything come to mind as the trigger behind its [comeback]?"

"Urgh!" Terry bit his lips as the liquid entered his nerves through the injection in his arm's pulse "I-- do-- don't remember!"

After emptying the syringe's tube, the doctor pull out the needle and closed the entrance with a cotton soaked in alcohol.

He asked Terry to press the cotton against his arm to prevent further bleeding.

Terry obediently did what he was told while letting out a relieved sigh. He did not fancy the medication, either temporary nor permanent, as both were painful as heck.

"But, this is quite peculiar, Terry" declared the doctor while getting closer to Terry with a glass of warm water in his hand. He shoved the glass forward to his late night patient. 

Terry received the cup from doctor's hand and started seeping from it. The warm water relaxed his muscles and helped him to calm his nerves.

Dr. Larner went back to his study table and started writing on his notes again. Terry took a glance at it but could not figure out what was written on.

Maybe one of unwritten requirements to become a full-fledged doctor was to have such handwriting which could also serve as secret codes.

Terry smirked at his own silly thoughts. How he could manage to be this goofy while facing such critical situation. The most plausible answer was due to the side effect of the temporary [repair].

"Looking through your performance report you should not need to see me anytime soon, though" mumbled the doctor, while sliding through the papers in front of him "What happened, really"

Terry did not deny the doctor's commentary as he was also confident in his mind and body durability -- though he did experience [frenzy] once. Yet, he believed it was due to his own carelessness.

Careless?

The word wrung something out of his memory. Just like that time, he might have also been careless.

And what was worse, the culprit might had made him lower his guard down without even knowing herself.

"Doctor, could there be a chance where the trigger behind [frenzy] is due to an interference of another version's holder?"

The doctor was halted by Terry sudden question. He furrowed his brows while murmuring "Yes, such thing can happen"

--///--