Jasper's lab was as messy as ever, with paperwork spread across a desk and machines humming loudly in every corner. Metal devices of all shapes and sizes were scattered across every available workspace, along with countless blueprints and notes. The windows were thrown wide open, but there was barely any breeze inside to combat the intense heat and the rather obvious putrid smell of hanging corpses.

  That's right, Jasper's expertise is to dissect corpses and sometimes living beings for his research and inventions. Usually, it's the corpses of those who died by illness or injury before he got his hands on them, but sometimes—in special circumstances—it can be a fresh one, courtesy of the UoK.

  Those deemed unworthy to even be looked at by the UoK doctors or researchers, on the other hand, get dissected by Jasper to study the Soul and how to utilize in artificial forms.

  Jasper hummed along to a song playing on a stereo mounted on the wall of his lab, working away with his project. He lifted a body up from an operating table, attaching them to a hook through a hole in their chest before pulling down a cover to hide it from view.

  To keep the bodies fresh, he had to turn his AC down to reach absurdly cold temperatures.

  Each body had a machine attached to the lower part of their chest, working as a pseudo-heart, pumping fluid around the corpse. While too weak to bring the body back to life, it was being enough to keep the Soul inside the body - allowing Jasper to keep them for his main experiments.

  Some people know how to circumvent the Rim of the Universe Gods' main rule of Soul manipulation.

  If the Soul dies, the Arc is their next home.

  But Jasper is twisted enough to prevent the Soul from resting in peace and, in turn, keeping the host body "half-alive".

  The door behind him opened, following with a knock.

  "You really are a freak." Avu Fujimara said, standing in the plain darkness at the corner of the room.

  "A-"

  This obviously scared Jasper down to the bottom of his stomach, and he fell backwards into a set of steel surgical equipment behind him with a painful cry. The clatter of his surgical tools had been loud and pronounced as he slipped off the edge.

  "...Fucking hell," Jasper hissed, trying to steady himself after falling. A cold sweat formed on the back of his neck, his heart hammering in his chest. "Warn me before you come barging in! You don't just-- stand in silence in the shadow of someone's room!"

  "I knocked. You didn't answer."

  Avu doesn't wait for an invitation, immediately walking around to investigate what is being worked on.

  "I have a job for you, Jasper. Surely someone of your... standards... will understand that and get on with it."

  Jasper tried to regain some kind of composure, letting out an embarrassed and breathy laugh as he tried his best to clean his clothes. A nasty blood stain was formed at the back of the material of his pants where the surgical tools had grazed him and now had been stained.

  "... Huh. This is new. Usually you don't ask me for any help. What do you need?"

  Avu coughed, pulling out a bag from his pocket. "See if you can analyze whom this belongs to."

  The bag contained a single strand of hair. It was red, mixed with purple. There was a strong Soul-Residue emanating off of just the simple strand of hair.

  For a strand of hair to contain that much Soul-Residue and still retain it's original form, is fascinating even for someone like Avu Fujimara, who spends his free time studying and researching the Soul.

  It's a clear sign that this strand of hair belonged to someone of fundamental power... or something even stronger than that.

  Was this someone who achieved the impossible Ascension? Or was this from someone who could manipulate Souls on a fundamental scale, looking down at the very things that created Souls?

  Jasper gave it a good look, with his glasses framing the strand. He adjusted his posture, intrigued by such a sight.

  "... You want me to analyze that?"

  Avu nodded.

  "Forgive me for saying this but... what, your new hobby? Carrying strands of hair?" He said, plucking the strand in his bare hand. His curiosity was practically speaking louder than anything at the moment. "Where did you even get this?"

  Avu sat down on a chair, the coldness of the chair alongside uncleaned stains leaving him a bit more uncomfortable than he was used to. "You should clean your lab."

  "You don't have to tell me that," Jasper huffed, now holding the strand between his gloved hands, eyes now intensely focused on the strand of red purple.

  The closer he looked, the more he started to understand.

  Whoever they were, was very powerful. Almost a godly level of power—with the presence and the strength being extremely notable. No, it wasn't that it had godly power... It could be something different.

  Synthetic-Classes like CHAOS are known to possess outrageous amounts of Soul-Residue, as well as someone like Vincent Sparks as his Soul-Residue leaks due to his unstable Soul.

  Something like that affected Satono Eria too, their new addition to the UoK. It seemed like she knew everything about unstable Souls... perhaps she had one herself too?

  However, Jasper was adamant in figuring out exactly what they were, why Avu Fujimara wanted a report, and a basic analysis done on the individual in question.

  It wasn't very common for Jasper's skills and efforts to be recognized.

  "I found the strand on one of the seats in Eria's lobby in the tower."

  "...Oh...?" This piqued Jasper's interest, given his obsession with Testheria recently, all exacerbated by Satono's introduction to UoK.

  "Testharians possess an unique colour to their hair but this one is quite odd. I have never seen a Testharian rocking red-purple. The Princess has blonde hair and Eria has gold hair."

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  "Ahh... Expecting they're working with a third party?" Jasper walked over to a machine in the corner of the room, flicking it on.

  He put the strand of hair into the machine through a glass panel - shutting it and plugging a few cables in. He sat down on a stool next to it, pulling down a handmade microscope-attachment - pulling it downwards on an angle roughly above where the hair would be in.

  Turning a dial on the side - a 'woosh' sound filled the room, as the machine removed excess Soul-Energy until only the original residue remained. The glass panel rose, aligning itself with the lens.

  "You want me to check anything else? Determine things like species and gender...?"

  "Just who it belongs to. I simply want their name."

  "Right... boring stuff." Jasper sighed, raising the eyepiece. He immediately squinted, pulling away and removing his glasses before trying again. He pressed a button on the lens - three layers of red, green and purple colouring sliding over the gless at the end.

  "There's a switch in that corner; can you flick it on so I can check the database after?" Jasper asked, looking into the lens.

  As Avu walked over to flick the switch, Jasper pulled a trolly with a monitor-pad - turning it on. A holographic UI flicked over the monitor, showing 'detecting' on the front display.

  He typed in a series of numbers and letters, correlating with things such as Soul-Strength, Soul-Residue age, Soul-Type and other such things, as well as filtering it to not let anything random from other sources appear. Just for it to match fewer names.

  It went on for a few minutes, before it would eventually finish tapping variables in.

  "...."

  "Nothing?" Avu asked, looming over his shoulder.

  "No...-nononono..." He looked into the lens again, checking what he typed in. "Well... this could be an issue." He stood up, turning the machine off and lifting the lens back up.

  "..." Avu went silent.

  "It isn't coming up with anyone. No names, no Soul, nothing... Can't even determine what the Soul-Type is... just... nothing... I've never had this before... It isn't contaminated, well, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't blast a strand of hair with your Soul-Energy and the spray would've isolated any from the original..."

  Jasper took his gloves off, tossing them into a bin. He then grabbed his clipboard, tossing a white sheet onto the table. "In other words- we're in the dark on who this belongs to."

  "For a scientist who only works and tinkers with Souls beyond an operational level, he sure does not understand that the Soul is capable of things beyond our understanding."

  "... What a way to rub it in... Well, what is it then?"

  "I felt this strong presence while I was with Eria. It made me realize that I may just broke through something greater. Not a dead person, not a ghost... Someone else. Someone with power that defies explanation..."

  "... Beyond the normal explanation?"

  "More or less, yes."

  Jasper raised his eyebrows. "You're telling me I operated on something I wasn't even going to understand? I wasted my damn time with this!" Jasper got increasingly frustrated by Avu's statement.

  "The Soul is beyond our understand as I keep telling you." Avu started, face completely stoic as he examined his surroundings. His black hair rested over his eye, keeping him far less expressive than a normal person should be. He tapped a finger on the desk, narrowing his eyes as he continued.

  "Well, my experiments prove from time to time that the Soul IS to be understood."

  Jasper did understand how the Soul functioned to a certain degree, through a mixture of extensive experimentation and tinkering as he pointed out. But what did Avu actually mean by “beyond”?

  That researching the Soul by scientific means was just a waste of time, or that the Soul itself cannot be applied onto science in general?

  Or that the Soul is really just beyond a mere human's complex mind to even fully understand it, let alone measure and understand on a more intricate and realistic level?

  Jasper wanted to make Artificial Souls through artificial means. The process is already known in how to take a Soul that has detached from a body recently lifeless and quickly transport it onto another lifeless body... or a machine.

  "This is not from a dead person nor a ghost, Jasper. This is from a Soul-Wielder that has yet to make themselves known to this time and age."

  "... So... what’re you implying. That they’re divine? Angels, Gods? We all know Gods aren't rea-"

  "Gods are absolutely real, Jasper."

  "...I'd argue-!"

  Avu glared at Jasper, almost daring him to continue that train of thought.

  "I will not entertain myself with the thought of the Soul existing by mere happenstance."

  "I don't see my beliefs being disproved when I dissect people and play their Souls like machines." Jasper quipped back.

  "Right. You have no care for such matters. You're a mad scientist whose morals are stretched beyond thin."

  Avu sat down, playing with his hair while looking at Jasper's notes.

  "And suddenly you're any better? We're all villains, ‘Grand Follower’. So long as Lord Veyron look at us with the highest regard, he could care less if we spill blood and pull bodies apart if it leads to his vi-"

  That set Avu off, manifesting his Signature Weapon and holding it against his neck.

  "E-"

  "... That's new, Jasper. Since when were you so adamantly worried about others?"

  Jasper let out a sigh, glancing at Avu's sword for a moment. It was an uncharacteristic movement. Avu was ruthless, but a big difference from Jasper, was that he could be vicious with his methods.

  He took lives easily and without a single ounce of regret. Avu, though? Not many people could say they've survived an encounter with the man, yet he would never make such an accusatory comment towards others who are ruthless and would resort to their weapons without thinking...

  No, Avu wouldn't just kill for sport. He doesn't find killing based on fear suitable to his beliefs. Sport implied pleasure. Avu took none. His violence was efficient, necessary and always left a message behind.

  So what had caused this unprovoked assault of his beliefs and intentions?

  ... Jasper was too scared to ask and didn't even get an answer, and instead looked elsewhere in the lab, anywhere besides his desk and Avu. "..."

  Avu then dematerialized his Signature Weapon and sat back down.

  "So... you were saying that this Soul-Wielder isn't from here... this relative time?"

  This could only tie back to Jumkou Katatoria. Jumkou is essentially a kid around this time. Her prior existence would not match her current existence, resulting in her not existing yet in this period.

  In other words, the Jumkou of this time was erased the moment Future Jumkou entered the past. There can't be two Souls of the same essence, power and magnitude at the same time.

  "That... simply just isn't possible, right? Souls have limits to their power. Time travel, universal destruction, things that alter the very fundamentals of life... can't be manipulated, alas not by being like us."

  Jasper was confused, although more annoyed.

  He spent most his life studying the Soul and such a concept was calling his studies into question. Both were studying Souls. One was moving in the scientific direction, while one in a mystical one.

  A clear divergence.

  "I don't think I need to remind you every time." Avu pat Jasper on the shoulder, sending chills down his spine. "Gods are real. Our existence is proof of that."

  Avu had turned into a lecturer at this point.

  "How it guides our existence and why we breathe is up to a divine influence. Souls are not human-made. It's not made by nature as well."

  "If so, then... Why can't we as mere mortals harness the power of the gods?"

  "Souls choose us as it's vessel. They're the hosts, we're the passengers. Life given beyond mortal compendium."

  Avu picked the piece of hair off the floor, his breathing steady as he stared at the strange strand.

  "I don't know what the Gods intended when they created Souls, but I am sure it was to keep us from deeming ourselves equal to them."

  "..."

  "A leash, disguised as a gift."

  Avu turned around with his seat.

  "But then... the late Grand Lord Veyron's death died to a Soul-Wielder trampling on the domain of Gods. Which is why the Soul is so fascinating, as well as the Gods who created them."

  "... Hm..." Jasper furrowed a brow, now walking back to a sink in the corner of the room. A tray full of cutlery and food was left to rot, mold spores growing at the edges as some were untouched, with mould spreading across the rest. He sighed, pausing for a moment.

  "IF we find this person, could I speak to them? Maybe run a few of my less death-inducing tests on them. This is groundbreaking... not just for Soul study...but for my goal... the manipulation of time."

  "We'd have to find them first." Avu smiled.

  "Of course... if they're at Testharia like you mentioned, we should look there first. And this time, I'm coming along!"

  Avu's comms would go off at that moment. It was a long and static-ridden audio transmission, followed by an ominous voice.

  "Lord Veyron wishes to speak with me, we'll discuss more of this later. He answered before leaving the lab.

  "Tch."

  Jasper clenched his fists as he tried his best to turn away and forget Avu. He let out a frustrated growl, eventually making his way over to a shower in the corner of the room - before angrily removing his lab coat and throwing it into the wall next to him. He glared daggers as it landed.

  "... My work is not for nothing."