#plot au

It was early in the morning , the Sun was barely up in the sky and the morning cold air roamed , marking down that the winter season was soon to come. It was no surprise that Joelle had dug herself deep into the mysteries of the ancient civilizations and the amount of history that followed right after it. She was so invested in finding more information about the arrows and all the crazy 'magical artifacts' that she never really noticed that she hasn't slept for 2 days straight . The purple-haired pillar was looking through so much paperwork to the point where it was scattered all over the place in her office . Every little second was of value if it meant finding more information upon how they can put a stop to it all... a stop to the amount of madness that was growing more and more each passing day. It almost felt like she wasn't getting anywhere , it felt like an endless maze that you're trying to escape to reach the secrets behind it. The more turns you make , the more tangled up you get yourself and keep wondering when will you see the exit of it. She paused herself for a short moment to regain herself , since it felt like the lack of sleep is finally catching up to her , she reached over to the fresh cup of tea she made earlier to try and keep herself awake at some point. Joe focused herself completely on each and every letter that was written on each of the papers until she heard her phone ring , causing her to nearly jump out of her seat and in the whole process without even realizing she had waved her hand to the side hard enough to knock down the cup she had on her desk .

->"Ahh!! Shit , Shit!! I should of known better than to leave it there!! It was gonna happen sooner or later...!!"

She huffed annoyed to herself , because she had one at the back of her head knowing that this will happen sooner or later. A heavy sigh left her lips as she used her ability to rewind the whole scene so the cup was safely returned back in it's previous position. Joe had to make sure not to cause any harm on the amount of papers that were scattered all over the place , since some were very valuable and there was no way she could find a replica if it was damaged. Now all that was left now was to find where the melody from her phone was coming from... She tried to possibly organize some stuff but it was not happening... she began to get more and more frustrated when the piles she had just tidied fell over. Joe looked so tired.. in all honesty she just wanted to fall into the pile of papers and just sleep for days... but that was not going to happen. She took a moment to herself to collect her thoughts , before using her ability one more time to give her the advantage of everything to just float around , giving her so much more space to find where her phone was. After nearly 30 minutes of searching around and probably over 10 missed calls she had finally found it under a large pile of papers. Joe finally managed to pick up getting a rather irritated tone on the other side.

📱 ->" Where were you?! Why didn't you pick up your phone!!? I rang nearly 20 times!! "

The familiar voice was none other than Rei himself , sounding rather angry .

📱 ->" I'm sorry , I'm sorry!! I didn't know where my phone was so I had to search for it... "

Joe brought up her excuse , Rei just sighed heavily.

📱->" I need your assistance on a very serious and 'delicate' case. We might of possibly found more clues that could give us good leads . "

Rei spoke up , as Joe felt her body all of sudden beam with energy the moment he mentioned that 'he found something that will help them.' But then again that left her in wonder what could he possibly mean with it ... surely for a while now , they have been bumping into a lot of dead ends but perhaps this time might be different , or so she hoped.

📱->"Alright! Where are we meeting up?"

She asked.

📱->" I'll have a car come pick you up so you don't have to wander around and waste more time , be ready in an hour. "

Rei gave out his order , before hanging up the phone. Joe began to feel a bit more energized by the news she had just received but there was till that feeling to the side of her body feeling rather heavy from the lack of sleep. She made sure to use this 1 hour she had to freshen up and clean up a bit , so her office wasn't a complete mess. Finally the last minute hit as she headed outside to be greeted by the car that was going to pick her up. Joe felt herself tilting her head to the side , as the tiredness was getting harder to fight with. 'Maybe I can take a short nap...' was the last though that came to mind until she doze off. The ride was rather short , it only took around maybe 25 minutes until Joe felt someone shaking her awake , causing her to freak out.

->"AAH-!! OH uhmm... I am awake , I wasn't sleeping... !!!"

She cleared her throat after her little nonsense as Rei just shook his head.

->"Lets go. I have to show you something."

The blue-haired detective sounded rather demanding about the case. Joe had seen Rei serious before , but this time he looked... more serious? If that made any sort of sense at all , but there was definitely something really odd about his whole behavior to begin with , so maybe it was really important. The purple-haired detective got out of the car and followed Rei along as the two of them entered what it looked like a specialized facility that was made for containing 'things' that weren't supposed to get out... This was really giving Joe the creeps , there was one thing she hated the most and it was facilities like these that just bring back bad memories. However she couldn't avoid them , because it was part of her job after all so she had to just suck it up man up and deal with it... or at least try to. She felt herself step closed towards Rei as they were walking down a hallway until they were greeted by a large amount of people who seemed to be working on something... and that something was behind what it looked like a special glass case. The atmosphere began to feel slightly more heavy the more the two of them got closer to it. Joe felt a familiar sensation hit her the moment her gaze fully fixated on the object right in front of her.

->" Our little 'archeology' crew found this artifact while searching for possible hint of ancient artifacts that might give us a lead upon what are we exactly dealing with and they stumbled upon something rather unusual... They found a hidden shrine room that contained this... mask inside of it. "

Rei began to slowly explain , making sure that Joelle was following up on what he was explaining , by the looks of it she looked rather hypnotized by the mask that was displayed behind the hard glass , giving Rei a possible hint that she might know something about it... or maybe something common to it.

->"We did some research on it but we didn't find anything until we stumbled upon a heavy locked book that it had a paper attached to it.. resembling the seals you have been talking about recently. "

He added further.

->" I got a professional to try and open it up to see if there might be some information worth digging out , but it seemed mostly harmless. I figured a book that 'bizarre' looking might have something behind it.. but perhaps the force that was trying to keep it locked was weak... or at least this is how I would explain it to myself. "

Rei commented.

->"Well did you find anything?"

Joe finally spoke up , waking up from the trance she had fallen in earlier from eyeing the details of the mask bit by bit.

->" It was in another language by the looks of it , but we did further research and found something very interesting about it. It seemed to have belonged to some ancient curse... a shaman with dark powers who has been known throughout history to have been one mass murderer , causing nothing but chaos. "

Rei began his little tale.

->"It's said that he lived decades ago , spreading his curse... however he was later sealed away and trapped within seals to weaken him , thus making him link back into his 'mask'. Legend says it that there is still a trigger to it and it could unleash a deadly force like no other that will destroy everything in it's way... if we aren't careful enough who knows what kind of chaos we can unleash... I don't even want to think about the alternative. "

Rei sounded almost afraid of it.. surely he wasn't one to really believe much in fairy tales like these , but lately the amount of strange and bizarre things that have been occurring has given him another mind set upon possible ancient figures that might still walk this earth without anyone yet to realize it.

->"I figured you might know something more about it since you have history with these sort of things... but this seems far more fresh than any other ancient artifact that we have stumbled upon. I can't really confirm for sure from which decade it is , but it doesn't seem like it's too too ancient."

The blue haired detective added. Joe began to feel a rather strange sensation hit her all of a sudden.. it almost felt like her entire body was frozen and her gaze was fully fixated on the mask that was behind the heavy protection glass. She didn't know what was going on at all... for a moment there she felt like she might of just spaced out and maybe fall asleep while still standing.. but no.. this was much more different from her 'tiredness' ... it was something else... It felt like the whole room went silent , she couldn't even hear Rei explaining to her more about the so called 'ancient cursed mask' that was right in front of her. Joe felt herself fall into a trance to the point where even her eyes went blank.

->" You do know that you shouldn't toy with curses that you know nothing about.... "

She heard a voice... a voice she wasn't really familiar with .. that was definitely not Rei's voice.. was she hearing things? Was she finally starting to hallucinate or was her mind playing tricks on her? Was someone else from the people around talking to her? No.. that was not it at all..it felt like she had fallen into some kind of space that she wasn't aware of... because it felt like time had completely stopped around her. No one was moving.. neither was Joelle..

->"H-Huh....!?"

She heard her own voice echo as the voice that followed let out a small laugh.

->"Ahh.. so you can hear me? What a pleasant... pleasant... surprise ... "

The sound of that voice... it was sending shivers down her spine in a really bad way. She didn't know where it was coming from , but by the looks of it... the source of it was right in front of her. For a moment there she even thought she might of hallucinated .. the holes of where the eyes should be probably placed... they didn't look so empty... in fact it looked like they were staring right back at her. Joe gasped quietly to herself as she began to feel the sudden panic starting to hit her until she heard that voice again... laughing.

->"What are you so afraid of? You should be grateful that you have a gift... a gift like no other. I can sense it within you... you hold great power... power that can even match a god itself... or maybe close...You are not like those weak and pathetic humans ... hehehe..."

Another laugh creeped out as Joe felt in lack of words , she didn't know if she was dreaming or not , but this seemed much too real to be considered some weird dream or some weird hallucination.

->" But it seems like we might even share a special bond... because you are the only one that can hear me right now... It's... amazing , don't you think? "

He added , as Joe began to feel like her breath was starting to pick up pace ... she began to even heard her own heartbeat in her ears , trying to calm down.. this was not real.. she didn't want to believe it... she refused to ... but it was hard to..

->" W-Who... Who are you...?! "

She finally managed to gather some courage to speak up , however her body nor her mouth was moving.. it almost felt like she was talking to this strange voice through telepathy or something.. or at least that's how she would explain it to herself.

->" Who am I...? Hah... I am everyone's worst nightmare ... chaos itself... "

The atmosphere began to feel more and more heavy as it felt like the air around Joelle made it hard to breathe. The panic was really hitting her hard , for a moment there she felt like her own stand acted on its own like it usually does every now and then , but this time.. it felt so different...

->" It seems however I am short on time... But don't be so sad little one... I'm certain that we'll meet again soon enough ... and perhaps I will give a proper introduction... heheheheh.... "

Was the last thing the voice said until Joe finally snapped back into reality . The moment she finally felt like her soul returned in it's place , however her body wasn't responding to her still so she completely lost any possible balance she might of had her body began to swing down towards the ground , however before she could collide with the floor she felt a pair of arms catch her . Rei seemed to have reacted fast enough , managing to catch her. He looked down at her worried.. 'Now what was that all about?' He thought to himself. For a moment there he wondered what might of happened that caused Joelle to suddenly feel weak... Rei figured it might of been the lack of sleep or something . Regardless he was still very worried about her... thought perhaps he felt something... rather strange himself... but perhaps he could be in the same boat as her , maybe the lack of sleep was finally getting to him too.

->"Joelle!! Joelle can you hear me!? Are you there?! Are you okay??"

Rei called out , as her eyes finally regained their original form. It really felt like her soul left her body completely and it just returned... the feeling was horrid. She still felt rather dizzy from the whole little 'chit chat' she had with that strange voice that seemed to be connected with the artifact that was in this same room... She didn't even know how to explain it to herself .

->"Yeah... I'm alright.. Just a bit tired."

She wasn't lying about that , however she was not certain if she wanted to share with Rei what she just witnessed ... she couldn't really connect it in her own mind , let alone even try and explain it.

->"Why don't you sit down for a bit? You need some rest ... We can talk more about it when you have some more energy , alright? "

Rei offered , she always appreciated how Rei was always concerned about everyone ... he would put all the pressure on himself as long as he knows that everyone around him will be alright... he was certainly one big role model for Joelle without a doubt.

Perhaps it was time to just take a short break before continuing with this case...maybe what happened was actually a dream.... and the lack of sleep was really fueling her hallucinations factor... but it would still linger in the back of her head ...

...Or maybe there was another storm approaching .... All she could think of right now was that devilish voice echoing in her head.