Kalina and I walked through the streets of Aramaya, heading towards a specific bar. On the way there, some people called out to me, or well, Machua, and I responded as I usually would. Kalina responded amicably to anybody who talked to her. I hoped that after today, she might act that way towards me again.

  We soon disappeared down a certain alleyway and made several turns. The area we were in was a compact district of the City, with many different apartments, shady shops, and convenience stores. We were heading to one of those convenience stores, and I could tell Kalina was silently questioning it. She couldn’t say anything though, I was the info broker here, and I knew exactly where I was heading. And I was heading towards the bathroom.

  “Inside the bathroom? That’s a classic spot,” Kalina remarked.

  “Huh?” I tilted my head. “No, it’s the bar next door. We have to change our clothes first.”

  “A-ah…”

  I took out a hoodie and a mask from a dimension and handed to Kalina. “Wear these. You’re gonna want to hide everything you can about you.”

  Kalina hesitantly grasped the clothes. “Um, are these yours?”

  “Hm? Of course they are. You’re similar in body size to me, so they should fit. Put them on,” I answered, while walking into the toilet.

  Those clothes were my normal set I used for my info broker job, so I had to use something else. I had quite a few options and I settled on a motorbike suit and helmet. When I came out of the toilet, Kalina, who had used the other toilet, was waiting for me.

  She had switched out her skirt for a pair of pants that matched the hoodie. The mask covered the bottom of her face well, and she was also wearing aviators. I recalled that the aviators was a gift from one of her trainers, and she only ever wore them when she was going undercover.

  “Looking good,” I complimented her.

  “A bit narcissistic, isn’t it? Complimenting a girl when she’s wearing your clothes…” Kalina could barely speak those words.

  “Before we go in. If we’re not alone, make sure to distort your voice when you speak. You don’t want to let anyone remember your voice.”

  “Gotcha,” Kalina spoke with a distorted voice.

  The two of us walked out of the convenience store and into the bar with our new outfits. The front of the bar was an elegantly designed area, with a few people already day-drinking. There were a few shady folk, some of them Phantoms even, who lounged around. At the back of the bar were a few rooms that had sound suppression barriers set up.

  “Bartender. A room please,” I called. “Put it under Echidna. And Let S through. Here’s enough for 3 hours.”

  The bartender nodded and gave me the key to one of those rooms in exchange for a stack of paper bills. Kalina raised an eyebrow at the price, but to me it was normal. Nothing beats a room with secure sound suppression.

  The room was a small area with a table, couches, and extra chairs. The walls were padded and there was a soft neon glow coming from the lights. The table had a menu, a few cups, and a singular wine bottle placed on it, a gift to the customer.

  “We got here early, so we’ll have to wait for a while.” I sat down on a chair and reclined. It was a pretty comfy chair. I’d have to memorise how it felt so I could replicate it in a dimension.

  “Early? Did you contact them already?” Kalina asked, taking a seat on a couch. She stretched her legs on it.

  “Mmhm. S told me they’ll come over if I buy the room. I didn’t tell them you’ll be here with me though,” I informed her.

  “S? That’s their Phantom name, I suppose,” Kalina mused. “Is Echidna the name you use when you exchange information?”

  I nodded. “It’s good to have a codename to go by.”

  “… A bit tacky, don’t you think?”

  “?”

  “I mean, naming yourself after the Greek mother of monsters is a little bit much, isn’t it? What are you trying to say by taking that name?”

  “I… I’m not trying to say anything…” I muttered a bit gloomily.

  Kalina looked away in shame. “S-sorry. A bit of my resentment came out. I’m a bit more than slightly irritated today…”

  To be honest, she was right on the mark. I definitely had a lot in mind when I chose the name but I wanted to make Kalina feel bad.

  I let her wallow in guilt for a little bit before speaking. “Oh, Kalina, I have a question for you. It might be a bit intrusive, but I won’t sell this information to anyone.”

  Kalina hesitated to respond. “Yes?”

  “Don’t you have multiple Major Aspects?” I questioned.

  Kalina flinched at the question.

  “Earlier you demonstrated Major Time, but you also had Major Life when you were helping that ghost pass on. And if I wasn’t wrong, you also had Major Barrier when you were chasing S. It’s impossible to have more than one Major Aspect, yet here you are.”

  “They were Minor Aspects,” she stammered. “My training-“

  “You can cut it, Kalina. I got my confirmation,” I interrupted. “Anyway, now I know what I need to know.”

  Kalina buried her head in her knees as I stood up. Once again, the secret she’d been keeping her entire life, oh actually, she got this power after she became an Hour Hand. So, this was a secret she had been keeping for only a year. Regardless, Kalina must have felt quite bad at how her secret was revealed so easily. So, I was planning on doing something nice for her.

  “Kalina,” I spoke with a bit of a grin.

  She raised her head up to look at me. “… Yes?”

  “I’m going to need you to use a barrier. We’re gonna trap S.”

  ———————————————————————

  S was not having a particularly great day. After getting yelled at by both their partner and their client, they were really looking to wind down. Maybe read a good book or two while sitting in a cafe. But when they received a call from their buddy Echidna, they had no choice but to come.

  ‘Finally, we can have a nice chat for once!’

  So it was that S slid into the bar and made their way to Echidna’s room. They said hi to a few other Phantoms, none of which waved back, which was very rude of them. But no matter, they were finally going to see Echidna.

  S opened the door and spotted Echidna’s back. They were wearing their signature hoodie again and were almost assuredly wearing that mask. After gently closing the door, being careful to stay silent, S rushed forward and grabbed Echidna’s shoulder.

  “Hey, Echi….?” S turned Echi’s shoulder to see that mask. Only to find it was upside down. “Eh?”

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Hey, S,” Echidna placed a hand on S’ shoulder and gripped it.

  Before S could run off, the fake Echidna shot an arrow at the door to set up a containment barrier. S crashed into that barrier and fell backwards onto the ground.

  “Echi, how could you!? I can’t believe it!” S began to yell while still on the floor.

  “Why would you rat me out!? What did I do to you!? Come on! I’ve been nothing but nice to you!”

  Machia and Kalina stared at the Phantom who was throwing a tantrum on the floor.

  “Whyyyyyyyyy, I thought we were gonna have a nice chat, but no, she-!” S jabbed a finger at Kalina. “Just had to step in! Did she bribe you!? Seduce you!?”

  “She got angry at me actually. I’m in the same position as you,” Machia crouched over them and said.

  “Oh. Sorry then. I get it.” S immediately ceased the tantrum and stood up.

  No one could tell, but Machia was rolling his eyes. It was almost the biggest eyeroll of his life, but S’ antics had caused him so much exasperation in the past, he wasn’t sure if it was.

  “Ahem. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t make me sound like a complete jerk. I’m just a lady chasing a thief who stole an artefact of great importance. And I happen to know someone who could have warned me in advance.” Kalina’s tone became a little threatening towards the end.

  “Hey, I didn’t even know someone was going to be there, and it’s not like I could guess it was gonna be S specifically.”

  “Hey, that artefact doesn’t even belong to you! Who are you to say I was doing the wrong thing?”

  A drop of sweat dripped from the back of Kalina’s head. “Do you two… know each other personally?”

  “Absolutely not.”

  “Yes, absolutely.”

  “What?” Machia shot his head to S. “No, we don’t. I don’t even know your real name.”

  “It’s-“

  “Don’t tell me! You’re a Phantom, act like it!” Machia scolded.

  “A-ahem,” Kalina coughed. “May we get down to business?”

  Machia dragged S onto the couch and sat together with them. Kalina sat on the opposite side and huffed. She refocused herself and calmed herself down. She reminded herself of what she was taught. Now was the time to implement those interrogation techniques.

  “S. Echidna. You understand what you’ve done is punishable by a few years in prison. Up to a decade if I recall,” Kalina spoke with a strict tone.

  Neither of them retorted. They sat and stared at her. For a second, Kalina considered if the threat got to them, but she couldn’t gauge their reactions when they were both wearing masks. She almost wanted to tell them to take it off, but that was a no go.

  “All I want from you is where the artefact is. Tell me that, and when I retrieve it, I’ll forget it ever happened,” Kalina stated with a stern expression. “Capisce?”

  Both of the suspects stared in silence when they heard that last word. Kalina knew almost instantly that she messed up.

  The two were able to keep it together until Machia broke. “Heh.”

  “AHAHAHA!” S burst out in laughter.

  Machia however was still stifling it. “Mmph…”

  “Aren’t you a nun!? Why are you acting like a mob boss!?” S asked amidst their laughter.

  “Watched a few too many crime dramas, huh?” Machia couldn’t help but say.

  “I’m part Italian, I can say it! Shut up, this is serious!” Kalina stomped her foot on the ground as she yelled.

  ‘Urgh! If only I could regress right now…’ Kalina lamented.

  The laughing was made worse by the fact that their voices were still distorted. It sounded like the yelping of two ominous ghosts instead of anything human.

  It did eventually die down, but the damage was already done. Kalina wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Her face was practically a tomato and it was ready to burst. Not that anyone could see, but they could tell.

  “I’m sorry, that was mean…” Machia apologised.

  “I’m sorry too,” S apologised as well. “I can’t tell you where the gavel is though. I already gave it to my client and I don’t know where they are.”

  “… Great.”

  “If it’s any help,” S pulled out a small card and handed it to Kalina, “here’s my business card.”

  Kalina reached out and grabbed the business card. The business card had a pink border and the shadowy figures of two Phantoms. These Phantoms struck poses, one held a pink rose while the other held a red rose. On the centre of the business card were the letters ‘DS.’

  “Feel free to contact me anytime you want or even if you just wanna chat. You seem like a lovely girl, so I’d love to chat with you sometime. We can have a girl’s night out,” S spoke.

  “DS?” Kalina murmured.

  “Oh! D is my partner. They’re…” S paused and glanced away, “a bit of a headache sometimes, but they’re super reliable. D and I are working separately right now though.”

  “Is your partner as bad as you?” Kalina asked with one eyebrow raised.

  “No, no, they’re worse. I’ve told them countless times to work on their attitude though~”

  “Uh…huh,” Kalina muttered as she turned to the back of the card.

  The back of the business card was blank white space other than a few instructions. The instructions were verbatim:

  ‘Write whatever you want and I’ll get the message on my end! I’ll only get the message if I’m in the same City though, so keep trying! Hope to meet you soon~’

  “Wanna know how it works?” S asked as soon as Kalina finished reading.

  “It’s an enchantment, isn’t it?” Kalina responded. “It’s rather sophisticated.”

  Kalina observed the business card in her hand again. It was clear that magic was surrounding it. Unlike Engravings, enchantments were continuous magical effects that permeated and covered an object, often to boost its capabilities or do something specific with it. As a result, they needed a constant stream of mana to keep its form, and even more mana to activate its effects. Engravings, on the other hand, were permanent and so long as mana flowed into the person or object, the Engraving would be activated. However, it took quite a bit of time to implement, whereas enchantments were typically quick. So to speak, enchantments were the quick, simpler, and temporary version of Engravings.

  Kalina used enchantments back when she was chasing S, she covered her arrows with enchantments that held a barrier inside of them that would activate when it hit something. So, enchantments were no stranger to her. But this specific enchantment was a bit difficult to parse.

  Machia nodded. “S specialises in enchantments.”

  “I don’t have a degree in it yet though. But I think my work’s pretty great so far.”

  ‘So they’re in university,’ Kalina thought. She turned to see Machia slap his helmet in exasperation.

  Kalina chuckled a bit as she looked back down to the card. There was a tiny disclaimer at the bottom that read:

  ‘Disclaimer: Don’t try using it to trace us. The card isn’t connected to anything and only transfers messages when we choose to receive it.‘

  “Oh. If it isn’t connected to anything, then how do you receive the messages?” She asked.

  “I’m very happy to hear you ask. First, I want to say that the enchantment has the environmental mana absorption function so it can sustain itself even without you feeding it mana.”

  “It’ll be unable to absorb and convert mana that’s too pure for it though, so it might break if you go into high purity areas,” Machia added.

  “And then, it’s actually a simple transmission enchantment because the true beauty lies in this.”

  S pulled out a notebook with the title ‘The Beautiful Phantom Thief’s Message Book.’ The cover had a few roses and stickers. The stickers were of various figures that Kalina recognised. Ancient heroes or characters from fictional stories. Notably, none of them were Lancets.

  ‘I… see.’ Kalina thought to say but refrained.

  “This notebook has an enchantment that sends out a signal to any of my business cards when I activate it and then each business card will send its message to a different page of the notebook. And on that page, I can write on it and activate the notebook to send my message back. It got a high grade on my midterms last year.”

  ‘Wow, they’re not even hiding it anymore.’

  Machia slammed his helmet again. On the table this time.

  “It seems complicated, so I don’t suppose you were able to add the environmental mana absorption on it?” Kalina asked instead of the obvious thing to ask. Being which university they went to. Surely this time they wouldn’t slip up, so there was no point in asking.

  “That’s the main problem. The best enchantments maximise the space used, so I optimised the space I was allowed for that function. If I expanded it, it could get pretty noticeable,” S explained.

  Kalina reasoned that this space they meant was the volume and size of the item the enchantment was tied to. If they expanded the space, that would mean the enchantment would radiate out of the notebook. That was a no-go for keeping the enchantment a secret. Enchantments were typically ‘hidden’ inside of the physical object, so to have it radiate out would be practically revealing it. They could alternatively use a bigger book instead, but a book that was too large would end up being unwieldy.

  “Oh, and there’s also the problem that not every enchantment fits with it. The environmental mana absorption function is compatible with most regular enchantments but most higher-level ones are too specific to slot it in easily,” S explained. “I think I could slot it in if I fiddled with it more, but that’s a problem for tomorrow’s me.”

  “It’s a problem for tomorrow’s D too, you know?” Machia muttered.

  “I’m sure they’ll understand~”

  “That poor guy,” Machia sarcastically said.

  “Why don’t you Engrave it instead?” Kalina suggested.

  “I don’t wanna do all the work of Engraving on every single page though~”

  Machia was just about to slam his head again, probably onto S’ head this time, but he stopped when he heard the explanation.

  “If a card breaks then the entire page it’s connected to becomes useless, so I’d have to throw it away. Enchantments are more versatile and I can modify it when I need to. I wouldn’t have to add in a page, I would just tap into it and reconfigure that page to connect to another one.”

  “So there is an actual reason,” Machia muttered.

  At that moment, Machia’s phone rang. It was Machua. He stood up and went to the corner of the room to take the call.

  “So, what’s your favourite sweet? I’m gonna have D make some for our chat. It’s what we deserve for all our hard work~”

  Machia tuned out the conversation between the two and took the call.

  ‘They should still be out. Hopefully it isn’t anything serious,’ he thought as he raised his phone to his ear.

  “Machi! A lot of things went down, I don’t know where to start!”

  Machia almost reeled from the loud sound. It almost drowned out the background noise he could hear. There was the sound of Carmine and Rasa talking, but also the sound of an engine. It was a steady hum with the sound of gravel being crushed interlaced with it.

  “Calm down. Start with the most urgent things. What needs to be done right now?”

  “Toolbox, I mean, our informant’s injured. Really bad. Chimaera was trying to capture an Egotist and Toolbox got hurt. We’re getting back to Aramaya and we’re gonna bring her to a hospital. We also have a prisoner.”

  ‘Egotist… Was there always an Egotist here? And who is this Toolbox?’ Machia’s eyes narrowed as he thought of the implications.

  It was true he didn’t do anything the last time around. If anyone would know, it would be last timeline’s Kalina. And she wasn’t involved with Chimaera either. The name Toolbox never came up in the report either, but if the informant wanted to keep their identity hidden, Elize wouldn’t have written it in. And as Machua told him, this person had a reason to hide their identity.

  “I’m guessing you’re in a car heading back. Tell me about Toolbox. If I’m right, their identity is something big and I’ll need to know it,” Machia stated.

  He decided to dig into this Toolbox regardless of their wishes. Machia could hear his sister discussing with the others on what to do before she answered back.

  “Um, okay. I trust you. Toolbox is a white catkin who’s the…”

  Machua explained the basics of who Toolbox was. That she was a white catkin, adopted by the 3 heads of Chimaera, and that she was kidnapped by their new boss before escaping to try and reunite with her family. She also included the events of today, where Toolbox attacked the Egotist and they had to run away. Which led to them capturing Tam, who was in handcuffs right now.

  “Did you draw any conclusions?” She asked. “You probably wanna interrogate Tam too right?”

  Machia was not fixated on the man that had impacted both of their lives however. He was fixated on something else.

  “Interrogate Tam however you like but tell me about Toolbox’s Engraving in more detail.”

  “Okay. Toolbox says her eyes can see the best path to traverse obstacles, and paw seals will appear over the spots to move through.”

  ‘From her eyes…’ Machia thought.

  “Continue.”

  “She can also make those paw seals where if she passes an arm or a leg through them, they turn into big claws that cover the limb and power up her strikes. I think she can only do it 4 times. She calls out Pathway Paw: 5-Claw Smash and similar names for it.”

  ‘That must be new. But this almost confirms it.’ Machia deeply sighed.

  “Machua,” he began with a serious tone. “Don’t bring her to a hospital. She wouldn’t want that.“

  “Huh? How would you know?”

  Machia’s tone shifted to something more casual. “Her Engraving is pretty special. I don’t think she’d want any hospital checking on her. Just like Carmine.”

  Machua stopped talking to him to ask Carmine if that was true. She confirmed it was.

  “Instead of the hospital, let’s meet up somewhere. I can get someone I trust to heal her,” Machia told her.

  “Machi, you’re sounding awfully sketchy right now.”

  “Just do it. I’ll meet you at the eastern gate.”

  Machia hung up the phone, certain that Machua would follow his orders. Next, he turned to Kalina.

  “Would you mind doing me a favour? In exchange, I’ll get you that Principle Gavel back.”

  That statement rung through Kalina’s head almost like an alarm bell. She stood up and faced him, her eyes filled with purpose.

  “I won’t let you take it back, you know. If you promise me this, that means we’re bound. If you break that promise, I’ll hunt you down,” Kalina declared. “Is that okay?”

  Machia grinned at the familiar sight. “I don’t mind at all. Here’s to a happy collaboration.”

  “Awwww, you two are so cute together~” S squealed. “Can I join in? Can I? I want to help you two! I have so many ideas for date spots!”

  “You can shut your trap, S,” Machia commanded in a tone that was all but kind.

  S stared at him before scampering out of the room. They crashed into the barrier again with a loud thud.