“Hey, Machu! Over here!” Machia called, still wearing his motorcycle suit. He held his helmet under his arm and was leaning against a black motorcycle that had a sidecar.

  He watched as a small car drove up the road and parked next to him. It was a relatively normal car, so it wasn’t great for off-roading, which meant the ride must have been bumpy. And there wasn’t enough space for all of them either. Carmine and Tam were riding on the roof. Both of them were tied to it with blood constructs.

  “Hey, Tam.”

  Tam, who was still woozy from the bumpy ride, could barely muster a word. “Whuh?”

  “Have a good time, Tam.”

  “Hi, Machi,” Plue waved from the driver’s seat. “I didn’t know you had a motorcycle.”

  “It’s a current-gen motorcycle that’s mana-free. It cost me quite a bit,” Machia responded. “Are you and Machu the only ones here with a driver’s license?”

  “Yes,” Rasa answered for her.

  “Machi!” Machu slammed open the car door. She stepped down with Toolbox in her arms.

  ‘So there’s the secretive Toolbox,’ Machia thought as he observed her unconscious body. It only took one look for him to confirm she was what he thought she was.

  “Carmine says it’s not fatal, and she’s stopped the bleeding but it’ll take a while for her to recover.”

  Machia put on his helmet and took Toolbox into his hands. “I’ll get her healed up. The healer’s an underworld guy, they won’t like it if I bring them extra people, so I’ll go alone.”

  “I’m coming,” Carmine stated. She was already in the motorcycle’s sidecar.

  “Carmine, I told you-“

  “I treated her first. I’m seeing it through,” Carmine stated matter-of-factly.

  Machia hesitated briefly before handing Toolbox to Carmine and getting on his motorcycle. ‘She’s not gonna let this go. And anyway… I shouldn’t refuse Carmine.’

  “Beat him up real good for me, okay?” Machia asked.

  Machua gave him a thumbs up. Machia returned it before driving off.

  *Thump!*

  “Ack, ow ow ow…” Tam groaned. Machua turned back to see that he had fallen off of the car.

  “Come on, get in the car. It’ll be a smoother ride this time,” Machua told him as she dragged him.

  “Urgh, just bring me in, why don’t you?”

  “Nope. We’re bringing you to Sterling Snowdrop and you’re gonna hate every step.”

  Tam flinched at the mention of that name again. He went silent and turned away from Machua, who sat next to him in the back. After checking if everyone was wearing their seatbelt (including Tam), Plue began driving.

  Machua put Toolbox out of her mind for now. They’d talk again when she woke up. For now, the person that had to take precedence was…

  ‘Tam.’

  She glanced at him from the corner of her eyes. Tam was resting his chin on his hand, awkward as it was with the handcuffs. He seemed resigned to his fate, though still nervous. This familiar sight felt a bit strange to her. This whole situation was really. She didn’t expect Tam to escape prison and end up working for a whole criminal organisation. After all, he knew what awaited him if he ever got out and people caught wind of it.

  ‘Wait… did they know? They must’ve,’ Machua thought, ‘Argh! Stupid Guanciano, stupid Iana.’

  “Plu, stop. We’re walking the rest of the way,” Machua suddenly ordered.

  Plue looked in the rear-view mirror with a questioning gaze, and upon seeing Machua’s determined gaze back, she acquiesced. She parked the car and everyone inside got out. Machua stored the car in a dimension and began dragging Tam along. Tam didn’t resist. Rasa and Plue followed dutifully behind them.

  They were already close to the market district, so it didn’t take long for people to start recognising them. The market-folk began to call for Machua, before realising who she was dragging along behind her. Tam shoved his head down and stared at the pavement, not wanting to get any more attention than necessary.

  “Hey, delivery girl… Is that?”

  “That bastard.”

  “Machu, what’s he doing with you?”

  “Get away from him, Machu! You know what he did last time.”

  “Let me get a couple of hits in. I didn’t get enough that day.”

  Machua addressed everyone’s words. “I’m bringing him to Sterling Snowdrop. I need to interrogate him. But first, I want him to see the consequences of his actions.”

  Tam gritted his teeth. He wanted so badly to run, but he knew he didn’t deserve to.

  “And second. I’m the one who gets to decide what to do with him. I deserve it,” Machua declared.

  The crowd of people hesitated before her words before parting for her. Machua confidently strode towards Sterling Snowdrop, her mind only focused on one thing.

  “Iana! Guanciano!” She yelled.

  Guanciano was having his lunch near the entrance, and Iana was sitting with him. They looked to Machua with confusion before their gaze settled on the man behind her.

  “You!” Guanciano covered his arms with ice.

  Before he could do anything more, Machua jabbed her finger into his chest. “Why didn’t you tell me he escaped from prison!? I deserve to know!”

  “It’s-It’s just that…” Guanciano hesitated.

  “We wanted you to be able to forget all that mess,” Iana finished for him. “There’s no point in reliving it.”

  “So you didn’t have a plan for if this happened?” Machua asked, pointing to the captured Tam. Plue and Rasa were still at his side, unsure of what to do other than guard him.

  “None of the market-folk heard he was in the area, so we hoped he left…” Guanciano responded.

  “He tried to kill me. And you all defended me! He chased me all the way here, right at that spot,” Machua pointed at the floor. “You can still see the wooden board he broke! He shot an earth spike and nearly speared you through, Iana!”

  Iana clicked her tongue at that mention.

  “And you!” Machua pointed at Guanciano’s face. “You leapt on him and beat his head in so hard you didn’t recognise he stabbed you! You didn’t wake up for days! Enzo was so worried!”

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “It was a… difficult time for you. It was a shock to everyone. No one wants to remember it,” Guanciano spoke through gritted teeth.

  “But asking me to forget it? I’m not…” Machua paused and took a deep breath. “I’m not gonna forget my first kill. And I’m not gonna forget how you all protected me and took care of me after that.”

  Machua placed a hand over her heart. “I’m a Hunter damn it. We hunt monsters, and sometimes those monsters are human. My last mission, I killed a serial killer so deranged he makes Tam look like a baby.”

  Guanciano and Iana instinctively flinched. They wanted Machua to stop, but she had no intention to. Even if they tried, she had the right to speak. They had to respect that.

  “We barely survived. So, please. Trust the me in front of you. I’m a grown woman now, and you all taught me so much. Don’t hide things from me.”

  Machua opened her mouth to continue, but seeing their reactions, she felt that they got the point. Her outburst was over. Now, it was time to get down to business.

  “Tam.”

  “… Yeah,” he replied, his voice barely a whisper.

  “Why did you escape prison? You pleaded guilty and you looked so sorry. It was like you…”

  “Realised everything was over?” Tam finished.

  “Your brother was gone and you couldn’t even get revenge on his killer. I thought maybe you wanted to get revenge, but you didn’t act like it,” Machua said.

  “I came to terms with it. Our life would’ve always ended in something like this.”

  “I thought you felt guilty.”

  “… Not enough I didn’t want to escape. I’m a criminal, and a criminal wants freedom. That’s all,” Tam talked as if he wasn’t talking about himself.

  “That’s… it?” Machua asked, her voice softening.

  “That’s it. I’m just a criminal trying to make ends meet. You know my nature the best out of anyone.”

  “… Okay then. I’ll treat you like the criminal you are. Iana, can I use the room upstairs?”

  Iana nodded, handing over a key. Machua jangled the key in her hand with a sigh.

  “Plu, Rasa, let’s get to interrogating.”

  ———————————————————————

  “So, what’s really up with you?” Carmine asked me.

  “Is now the time?“

  “I have nothing better to do. Might as well make you answer my questions while you’re stuck with me,” Carmine said with a bit of a snark.

  The two of us were still heading to the secret location I intended to meet Kalina at. I had rented a small home through a middleman earlier, as I figured that would be the best spot to deal with Toolbox. Kalina and S went ahead to check it out.

  “Do I have to?”

  “Damn straight.”

  “Let’s just say I dabble in the underworld. Machu’s my real family, and I discovered her recently, so I thought that I might try living in the daylight,” I explained.

  “You’re more fishy than that. You know a lot of things and have scary intuition. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, isn’t it?”

  Typical Carmine.

  “It is, but if I tell you all my secrets, I’d have nothing left. My kind live on secrets, you know.”

  “Hah. Look at you, acting all shady. I’ll tear that mask off and drag you out one day,” Carmine said as if it was normal. Which it was, coming from her. But from the way she talked, she was going to leave it here.

  I continued the conversation though. “In my opinion, your intuition’s way scarier. You lied to Machu about how long it’ll take Toolbox to recover, didn’t you?”

  “… I don’t see the point in revealing her secret.”

  “Aw, you’re a big softie inside aren’t you?” I teased.

  “Want me to show you how soft I really am?” Carmine threatened.

  “Let’s make it a date then.”

  “…”

  Carmine fell silent for longer than expected. It felt like she was actually considering it instead of brushing it off. She should’ve continued threatening me at this point. We weren’t close like that yet.

  “Carmine? I was joking.”

  “You shouldn’t say that when you ask a girl on a date. Otherwise you’ll break her heart.”

  Huh?

  “Carmine?”

  “Let’s do it. Let’s go on a really nice date.”

  “Ah… haha… A bit early for that, don’t you think?” I tried to laugh it off. I really did.

  “You’re the one that asked. You’re stuck with me for a day. I’ll tell you when.”

  I sighed deeply. I didn’t know why the hell Carmine decided this, despite knowing her for several years. If it was my Carmine, I wouldn’t bat an eye at it. But this Carmine had only known me for a few days.

  Still, the idea of going on a date with her again excited me. At the same time, it made me a little sad. All those dates we had gone on had been washed away by time. We had to do them all over again. The magic of those dates would forever be gone.

  Before I knew it, we had arrived. I had called Kalina beforehand that Carmine was coming with, so that she could disguise herself. I left her with S though, and considering it was S I was worried that maybe they had dressed her up in something outrageous.

  I stored the motorcycle and its sidecar. Carmine carried Toolbox and trailed behind me. I opened the door without ringing the doorbell and slowly made my way inside.

  I spread my mana throughout the house to locate the two. It was easy, they had already set up a sound suppression barrier in the bedroom. I guided Carmine to it and hoped S didn’t do anything crazy.

  “Hi, Echidna! How’d you like your impromptu hospital room?”

  Thank god it was something normal. It was just a curtain placed around the bed, a flower vase on the bedside table, and S in a nurse outfit. The nurse outfit was worn on top of the Phantom garb.

  “I’ll be your nurse for today. A pleasure to meet you,” S introduced themself to Carmine.

  Carmine did not pay attention to S. Instead, she looked to the fifth person in the room. It was Kalina, dressed in Phantom garb as well. It was a sensible decision, the Phantom garb was Engraved with all sorts of magic that made it harder to perceive or sense its wearer.

  “You’re the healer,” Carmine said. “But not a doctor. You’re planning to pump her full of Life?”

  “I would’ve hired a doctor if I thought Life wouldn’t be enough,” I replied for Kalina.

  “Rest assured, I’ll have that girl healed up as best as I can. How fast she recovers is up to her though.”

  Carmine laid Toolbox onto the bed. S reached their hands out to help, but Carmine refused it. She stared at Kalina, who raised her hands over Toolbox’s body.

  Life mana flowed from Kalina’s hands and into Toolbox. The mana nourished and fed her body, giving it the energy needed to stitch itself back together.

  It was important that this was all that Kalina did. The power of Life was to nourish living beings, it didn’t give one the ability to freely regenerate lost flesh, muscle, and bone. It had that capability, but to heal someone in that way required extensive knowledge of body structure, the nature of the injury, and even of the person themself. If you didn’t have that knowledge, you risked permanently messing up your patient’s body.

  The risk was so great that healing others without a doctorate was considered medical malpractice, no matter how well the treatment went. You had to consider flesh, skin, bones, muscles, nerves, and more. It was almost a certainty that one thing would go wrong in the treatment. That was why most people with Major Life only nourished the body of their patient, allowing them to heal their own wounds. It was less that they were healing, but more that they assisted the body to heal itself.

  As for Carmine, since she had her Engraving, her body worked differently from everyone else. I didn’t know the minute details, but it was a powerful Engraving. One that ensured she would survive so long as she had mana and blood.

  Kalina subtly wove in a bit of Time magic to speed up the process. That was a part of the favour I had asked her and why I promised her such a high payback. From the looks of it though, she didn’t need to do that. Toolbox was a naturally fast healer and durable too. She would probably wake up within the next 24 hours on her own. With Kalina’s help, it would be even earlier.

  “We’re all thinking the same thing, right?” S asked. “She’s healing super-duper fast. And this isn’t actual healing magic. You’re a miracle worker, Ven!”

  “I’m only doing my best,” Kalina, now codenamed Ven, responded.

  I had never heard Kalina use that sort of codename, but then again she never knew S in the past timeline, so they must have influenced her. Which… was maybe a mistake.

  “Pst. Echidna’s you, right?” Carmine whispered. I nodded back.

  “You need a codename?”

  “Nah. They can call me Carmine. I won’t hide.”

  That was the expected response. Carmine was Carmine, and she didn’t want to be anything else.

  “Let me introduce myself,” S spoke to Carmine. “My name is S, and I’m a fabulous Phantom thief. I’m also Echi’s best friend.”

  “No, you’re not.”

  Ignoring me, S continued. “This one is Ven. Ven’s new to the whole business so I’m taking them under my wing.”

  “No, you’re not…”

  “As you can see, they both love me very much.”

  “… Uh-huh. The name’s Carmine. I kill things.”

  “You look beautiful, Carmine! That juxtaposition of an elegant woman with the disposition of a warrior is so radiant. Have you considered acting? I think it’ll suit you~”

  Carmine’s hands trembled like she briefly considered choking S. She held herself back and simply ignored them.

  “No! This always happens!”

  “I wonder why,” I muttered.

  Seeing as how we weren’t being of use, Kalina shooed us out of the ‘operating room.’ I considered the idea of lounging around, but from what Machu told me, there was better things I could do.

  “Hey, S. Let’s go gather some info.”

  “It almost feels like you’re asking me on a date. The answer’s yes of course~”

  “I… Nah. I’ll stay here and guard the house.“

  With a nod to Carmine, the two of us set out to gather information. There wasn’t a guarantee the other half of the squad would be able to wring good info out of Tam, and even if they did, Chimaera might’ve been prepared for his betrayal. It was better to cut him off than risk the entire operation.

  That said, capturing an Egotist? What a crazy plan. From the sounds of it, they didn’t know how dangerous Egotists could really be. And ‘taming’ an Egotist was impossible. I really had no idea what was going on behind the scenes. An Egotist never came up in the report either.

  I might have changed things far too much from the past timeline. So, there was only one thing to do. Gather more and more info, until I could predict everything that would happen. And then, guide the flow of events until we reach our perfect conclusion.

  ———————————————————————

  “You really are just a grunt, huh?” Machua muttered.

  “I escaped barely a month ago and they picked me up cause I know the area. I wasn’t told anything,” Tam repeated what he told them.

  “Not even a rendezvous point?” Rasa asked. “You were going to fight a monster, it’s normal to get separated in the middle of the fight.”

  “There is one, but they’re gonna know you’re coming. They’re not going to use it anymore,” Tam reasoned.

  The group were sitting in a little living room on the 2nd floor of Sterling Snowdrop. Tam sat down with his handcuffs but wasn’t restrained by anything else. Machua had told Rasa not to when he suggested it. She told him that she wanted an excuse to beat him up more if he did try it.

  Plue had been recording the interrogation and made notes. It was when she looked over them again that she made an unsure expression.

  “I know you said you don’t know anything. But do you know anything about the Planar Key?” She asked.

  The words invigorated Machua. “That’s right. Your boss Scias said you guys had a Planar Key. But Planes are super expensive.”

  “From my research,” Plue imitated a certain someone, “Planes are made and owned mostly by big companies. Chimaera only has about 20 people so I have to question how you all have access to a Plane.”

  “Uh, I don’t know. They had it before I got recruited.”

  Rasa leaned over Plue’s laptop, “Planes also require a lot of maintenance. Scias may have been lying, but I don’t believe he was.”

  ‘Right, Rasa can sorta intuitively figure people out. I didn’t get that feeling either, so how do they have one?’

  “The fact of the matter is that your group is too small to own a Plane. Thus, my conclusion is that…”

  Plue stood up before pointing, “You must be hijacking a Plane owned by someone else. That’s how you’re transporting the monsters without anyone finding out.”

  “Eh, Plu, we fought the Serration Hermit Mantis,” Machua interrupted. “That wasn’t in a Plane and Tam said they sedated it and were planning to transport it using a big casket. That’s why they were near the morgue.”

  “They can’t be using the Plane for every monster, the activity of that Planar Key would alert the Plane owners,” Plue explained. “That’s why they have to do it the normal method too.”

  “But most importantly, we have a lead now. If we figure out who the Plane owners are, we can shut down their Planar access and maybe even track them!” Plue triumphantly announced.

  Machua and Rasa clapped for Plue. Tam shuffled around in his handcuffs and tried to clap too, but it was too much effort.

  “Toolbox might know. But we’ll have to wait till she recovers,” Machua said.

  “I’m going to report our findings to Auntie El.” Plue went back to her laptop and continued tapping away at it.

  The group sat in relative silence afterwards. Machua called her brother, who did not answer, so she called Carmine instead, who told them that it would take maybe a day for her to wake up. There really was nothing for them to do, other than perhaps going out to gather some information. However, the other members of Chimaera would know their faces, so it could be dangerous. Carmine had told her that Machia was gathering information, so Machua felt it was alright to leave it to him. But that left them all with nothing to do.

  “Machua, if I may ask,” Rasa finally spoke, “Could you tell me what happened between the two of you? I understand he tried to kill you and went to prison for it, but not the context surrounding it.”

  Machua closed her eyes in thought, then slowly reopened them. “Tam, you can explain it. Don’t leave anything out, or you’ll get hurt. I’ll jump in when I need to.”

  Tam gave a light sigh. “Alright. I’ll tell you the story of the worst day of my life. The day I lost my brother, the day Machua Purin almost died, and the day of her first kill.”