COMA: Fragmented Reality

My memories of my earliest days are vague at best and non-existent at worst. One of my earliest memories was during a rainstorm when I was but a two-year old child where I asked my mother why and how it rains, and she told me that the clouds are crying, and I should tell them that "it's alright". Such sweet memories remind me of the better days.

However, I also have memories in my early days that I do not like to remember much about. One of which is when my father was arranging some cards with Rorschach ink blots for a part of his research, and I identified some of them in the same capacity that someone extremely gifted would do.

I knew that he had the best of intentions and was greatly proud of me for it, but if I can pinpoint any part of my life where I can say that "this is where all of my problems started", I would doubtlessly point this one out in particular because that is the day when I left the realm of being a "normal child".

And yet, if I can come back in time to that very day….

"Are you sure about this, Ephraim?"

"…Yeah, this is the only way for me to ensure that things will go the way I want it to go."

…I likely would choose to tread the same path regardless of how painful and dangerous it would be.

"For the next day and a half, I entrust the safety of this place to you Mana, Kirin-sensei and those people who I called to get here as soon as possible."

"I still…" Mana mumbled but I reassured her of my choice.

"You made a mistake back then that hurt and could've killed my family. I think I was clear about us not going to be okay for a while."

"That…"

"And yet, you are still my friend, comrade and fellow hopeful that things would go the right way, I have no doubt that now that you know what you should believe in, you would keep at it till the very end." I spoke as I laid down on the bed beside the one where an unconscious acquaintance is asleep as well. "So Mana, I want you to promise to me that you will do this the right way this time… Can I ask that from you?"

With a tearfully relieved expression on her face, Mana looked at me and resolutely gave me her answer.

"I'll redeem myself this time, Rai-kun! I'll protect them with all that I can!"

With that, I slowly closed my eyes and connected my own mind with the person on the bed next to mine… the mind of this person who I believe to be one of the keys to our victory in this war.

"Sayaka… what was it that Himari did to you?"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

As soon as I connected my mind with hers, a feeling of weightlessness overwhelmed me for a moment before I reined in enough control to reform my body within her mind.

One by one, I grew out my limbs and clothed myself as I hurriedly located where in her thoughts and memories she is currently inside of.

"—! There!" I sensed a fluctuation in her mind's processes, and I jumped into a cloud-like barrier which brought me to both an unusual and familiar place. "This is…"

"Whoa! Watch your step, boyo! You're blocking the way!" blared to me by a man carrying an icebox dripping with bloody water.

"A-Ah! Sorry about that." I apologized instinctively and stepped aside as he and other men carrying the same loads walked past and after dropping them beside a market stall, hurriedly ran back to where they got the coolers.

While I wouldn't have cared much about what this memory's inhabitants thought and did, my apology and reaction were not because I cared for them but because that man was someone I used to know in the real world.

"Motoi-san… and his crew too." I mumbled beneath my breath as I walked around the marketplace and saw that it resembled something in my memory as well. "The fresh products, the prices, the stalls that were open and close…"

Since the bakery who has a catholic owner is closed, the fish hawkers aren't selling pacific saury, the fruit vendors are selling their apples at half-off price and the ramen places are packed full, it means that it happened during that exact same day as the one in my mind.

"June 22, 2069… the Sunday when I was buying ingredients for the restaurant's pantry… But why would this appear in her memory?" At the exact moment when I asked this in my mind, the answer appeared in front of me as I hurriedly hid behind a large tuna that was hanged on its tail.

"I see… that explains why she seem fixated on me more than what should be normal." I spoke as I looked at Sayaka watching the me in her memory, intently.

She was wearing a casual outfit and a pair of boots to keep the dirty water in the wet market away from her. In that appearance, it would look like she's just here to buy some ingredients to cook at home… however, anyone who has been around a public market or even just noticed how long she has been here while also not looking at or buying any produce would know that it is not the case.

"…Darn it. Even here in your memory, you creep me off, Sayaka." I spoke before taking the bucket of bloody water under the tuna that I was hiding at and spilled it out towards her direction, making some droplets to fall in her boots.

"KIYAAAA—!!!"

It made her scream in shock and catch everyone's attention. Once she noticed that, she ran away just in time to hide herself from memory-me who has just received the receipt for the salmon shipment that he ordered.

After I snickered as I saw the sheer difference between how I looked back then before all of this "Psychic" stuff happened, and how I look now, I followed Sayaka out of the memory and saw her entering another which is once again strangely familiar to me.

"When trying to write in Kanji, there are some rules that you have to follow especially whenever you are trying to either use them as a noun or a verb. For instance…"

I remember it as if it was just yesterday… Following my arrival in Japan, I was made to undergo more language classes in order to advance my fluency in both written and spoken Japanese to near-native level while I am also attending my first year of highschool.

Unlike many of the foreign workers who got scammed into the overpriced "government-approved" places where they basically charge large amounts and give lackluster lessons which they justify as "using a hands-off teaching approach", I received a tip that cram schools, which are enrolled into by highschoolers looking to enter into good universities, can give better lessons for a fraction of the price.

I am currently at a familiar hallway overlooking a similarly familiar classroom where another memory-me are intently listening to the instructor about how to use Kanji in conjunction with both hiragana and katakana scripts… well, I am saying that in the context of how it looks in this memory, but as I remember it, I was actually thinking about accepting the head chef position in the restaurant around this time.

"I see… so that's where she was." I grumbled after seeing her at the back of the class where she is wearing a face mask and a pair of non-graded glasses to hide her identity. "I find it hard to believe that she is attending classes on language… which means that she is…"

I aligned her line of sight and saw that she is indeed watching my every move.

"Darn it… why do you have to be such a weirdo, Sayaka…?"

Fed up with the sight, I walked towards a fire alarm and pulled it down, making the bells across the building to ring and for the water sprinklers to open up and inundate everything in sight. Only then did she stand up alongside everyone to vacate the building, but instead of following the crowd, she walked away and hopped out of the memory. I followed her afterward where she entered another familiar memory.

"Oh, come on. Please tell me that you're not going to enter another memory that wouldn't be a dead giveaway of your stalking…" I groaned after I saw that I entered a memory that was also quite familiar to me.

"Are you okay?" a memory-me asked a female student from another class who was brought from the track and field oval. One of her feet doesn't have a shoe and a sock and it was quite swollen.

"Y-Yeah… I just tripped by the finish line and— Aaah! Owwiee…"

"Don't move too much, you twisted your ankle. I'll go get some liniment and bandages."

While memory-me jogged to the first aid kit, as during that day in physical education class, I was assigned to be a medic, Sayaka was watching me intently once again while hiding behind some students.

"Tch! This is getting under my skin… I knew she was resolute about knowing more about me, but I didn't know it got this bad… Alright, here goes nothing. H-HEY! GET OUT OF THE WAY!" I mumbled before running and pushing through the crowd of students to make her fall down as well.

"W-W-Woah! What are you doing, dude— H-Hey! HEY!!!"

"Come back here, punk!"

Just before someone can get back on their feet and see my face, I pulled my shirt's collar around my head and ran away, but not before I intentionally bumped against memory-me and made him fall down as well.

"Hm? ABAGH—!"

"Sorry man, I gotta do what I gotta do."

After that, I ran up the stairs to see what happened and saw that she is no longer among the crowd and has excused herself to the PE teacher to return inside, probably to go to the toilet.

However, instead of heading for the toilet at the ground floor, she turned towards the stairs where I finally had the chance to confront her.

"Honestly, I expected you to give up by the time you saw something change in these memories of yours."

"Y-You are—!"

"Hey there, Amakano-san… Mind telling me what you've been up to for the past year?"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Outside of the Sumeragi syndicate's Kabuki-cho estate, the battle between Hogosha Guardian Moriyama Kamaji and Miyazono Aishi has practically broken the entirety of the plague isolation area.

Half an hour ago, Aishi recognized Kamaji's power as a major danger towards the task that her father gave her which is to annihilate the Sumeragi syndicate.

The man, who is among the strongest warriors of the Sumeragi group, started out as a weak and unworthy adversary for the psychics that she brought… and yet, once he "heard a final command", he broke his mortal form and underwent a transformation that no normal human is supposed to undergo.

"A psychic transformation? Physio-elemental synchronization? Perhaps a genetic malfunction due to excessive use of psychic power? No… It can't be any of those."

At first, Aishi thought of this simply as some gimmick that her opponent hid in order to be used for emergencies, yet as her army was practically wiped out after Kamaji let out one devastating attack after another, she became convinced that this is no mere trick.

""

"Again with your weak winds? Do you have nothing else in your arsenal, you brat?!" Kamaji caught the concentrated ball of wind and used it to further boost a rain of boulders that destroyed the place where Aishi was standing only moments ago.

"Gh! Why you…!"

Kamaji not only endured but outright ignored all of her attacks, taking them head-on before either dissipating them or re-using them alongside a massive boost from his own power.

"Come on! I thought you're going to kill me!? Show me what you're capable of, my fellow abomination of mankind!"

"—!!!"

"Stop lying to yourself, you brat! You know the truth deep inside of you… You are no true human!"

"Khh—!!!"

"You are a man-made Replicant built in a machine from conception to what you would consider as your "birth"!"

Kamaji continued to strike her, intent on breaking her not only through his words but also his superiority over her in terms of sheer strength and fighting experience. With a mixture of physical attacks and continuous psychic power strikes, Kamaji practically had Aishi clutching the ropes.

"You do not have a soul! Your consciousness is an artificial mind embedded with a sense of self and a prime directive that you are not permitted to fail!"

"Stop."

"So, stop hiding behind that prideful and self-righteous idea of yours that your fool of a father handed to you! You are not liberators or heroes…!"

"Stop…"

"You are the total irony of the foolish spirit that he embedded in you! You are the Vessels of Freedom, yet you have become the slave of this Tainted world!"

"I TOLD YOU TO STOOOOOOPPP—!!!"

At that moment when Kamaji was about to land a fatal blow, Aishi let out a howl that resounded across the entire area which produced an enormous shockwave and pushed her would-be murderer away.

"Heh… So, you finally made the decision, huh? Good…!" Kamaji spoke as he stood and looked at how Aishi is now reining in the astra energy that was passively flowing out of her body earlier.

"You're right on one thing, Hogosha… You and I are indeed the same beings when you consider where we came from and what made us… However, you are missing one thing that you can never have as a failure." As Aishi said that, she disappeared with a burst of wind and reappeared within arm's reach of Kamaji. "You are a reject, and we are the perfected ones."

"GHH—!!! You—"

With a psychic attack that went past the possible capabilities of a human, Aishi finally landed a blow that launched her opponent away. But Kamaji did not let it rattle him and he immediately poised to deal a counterattack.

""

"How did you—!"

""

Countless blasts of wind struck Kamaji continuously, each of these strikes having enough force to split a human body into pieces. And yet, he didn't relent and tried to find an opening to return the blows to his opponent but to no avail.

"How… Can it be that we made a miscalculation?" Kamaji thought as he sensed that no matter how much Aishi was expending her Astra energy in making these powerful attacks, she isn't losing much or running out of power.

""

"Weak!" Aishi shouted and swatted away the wave of magma back to Kamaji who was almost hit by it.

"Ghh! Finally got serious, haven't you!?"

Sensing that he has gotten his opponent in her strongest fighting form, Kamaji decided to bring out all of his power as well to kill her before his comrades come out with the counter-offensive that he was told is being prepared.

"I'll make you pay for hindering me here with your life."

"Oh, yeah? Then come here and take it. That is, if you want to face the same end as your siblings and creator would receive."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Urgh… Where on…"

Somewhere in Old Tokyo, a woman woke up on a bed inside an abandoned house. As she sat up and looked around in the dimly lit bedroom, she saw piles of cute stuffed toys near a study table and a full wardrobe of pretty clothes inside a half-opened cabinet. With that, she recognized that it used to belong to a teenage girl.

A moment later, the door of the room was opened, and she recognized the man who entered the room to be a friend and comrade named Furuta Renjiro.

"Seems like you're already awake… You scared me a bit there when you were still asleep even after I revived you. You're a tough one, Kaede."

"F-Furuta-san… H-How did you—"

"Do you have enough strength to walk and at least fight to defend yourself?"

"A-Ah, yeah… I think so."

"Good, come with me."

She wanted to ask him some questions, most of which was about her "death" that should've killed her, but Renjiro cut her off and gestured for her to follow him downstairs.

"F-Furuta-san, how did you—"

"Trust me, I'd like to tell you all about it too but we're too short in time and power for us to sit down and have me fill you in on everything. I'll keep it brief and simple, and we'll do it while we're on the run."

"On the run?"

*GYACKGH!!!*

At that exact moment, the wall at the back of the house collapsed and from it emerged a large monster with the form of bulging flesh and countless eyes and appendages. It's a monster called a Malignance.

"What on—!"

"Piyi! PIYIIIIIIIII—!!!"

The monster shrieked as it slowly trod towards Kaede and its limbs grew out to try and reach her, but before it can do so, the monster began to shriek a more high-pitched scream before shortly bursting like a blood-filled balloon. As for the reason, Renjiro's outstretched hand that is pulsing with Astra energy answered that.

"There's your answer. We're not safe here… Well, to be more exact, we're not safe anywhere near Tokyo. We have to get the hell out of here."

"B-But—"

"No buts, Kaede! We have to get out of here!"

Renjiro grabbed her by the arm and pulled her out of the house. There, Kaede understood why Renjiro was in such a hurry. From where they are standing, Kaede saw through her psychically enhanced senses that both Old and New Tokyo are now covered in an incomprehensible corruption.

"H-How did…"

"…Things aren't going the way they're supposed to go. We have to help the only guy who has a chance to turn all of this around… and for that to happen, I need you to join me in giving those brats a fighting chance against our enemies."

"Our enemies… are you saying that—!"

"Yes… It's the only way for us- No, our entire side to have a fighting chance against them. I've already steeled myself to prepare for it… and I revived you for the same purpose. I need you give the same chance to Fujikawa."

"But that would mean—!"

"KAEDE!"

"Kh-!"

Renjiro shouted at her with a tone filled with rage and urgency, from the expression that he carries, Kaede knew that he isn't asking for this and expecting to be rebuffed.

"You already gave your "No" to Lucas, and William already gave you his "No" as well before piercing your heart and practically killing you! By all means and purposes, you should already be dead, but I brought you back exactly for this purpose!"

"Then you shouldn't have revived me! I may have failed but I was contented to end it all that way!" Kaede's rebuttal caused Renjiro's face to contort to one that showed his absolute annoyance. "I know it was hopeless… but I knew that it was what I didn't want to regret before I die!"

"Then it seems like I was right after all…"

"Huh?"

At that moment, certain memories swirled in Kaede's mind as if she is being forced to relive it right in front of her eyes.

"The experiment is a success… We've isolated the remaining part of the "unknown subject" from the body of Akamine Kaori. Proceeding to phase 3 of Project Pandora."

Memories from the experiments she did behind everyone's backs…

"Imamura-sama! This wavelength is an exact match! From the frequency to the amount of energy that it carries, it's a perfect match with the traces of Astra energy within that ancient relic!"

The findings that she got from all of those studies…

"If this is the only way for him and I to have a chance of reconciliation… then—!!!"

…and even the decision she made that practically spelled her doom.

"Renjiro… What have you done?!!"

All of these things were drawn out from her memories and revealed to Renjiro who stared at her with disgust the same way that one would stare at a pile of rotting garbage.

"You went as far as forming an artificial bond with the remnants of Spirit Love that you salvaged from Kaori's body while she was in a coma, and you dare question me about what I have done?!"

"It was my only choice!"

"Your choice is responsible for ending the lives of countless people! And guess what, you've brought us to this more horrid situation because of it!"

"Gh! Stop already… with these images of… wait… what are—!?"

Renjiro gazed into her eyes and bombarded her through a thought link with the images of the brutal fight between Lucas and William. It made Kaede snap out of her delusion about "following her heart".

"Your artificial bond with a fragment of Spirit Love, which you expected to give you a chance to redeem William, was nothing more than a trick that our enemies baited you with. They knew that no matter what happens, William will never leave the side of Miyazono Himari and all that would come out of this folly is you falling to their control… and as you can see, you performed well in their palms."

"B-But… even before Pandora, I was always—"

"They expected that already. They knew that you are the only one who still hasn't given up on trying to bring William back to us. Baiting you with Love's fragment was just the final nail in the coffin."

"Then all of that… all of the things that I did… It was all—"

With all of these revelations, the trickeries and schemes that she fell for became apparent to her one by one and Kaede began to regret all of the things that she believed in and did for the sake of bringing back William.

"YOu PeSt…!!! J-J-J-J-jUsT WhEn wE'vE aLmOsT dONe it ToO——!!!"

"I knew you'd finally appear… I was almost doubting my predictions about it too."

As she is crying, from within Kaede's shadow, a Tainted Spirit with a wretched shrieking voice appeared that was only visible and audible to him within this small Subspace.

"yOu R-R-R-R-R-R-rOtTeN PiEcE oF wOrK! I WiLL fEeD yOuR sOul tO tHe lOWeSt mALiGnAnCe I CaN fInD…! I WiLL mAkE sUrE tHat yOu'd rEgRet oPPoSiNg uS—!!!"

The Tainted Spirit conjured its true form that is of such great horror that it is incomprehensible to the human mind… however, Renjiro has already surpassed that state long ago.

"I doubt that… especially when it took you this long to push someone like Kaede to full-on betray us." Renjiro charged towards the Tainted Spirit and simply shrugged away its attacks.

"w-WhAt On—!!!"

"For the sake of our victory, our lives are nothing but expendable. And yet, before we make the ultimate sacrifice, I will make sure…!"

"RUWAAAAAAAHHHHH—!!!"

"…that victory will be ours!"

As he held the Tainted Spirit and crushed it with his bare hands, the Subspace was destroyed, and Renjiro returned to the real world to see that Kaede has stopped crying and now wears a calm and collected expression.

"I finally understand now… why Lucas told me that before he loved me, his reason for wanting me to give up on William was to save me from my own self."

"Why did it only make sense to you now?"

"…Probably because back then, I only thought of him as someone who wanted me to give up on William because he liked me. Now, I understand that he just didn't want for things to end up like this."

Renjiro smiled after hearing all of those words of realization from her. He seemed satisfied after realizing that he succeeded.

"Furuta-san, about that plan that you wanted to do… So, you plan to have us die trying to protect Rai-san and Mana?"

"Yeah. We should move out soon… As things stand, the fights that are keeping the Miyazonos at bay is bound to end soon."

"I see… It may sound strange from someone who has said that she is glad to die and has already died once, but thinking about it now, if possible, I want to see how all of this would end with my own two eyes as I still live."

"…That's not something that we can do now, isn't it?"

"Right… it really isn't."

Renjiro waved his hand and formed a rift in space, a portal to where Ephraim told him earlier to go to as soon as possible.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Just as Ephraim and Renjiro said, the battle between the Innkeeper and Ryuuichi quickly drew to a close after the "death" of Spirit Knowledge.

Although practically, the Principle of Knowledge has been reclaimed by Law and it at least preserved its existence for the sake of Furuta Renjiro who is now its Vessel, as someone who didn't rightfully acquire his Authority, the Innkeeper lost her power to use the "Ars Caelestia" ability and much of the power that it afforded her.

"Hehehe… HYEHEHEHEHEHE—!!!" from within Ryuuichi's body, Babel cackled maniacally as he saw Judy laid on the ground from the damage that she sustained from their fight.

From that sight alone, it was apparent that she is inevitably die.

"What did I tell you… WHAT DID I TELL YOU, YOU FOOLISH SEER OF NIHIL?!!"

Babel shrieked towards its dying opponent, lashing out at her as it relished its victory… and yet, Judy hasn't run out of will or power yet.

"I already had a haunch that it would end like this… but seeing it by myself right here and now... Haah, what a blunder." Judy mumbled as she looked at the Babel-possessed Ryuuichi and saw that she has no chance on stopping his first step to ascendance right here. "…But I have yet to give up. I can still do something to give them a chance."

As she said those words, she took out a piece of bone inside the pendant on her necklace. Although it was far too small for its location in the body to be easily identifiable, it is a fragment of the pelvis bone of none other than the Innkeeper of the ancient city of Lumien, one of the martyrs of the lost era.

"Upon this bone that bore the progeny of all the martyred saints… Of the men that stood honorably and valiantly beside the Celestial Spirits… Of the women who prided themselves in devotion and piousness… Of the children who grew according to the example of their great ancestors… I offer these words…"

As Judy continued to conjure the power sealed within the bone fragment, Babel sensed that its opponent still lives and is trying to use a power that it greatly fears.

"Y-YOU! YOU WRETCHED VERMIN—!!!"

"Even the densest veil of darkness cowers in the tiniest of lights… even the freezing touch of death is thawed by the perseverance of life… Upon this body of mine, crude it may be, I etch these words and the power it carries."

"I WON'T LET YOU—!!!"

Babel pushed Ryuuichi's body to its limits just to reach Judy in time, but he still failed.

"Remember this moment forever, you wretched Chaos Spirit… You will fall, Babel… And this time, you will never survive to even know your demise."

Judy spoke as she stared right into the eyes of Babel with a light that it can never forget.

"We will await you in the netherworld… where I will enjoy tormenting you and that wretched Vessel of yours."

At that moment, the entirety of New Tokyo was bathed in light and along with it, all of the preparations for the first stage of Ryuuichi and Babel's ascension to godhood.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Inside Sayaka's mind, Ephraim finally got all of the information he needs from the owner of the mindscape and to say that he was exasperated would be to put it lightly.

Right now, they are inside Sayaka's memory of their former school library where Ephraim is taking books from several shelves while Sayaka is sitting at a bench with an agitated expression and tone.

"What on earth are you talking about? Are you saying that all this time, you've been locked inside your mind and you're not the one acting in the outside world?"

"That's what I was saying! I've been here all this time and I can't find a way out! I-I don't even know what you're saying about me doing things out there! I-I haven't done anything weird haven't I?" Sayaka worriedly mused.

"That depends whether you consider sedition and several attempted murder as either just "weird" or something along that line."

"H-Hey! You're seriously scaring me! How am I supposed to protect myself if I ever get caught out there?"

"Don't worry, I know my way around the law. I can represent you."

"W-Wait, you're a lawyer too?!" Sayaka almost jumped out of her seat in surprise from her assumption.

"Nope! Been in front of the judge for so many times though…"

"T-That's not funny! Argh! I'm freaking out so much right now…!"

After finally gathering a large pile of books, Ephraim opened them into random pages and laid them down on the table and even on the floor.

"What are you even doing right now? If you got to enter my mind, then there's supposed to be an exit too, right? Why aren't you just leading me to it?"

"There's a right way to do things, Amakano-san… You're right about there being a quick and easy way to get you out of here but it's likely that something bad would happen either on our way out or after we get out."

"S-something bad? What do you mean?"

"Do you know what happens to an overinflated balloon?"

"They pop?"

"Exactly. If I bring you out by reversing the way I got in, your physical body would likely not be able to synchronize back properly with your consciousness which means that just like my example, your brain will be—"

*BAP—!!*

At that exact moment, the sound of something loudly popping was heard by both Ephraim and Sayaka.

"W-What was that!?"

"The result of what I just did…"

 Ephraim answered while quickly counting all of the books that he randomly opened and laid across the table and even on the floor. They number a little over 300.

"W-What did you do anyway?"

"I overloaded your memory with processes that are far too taxing to render. It's like a computer that is running too many programs, it gets overloaded, and some of those programs end up crashing."

Ephraim gestured for her to follow him and right at the librarian's table was an opening that is different from the cloudy entrances of Sayaka's normal memories.

"Well then, Amakano-san. Let's get moving."

"H-Hey…" All of a sudden, Sayaka spoke up which caused Ephraim to turn around and ask what she wanted to say.

"Yeah?"

"Sayaka is fine, y'know? Erm… for convenience's sake, that is."

While fidgeting and pouting, Sayaka asked him to call her by her first name, something that can be seen as a gesture of friendship. However, Ephraim gave her an answer that she least expected.

"I'll call you by your first name once you give me a promise that you wouldn't creep around me again once we get to the outside world."

"H-Hey! W-w-whatever you saw here, it was just here, okay?! I was just following you around because—"

"Yeah, yeah… "Because I may have the answer or at least a clue to get out." I heard you the first time around. No need to repeat it."

"W-Why are you being so nonchalant about this?!"

"Because I want to get out soon too! Please, for the love of everything that exists, get moving already!"

It was still the first step to getting out and it was already clear in Ephraim's face that this would take a lot more time and effort than he initially expected.